Huge Egg!!

Short update, can you tell I am enjoying my week off!? This huge thing came out of Nessa after several days of not laying...I bet that hurt, it's so big I can't shut the egg box!

I other news, I made plum jam with the Victoria plums from my parent's garden

Auguest/September Update

The chicken above is Nessa, who is turning out to be a large but shy sister of chickenhood. Usually found lurking at the back.

This is Clara, very plucky...and very plucked! This is her surprised face as the camera whirred and flashed. She's not very shy really, bottom of the pecking order but very cheeky.

This is Ruby, she is exceptionally bossy and cheeky and has a thing for jewelery, if I hand feed her it's 10% eating food and 90% eyeing up and pecking my silver rings and bracelet. She let me pick her up this week, and she grudgingly lets me stroke her. She's usually found up to her ears in the food bowl.

A nice group shot, I think they are looking a bit better already. Note my lawn...or what used to be my lawn. Every time I open the run door (the one opened to take the pictures) 2 little heads poke though to eat the fresh grass on the other side. This week they will be moved to a fresh bit, we are just waiting for the run extension to arrive. Egg laying has settled now, we are down to one or two a day.

Swiftly to the garden...September is here, it seems to have come around quickly. Thinks are still ripening in the garden, but it's sunny today, you never know, I might be lucky and get them all to ripen before the cold weather sets in.


Kale...kale is hard to grow, it germinates fine but the slugs looooove it so it gets ravaged! Hence my home made beer traps to the right of the picture. The kohlrabi is suffering a similar fate, I have replanted it all twice!

Cucumbers are growing at last!

The fennel's in the large tub are growing really well, the one in the border was a slug casualty, I think there was so much lettuce in there and damp places that I was doomed really. All the lettuce has been pulled (save for a few bolted ones that will become chicken treats) and the peas were 90% finished so most of those have come up now, that bed is now dedicated to onions (I found ones you can grow this time of year) and kohlrabi and kale. It's nice to know you can still start things growing this late.

Seed pods on the radishes. As well as providing seeds with which to grow more radishes next year (cunning) I left some radishes to flower because the pods are good to have as a snack with beer. Nath seems to agree, personally I hate radishes in pretty much any form!


You can see how much everything has grown over the summer, there are 2 large pumpkins for Halloween and we've eaten lots of the flowers fried in spiced batter, delish! Yesterdays pruning of rhubarb which was really getting in the way (to the front right of the picture) resulted in rhubarb crumble for pudding, nomnom! The little row of stones at the front marked the place where I have planted the Mizuna (Japanese greens which can be eaten raw in salads or cooked).

One thing that is in absolute abundance in the garden in ladybirds, and I'm happy to say all native species. They are all over the grass and the veg garden. Mostly 7 spots ones like the above but I also saw a 2 spot on the compost bin. The garden is also covered in their larvae, munching though the black fly on the potato tops.

Last picture today. We grew 2 sunflowers and competed to see who's would grow the tallest. Mine lost, but the bees love it anyway, one's it has seeds I might see if I can rescue some from the birds and squirrels!

Finally, a word of warning, do not bend over in low cut trousers at this time of year, you may find a daddy-long-legs decides to try to fly down your bum crack, causing much squealing and hysterical flapping! You have been warned!

Eggs!

I popped home at lunchtime and opened up the Eglu's egg port to discover.....4 eggs!! 2 were in the nest, one was balanced on the roosting bars and the other was smashed and at the bottom of the poo tray. How eggciting!

Chickens!

The chickens have arrived! We picked them up in the afternoon from the BHWT, where a nice lady had the task of catching the remaining chickens in the circular holding pens. She passed us these 3 ladies pictured above, and we packed them into a box where they quiety sat for the journey back. When we got them home we showered them with a bit of red mite powder (as we were told them may have a few from living in the battery sheds) and popped them through the Eglu run door. The sad chicken faces I'd seen as I peeped through the box turned to curious chicken faces as they scratched the ground, ate the grass and investigated the 'glug' and 'grub' (food and water holders). As you can see their feathers are in a state, one also has a bare neck which you can see on this photo:

Their names are Clara (bald necked but very brave far left on the top photo and above), Nessa (follows Clara's lead, is on the far right in the top photo) and Ruby (shy, has a larger comb and is in the middle above). Hoping they will all make it. Last night I nipped out at dusk and all 3 had gone into the Eglu to sleep, delighted I sneaked up and closed their door.
They spent yesterday in the dark but this morning have a bit of run uncovered so they can come and look out if they feel brave enough. Ruby was sitting on the nest when I left for work, peering nervously at the outside world. The other two came straight out for breakfast.

