Dyke Shed

Febuary 2011

2011-02-08T15:37:00.003Z

Since writing my last post hardly anythng has happened due to the weather, snow, frozen ground and now high winds has all but stopped me from doing anything on the plot.
I have at least bought this years seed spuds, Pentland Javlin for the earlies and Romano for the main crop, along with the spuds I have bought the onion sets, Turbo grew really well for me last year.
Jobs to do this month is to continue (weather permitting)muck in and prepare everything for the spring. I need to sort out the greenhouse, it is hanging by a thread, when I installed it I decided not to anchor it to the brick base (no idea why and don't ask)since removing the wind break (can you see the mistake?) to allow more light in during the last few gales we have had it has slowley moved sidewards and is about to drop off the base, hopefuly the winds will die enough for me to de-glaze, move back in postion and anchor it.
So there you go, short but at least updated so far this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2011

2011-01-01T18:04:00.003Z

Well a new year is upon us, one of my resolutions for this year is to keep this blog on the go this year.
I dont think the chicken cam will be on much but you never know!
In many ways I am glad to see 2010 go, its been a funny old year, a very late spring, a hot spring then cold wet weather for the rest of it then come November, snow and ice.
So a clean sheet is upon us, here's to everyone, have a good year, good health and hopefuly a good growing year.
Aidy

April

2010-04-15T14:05:00.003+01:00

I know, I know, it has been a while since I last posted, finaly the weather has turned and it is all steam ahead.

So a quick update, parsnip, raddish, broccoli, cabbage, red cabbage, kale, toms, chillies, peas, leeks, caulis, pak choi, lettuce, herbs are all sown. Transplanted toms, chillies, brassica's, lettuce and sage.
The first of the pea's are just poking through the earth as are the lady cyrstal new spuds.
This year I am growing parsnips for the first time, after seeking general guidance it was decided that I would try and chit the seed first, I placed two sheets of kitchen towel on the base of a chinky take out dish, placed the seed on top then placed one sheet on top of them, all sheets were damp. After ten days most of the seed had indeed chitted, the problem was the weather went all nasty so by the time I managed to sow they had tails of about one inch, carefully placed in the drill with root going down in the soil and back filled with compost, not sure how these will now turn out I decided to sow a row direct just incase. The old method was to sow raddish with them to mark the row but if you backfill with compost this will mark the row perfectly.
Hens
All four hens are settling in nice and have produced a mass of feathers and are getting some good colour in their wattles and combs. Daisey and Minnie are now producing one egg each per day and they taste fantastic. With so much to do I have not had time to get the web cam going of late but I will have it running again soon.
I have now extended their run, I was given some old rabbit run sections that run along the fence and give them a good section to scratch, eat grass, snails, slugs and worms.
So there we go, a quick update, I will post some photo's again soon showing some of my methods etc.

And so it begins.

2010-03-22T20:24:00.005Z

Finaly the time had arrived and true to my favourite saying... "in with Paddy out with Billy" the new spuds are in the ground, and sure enough on Saturday night we had a frost.
I plant to plant the mains around Easter Weekend.
Today was a busy day with having to clean the coop and run from the chicken ranch and sadly I found a softie, this is an egg with only the membrane and no shell, the girls are still adjusting to the new life as chickens and not egg machines, they are putting on so many feathers now are they changing every day. I had the chicken cam on for about an hour before the weather turned nasty so I gave up and went home to finish some DIY.
The afternoon cleared and the sun came out and what a difference in temperature. The early pea row is marked out and the trench is dug ready for the first sowings of Kelvedon Wonder Peas.
The tomatoes are putting on their proper leaves as are the chillies, all the seedlings are coming on great with the bit of sun with have had over the last few weeks.
I also decided to sow the first of the radish today. The muck heap was turned over is now ready for a fresh delivery of donkey muck to rot down for next year.
I had a suprise today, I was going to sow some flat leaved parsley, so with pot ready I opened the packet to find two packs of seeds!
Well thats it for today, the clocks go forward next week so I get to play an extra hour, the summer is on its way. The hen cam should be on again next Monday all being well, hopefully for longer.

We Have Video

2010-03-18T21:56:00.000Z

We now have the lotty cam up and running. Come Monday mornings if the weather is fine and dry and I am on the plot you will see the ladies along with yours truely.
I will post the times of the live feeds on here when I plan and the weather forcasters get the weather right.

New ladies in my life.

2010-03-07T20:32:00.000Z

Four new ladies came into my life today, rescued ex battery or as we like to call them re-cycled hens. We collected our chooks from Sarah at Happy Chicks.
It was'nt long before they were settled in enjoying the warm Blackpool sun, in fact so much so we had to put them to bed!
Here they are, Amy, Daisey, Mini and Suzi...

After watching them settle in it was time to do a little more prep on the plot, I First of all dug the bean trench, this has been layered with chopped up veg that was finished with, a light topping of soil, then shredded brown cardboard, a good soaking and layered again with soil then a sprinkling of chicken manure pellets.

The greenhouse beds have also had their manure dug in, I will leave it until it's close to transplanting the toms and finish the beds with a good layer of compost.

I plan to sow the onion bulbs tomorrow, this for me is something I don't normally do, I tend to only grow shallots but fancied a row of onions, so I have purchased Turbo, we will see how these get on later.

