Back to the garden

I was hoping to come back from holiday and have masses of produce waiting for me. But there doesn't seem to have been the growth spurt I was hoping for. Not sure what the weather's been like...

So just a few odd jobs. I dug in an enormous amount of compost into the old potato bed and planted out some of the winter cabbage and cauliflowers that have been growing in the greenhouse. Pulled up the onions (they can only be described as pathetic - I will post a photo later), got rid of a few dead things and have started digging up the strawberries and their runners into pots as I am going to move them somewhere else next year.

Our lovely chicken ladies and still doing fine and are getting quite chatty and very nosy. Still no eggs since the three we had in their first week. Soon we will have had them for a month so hopefully they will start laying more regularly soon.

Cutting my losses

Well I have decided to give up on a few things.

Tomatoes - my six tomato plants are now having a party in my compost heap and the green tomotoes have been combined with courgettes in the lovely chutney recipe on the farming friends website. The leaves and fruit were going mouldy and stripping them off wasn't helping - I think it was just too damp and sunless in my greenhouse. I will try again next year for third time lucky. (Last year the plants were fine but the tomotoes were totally tiny.)

Leeks - the plants were so small I could hardly see them and there was no hope for getting anything edible. I sowed the seeds far too late and planted them out when there were about a millimetre thick. It was doomed from the start.

Spinach - every seed that I get to germinate bolts immediately, I have no idea why. So I have said bye bye to the row.

Beetroot - I'm not sure about this one, I find these hard to germinate. Then some of them look ok, some bolt straight away and some remain teeny tiny seedlings. I have taken out a row that is never going to produce anything and I'm kicking myself that I left so much ground for it. Well I will know next time.

(By the way, I am cheating slightly with photo as it was taken before the plants went mouldy. I just didn't want to put a minging image at the top of my blog!)

Tidying

Well I have spent most of today pottering about doing bits and pieces, and quite a bit of weeding so everything is tidy before I go on holiday.

I finally managed to sort out the tiny plot at the side. I am going to give up trying to grow vegetables here as the soil isn't good enough. So I dug in as much compost as I could and planted some beautiful lavender and heathers. I have a yellow jasmine plant (I think) that will go in the middle and climb the wall when the one bean plant I have is finished(!)

Yesterday I dug up the last potatoes, composted and covered the ground the stop the weeds - this is where my winter brassicas will go when they're big enough.

And I did lots of weeding, planted some black radish, endive and more swedes and replaced the pea contruction with a much bigger one so they can grow as much as they like. I planted these really late but they are covered in flowers so hopefully I will get a few peas before the weather gets cold.

Pottering

Seems odd to think about it on such a beautiful day but I have been wondering what to fill my ground with come the colder weather. Since my broccoli, sprouts and kale are doing so well I thought I'd try more brassicas so have gone for winter cabbage and an over-wintering cauliflower. Hopefully in a few weeks they can go into the old potato plot.

I've had a lovely time pottering in the garden today, just cutting the hedge and clearing up a bit; everything is looking very tidy. Apart from my right veg plot which is getting overcome with weeds. I have been using 'the ground's too wet' as an excuse not to tackle it but if Heather the Weather isn't telling lies looks like I will have to attack it this week.

And here is a picture of CeCe, looking very cheeky!

Houdini

We were trying to do a nice thing. We were trying to offer Mrs Weasley (pictured above) a grape while CeCe was at the other end of the run and wouldn't be able to nick it off her. However she is much less tame than CeCe and got a bit freaked out, and decided to make an escape over my shoulder.

And being much less tame she was not happy at attempts to retreive her. After exploring the carrot and beetroot patch she jumped through the hedge into our neighbour's garden to show her defiance. We managed to get her back through eventually though she got stuck in the hedge which I had to gently cut away at to get her out. After this escapade I reached down and picked her up and we almost had a lovely moment where I thought she was quite enjoying the attention, she certainly didn't mind being stroked and didn't try to peck me at all.

She seems to have settled down fine now though I think she may be too stressed to lay. A great shame as I suspect she was the artist that produced our beautiful first egg on Monday.

Maybe a few more grapes and she will forget all about it?

We got an egg!!!

I can't believe it - they say that normally you have to wait a few weeks for the chickens to settle in for them to lay, but Mr Butternut came home yesterday and found an egg!!

And then later on we were taking our seats in the main hall at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh for a festival show when I saw a friend sitting a few rows away. There was nothing to do but spread the good news with 'WE FOUND AN EGG!' Of course by the looks I got from the people nearby this may not be entirely normal behaviour but I was so excited I couldn't help it. Hopefully today there will be another one and I will take a photo of the haul.

Welcome to the ladies

Well...I have been pretty quiet blog-wise but busy elsewhere. I celebrated my 26th birthday a week ago (and so now over the half-way mark to 50 as my family lovingly pointed out.)

I had a fantastic time with the most wonderful fantastic Mr Butternut giving me the present of my dreams...an Eglu chicken house! It is a beautiful thing and is now being happily occupied with two new additions to our family - a partridge brown hen called Mrs Cecilia Cluckerson (or CeCe for short), and a Maran called Mrs Weasley. CeCe has already established herself as the boss I think. They don't do very much but I could watch them entranced for hours... I will post a photo as soon as I can.

Garden wise, we are drowning in cucumbers and the herbs are all looking lovely. Tomotoes have been disapointing so far - they may have blight as the greenhouse has been quite wet and there is some mould appearing. However, they are much bigger than last year so I will try again next year. I think I would space them out a bit more though and maybe try some outdoor varieties.

We have started munching on some of the most delicious carrots I have ever tasted, it's so tempting to pull them up when they're tiny but I must be patient and let the rest grow a bit bigger. I've been busy too sowing winter salads, cauliflowers and cabbage. It looks too like I've successfully created four blackcurrant bushes from tiny cuttings I took from a wild bush.

I've been constantly amazed at some of the veg that has done well in my heavy, wet, clay soil. Carrots are supposed to be a no-no in this kind of environment but they've been fantastic. I just wish I'd grown more rather than the measly two rows I thought I'd try as an experiment. The beetroot on the other hand has been extremely slow, as have the pumpkins, while other squashes are doing well.

It doesn't feel like a year since my 25th birthday when I was given my greenhouse (isn't Mr Butternut good to me?) and started on my garden adventures...