Nigella and small update

Pretty isn't it, and after it's done flowering and hiding my carrots from the carrot fly I can eat the seeds! It's days like this (a sunny Monday) when I wish I was standing ensconced in vegetable plants and flowers, sun on my face and damp earth under my feet. Alas I am not. Hohum.

Just a short one today, the garden needs a day spent on it, there are peas that are finished and need removing (leaving their roots intact to release nitrogen for the next crop of course) and in their place I shall maybe spread out the kale and pop in a few more kohlrabi (I just read the taste is cabbage turnip related but crisper...I might hate them). The kohlrabi are being savaged to death by slugs (who have now learned where I keep the lettuce), Nath's bought cheap beer to sink into the earth in plastic cups so they can have a party (that's what it's for isn't it?!).

I have room for another crop I think, no idea what I'd put in but there are still things you can plant in August. I was quite pleased when Lynn (Nath's step mum) asked if I'd grown any from seed, as it's pretty much all grown from seed barring the peppers from Nath's sis (now flowering!). I feel quite proud of myself!

The chickens arrive on Sunday, I'll take pictures once they've stopped panicking and settled down. So far barring the house they have not cost much, a bag of ex batts layers crumb, a bag of grit and a 2ltr bottle of apple cider vinegar cost me £11, not bad at all! We need to think of some good chickeny names for them, suggestions welcome.

Pumpkins!

So, time for an update! I shall start with the traditional British topic - the weather! It's is getting colder, someone forgot to tell the sun that it's only August. Some of us have crops to ripen...make with the warm!! At least this means Nath's contribution to gardening (watering and mowing the lawn) is a less frequent which he's probably grateful for. I may have to teach him advanced weeding next, those mini nettles are evil creatures!

The pumpkin plants are growing really well, a bit too well really, I regret planting the second one so close as they are such huge monsters already. This picture above is of the largest so far, I've wedged a stone underneath to lift it and stop it rotting. A couple of smaller ones have dropped off, we ate one of them roasted in the oven with a sample of our purple carrots (not ready yet, too small) and parsnips (ditto).

Peas...we've had millions of these! You can see the lettuce in the background too. I massively over planted the lettuce forgetting that more or less everything I plant grows (it's a curse I tell you!!). I have found a very nifty way of using it up though, lettuce soup!

Lettuce Soup

Ingredients
Serves: 4

1 Large Lettuce

1 Medium Onion, chopped

1 Medium Potato, diced

25 Gram Butter

450 ml Milk

300 ml chicken or vegetable stock

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 Tablespoon Double cream, optional

Method
Shred the lettuce, reserving some for garnish. In a saucepan fry the lettuce, onion and potato gently in the butter for 5 minutes without browning. Add the milk and stock.

Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Liquidise and return to the pan.

Ladle into warm soup bowls, whirl on a tablespoon of cream if used and garnish with lettuce pieces.
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This is the plait I made with my garlic, they are tiny, I think I should probably have left them until the foliage was more dead. I have left the other tub and will try again in a month, see how big they are then. These ones are plaited and drying.

The Maris Piper potatoes are listing helplessly about now flowering is over, blocking the pathways to the smaller veg. This is annoying, I might tie them up with string at the weekend. I seem to have grown 'true seed', small tomato-like pods on top of the flower stalks. I read that these can be planted next year and will grow potato plants all be it a bit unpredictably as you don't know what variant will grow from each one of the 200 seeds in each seed pod. There's some very interesting info on this here. I have pulled one row of tatties early so we could try some, while they are still smallish they taste lovely (and were a constituent of the lettuce soup!).

Things still to come are peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, florence fennel and butternut squash....to be honest this cooler weather and lack of sun is really not helping!!
I have not stopped planting yet, there is more lettuce on the way *groan* also kale, kohlrabi and some cabbage (if I can find room for the donated cabbage seed to germinate). I want to find room to grow some late onions.

Our other big news is the imminent addition of chickens! 3 from the British Hen Welfare Trust. A big garishly pink Eglu hen house will be arriving Saturday!

Radish Crisps

I have found a way to prepare radishes that makes them really tasty! Really moreish!