The coop is born.

2010-03-04T15:51:00.000Z

Last Saturday was my long weekend, off from Saturday to Tuesday so I had planned the construction of the hen coop, many months of researching design, materials and pitfalls I came up with this one.

Off to the timber merchants to purchase the 3x2 and ply and back home to construct. The idea was to build the coop in the backgarden and dismantle certain parts, nest boxes etc and rebuild over on the plot, its a bit heavy to carry in one go.

Monday 11.00am, beautifull sunny morning, fence lifted and the good wife and myself start the moving and rebuilding. The heads of fellow allotmenteers was a sight to be seen, talk about prairie dogs, heads popping up from all the surrounding plots. Coop built and the wife on her way back home then they start to come over, old Bill the first one and says "put me on the list mate". I says "you will be near the bottom for eggs". His reply " no you silly bugger, its the muck I'm after".
So we now await our recycled hens to take up residence.

The greenhouses need to be mucked in ready for the chillies and the toms. Mick next door to me has seedlings!! He sowed a couple of trays and they seemed to be ok. My plan is to start some Little Gems of next week along witht the toms and chillies.

Chicken Run part 2

2010-02-25T15:02:00.000Z

The last few weeks have been spent building the new chicken run. This is now nearly completed, the coop is scheduled for this coming weekend and hopefuly I will be phoning the hen place to order the ladies.

The vegetable plot is all dug over now, most of it has been mucked in and is ready for this years planting. The brassica bed needs a little more work to fork out the little bit of couch grass that found its way in last year. There are signs spring is springing, rhubarb is showing its head and the chives in the herb patch are up and on Monday we watched as hundreds of geese flew northwards.

Spuds are happy in their trays chitting away.

Chicken Run

2010-02-07T20:45:00.000Z

This weekend has been the start of the chicken run. It seems ages since the letter arrived giving us permission to keep chooks on the plot. Construction started on Saturday afternoon, Olivia and myself started by marking out the post holes. Once dug the posts go in, hardcore around them and back fill with some of the earth.
The frame work has now been added, we need to put a couple more peices of wood around the base and then we can attatch the weld wire mesh.

Sunday, we have continued working on the run, not a good day today, first the cordless drill packed in, then the petrol generator then I broke my hammer. After some swearing my assistant and myself went about planting the shallots, normally these are in by now but with the heavy frosts, snow then more frost and snow we have been delayed getting the ground ready.

Tomorrow is another day. The plan is to finish off the frame on the chicken run, muck in the pea and corn bed and make some soup.

It's a girl!!

2010-01-28T10:25:00.000Z

Congratulations to Drew and Lou, last night Lou gave birth to a baby girl, Brooke Morgan Thompson.

Anticipation

2010-01-25T20:04:00.000Z

Today is when it all starts in my book, seeds were ordered back in November and stored in my seed box, but today is the day when all of a sudden, anticipation is in the air, why? Well I bought my seed potatoes. First thing this morning and I am off to the local garden center, they have boxes upon boxes of early, second early, mains and odd ones. This year I will put two rows of new, Pentland Javlin and Lady Crystal along with two rows of Piccaso which is a great Jacket Potatoe and three rows of Romano which is a great all rounder and stores really well, this lot should see through until March/ April next year. The beds are prepared, I decided to lime the brassica bed today, I seem to remember it was Feb last year, As I have clubroot on the plot lime is a must, I will keep this on until about three weeks before I put the muck on the bed, I wil dig the bed over then put a good layer of well rotted muck on top. The only other job I worked on today was the new herb bed, I sunk some of the large plastic flower pots that you see in supermarkets for selling flowers in, cut the base out, these will be used for mint so I can contain them in one area, mint is very invasive and will take over the bed in a couple of years. I am hoping that we get our car back from the hospital this week so next Monday's job will getting the timber to start the chicken run. So until next week, have a good one.

Chickens

2010-01-20T15:03:00.000Z

Just a quick update. The council in their wonderfull wisdom are allowing me to keep chickens on my plot. The intention is to house 4 ex battery hens. Now to building the run and coop for them.

A cold morning's work

2010-01-18T11:43:00.000Z

I woke up to clear skies, I had a morning on the plot planned. Kids to school, hop over the fence and on to the plot just as the clouds roll in. I didn't have too much to do today, just clear the last of the swede's and dig over what will be the roots bed which is nicely prepared know for the spring. I am still waiting on the council to let me know if I can keep chickens on there or not, wish they would get a move on as I want to get building. By 11am the temp had dropped so produce in hand back home for some leek and spud soup making, the bread is baking for dinner. This afternoon is the most nasty of all allotment jobs, cleaning the trays and pots in Jeyes ready for the new season veggies.
The garlic thats in are all up now, even after the worse of the frosts and snow, they have continue to grow and look healthy.

A new start

2010-01-15T14:29:00.000Z

Well, I thought now is the time to start a blog. My life and times on the plot growing veggies n stuff. This year we have a herb garden planned, chickens and various new veggies to grow. After a thread on the AVG forum about gardening programs, or lack of them I thought I might do a tongue in cheek (see title) cult allotment program that will be streamed live on Monday mornings followed by this blog spot. Watch this space.....