Radish 'crisps'

1. Chop radishes into even thickness slices.
2. Spray an oven tray with spray oil, place the slices on and sprinkle lightly with garlic powder and paprika, finish with a spray of oil.
3. Bake in the oven on medium heat until the top sides have browned, flip and return to oven.
4. When they are browned both sides and a bit crispy take them out and salt to taste.

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In the Heat of Summer - *boing* vegetables appeared!

Here, have a picture of the side of my head (Nath's poopy photography skills meant rejection of gurning shots) with Amy(pink collar) and Jack ('the white one').

Well there isn't much heat at the moment, but there was heat, and plenty of sun (and in England too...who'd have guessed!), which meant our veggies have grown big and healthy. There are loads of fat pods on the peas, finger sized baby carrots have miraculously appeared in the ground and this surprise purple radish has just been discovered...it's huge!!!!!! Shame I hate radish (why is it even considered a vegetable?!), but I'm sure Nathan will enjoy it! The garlic have wilted right down, though the leaves are still green, I don't think they should be lifted yet, but I lifted one as an experiment, it's not bad...not massive but it smells good. The pea was scoffed about 2 minutes after this picture was taken, it's friends will share it's fate soon! In other news I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm too fond of brackets (but maybe it's fine).

Bokashi Update

Just a little note to let you know bokashi bucket one fermented itself to completion and was emptied in the main composting darlek 2 weeks ago.  The smell was fine, it was just like pouring in a bucket of pickles, which after all is basically what it is.  Ours didn't have much in the way of animal products in it really, a fish spine or two and some small meat bones.  I should have taken a picture of the result, but it didn't look a lot different to the last entry (click on bokashi in the tag cloud to your right).  Since then the compost bin has been much much hotter, I can see signs of compost already, and also there is pretty much no smell (my worst fears about not being able to sit down that end of the garden weren't realised).  All in all I'd say bokashi-ing your waste is worth it, okay you have to buy the bran (the activator), but you do get vast amounts of compost for the garden in return and with that and the paper and plastic recycling our waste is down to one bin bag a week now, which is mostly dog poop (nice!). 
So yes, go buy one.  See if your council has any schemes to sell them cheaply to you.

Summer is here!

Temperature 25°C, Sunny

So, I haven't blogged in a while, this is mostly because I have been very lax with weeding and it looked a bit unkempt, so I was too embarrassed to show you. Yesterday Nath and I delved into the jungle with Pith helmets and rifles (in case of Tigers, you can never be too sure). All the weeds were tweaked up by the roots, the things we planted sorted from the things we did not (I did that bit, it still foxes Nath') and the tigers were sent packing. There was a brief rest for Nath when he went off to the shops to buy kneeling pads (now I really do feel old!) and several more bags of soil (will it never end!). Upon discovering it was cooler with your head stuck in the potato undergrowth I got stuck in earthing them up, I hope I didn't leave them too long.

Ths picture at the top shows a raised bed showing 2 different types of Lettuce and Peas growing up my home made trellis with Rocket and Butternut Squash growing at the near end (couldn't fit that end of the piccie). Soon there will also be Florence Fennel in there too and maybe Kohlrabi. My Spring Onions failed to show, I think I planted them too late.

The next picture shows the main bed, and the massive plot of Potatoes in the middle bed (how will we eat them all?!). In the main bed we have, closest to furthest away: cut and come again salad, mini Carrots, Pumpkins, Parsnips, purple Carrots, Leeks, purple Radish, Beetroot, Salsify & Rhubarb
This next photo shows the blue tub of Cucumbers (still looking a bit yellow, hopefully moving them to this end of the garden will allow a little more light), and the Tomatoes.

Strawberries need no introduction, they are growing massive! Compare it the size to my fingers next to it.

The Garlic is still growing nicely in it's pots

Also I have started to develop the rest of the garden a little, cornering off two tiny flower boarders, here is a nice Anthemis bought from a National Trust shop. Nath likes this one, it's the only plant name he's learned so far...so expect to hear it a lot! ;oP (edit- he's just scoffed at this comment, aparently he knows lots of plants names, he also knows Fuchsia and Potato). You can't eat this one, but it's a pretty plant, I love daisy shaped flowers, they are my favourites.

I can't do a massive photo session without including a picture of the blogs namesake. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lakers Amy...at play:

So what do you think? Not a bad start I'd say