Allotment update ... ...

It's been a few weeks since I last visited the allotment, this time I dragged everyone else along as well.

On the face of it it looked terrible, but all is not what it appears, yes it did need a fair bit of weeding, but the majority of the weeding was done by digging up the potatoes, of which we got 20kg ! that's 10kg more than last year, although the reds (I forget what they were called) didn't grow at all, so it's all whites and with the 3kg we managed to grow in the gardens we nearly had 25kg, still hope to get more next year.


The view when we first got there -

We're going to need a bigger spade !

Not all that bad really, this is how it was once the spuds got dug up -

See that's better isn't it.

It took a bit of doing, but we got 2 bucket fulls of spuds -

Can't beat a home grown spud, especially with a load of butter.

I still haven't got round to building the poly-tunnel, all in good time, so I had to hack back a load of weeds at the top of the plot, and as usual we had to cut down the line of weeds that grow between our half of the plot and the other half.

We did wonder if spuds was all we were going to get, but as it turns out there's a fair bit of stuff that hasn't been eaten by the squadrons of slugs and snails we've had in our area.


Some other veg -

Corn is doing well, unlike the ones in our garden at home.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the corn hasn't been destroyed, there's about 20 plants there, not many I know, but they (like the spuds) are doing much better this year than they did last year, the spare tomato plants are also doing okay, perhaps a bit small.


Corn plants -

Hopefully we'll get to eat some before the kids do.

Tomatoes aren't in short supply this year, we've grown a load, most of which are currently turning my green house into a jungle, we normally have trouble with tomato plants getting blight and other such problems, so this year I have them all in tubs in the greenhouse and they are doing much better, the spare plants have been put anywhere we could find space, this includes the allotment, and it would appear that although the plants are small they might bare fruit as well.


They have flowers, we'll see if they turn into tomatoes -

Fingers crossed.

Here's my current view when I look in the green house - 

There are loads more in the under growth.

Last year we managed to grow all the pumpkins we used for Halloween, and this year we have at least one pumpkin, and we should get some more, as well as some winter dumplings (another type of squash) need to make sure they get as big as possible.

Our first (of many hopefully) pumpkin - 

Fingers crossed it gets big enough to carve a face on it.

Some of the other things we have are turnips and some broad beans, all of which are doing okay, we have lost a lot due to the hose pipe ban and pests, especially the pea crop which got stripped bare by birds, so I have plans to build a netted cage type area for the growing of peas and other legume type things, I'm kind of learning as I go along what pests and problems the plot has.

The strawberry plants we got from free-cycle last year are going mad, runners everywhere, so I might have to extend the strawberry bed, but that's a few bits of wood and a couple of screws.

All in all with what we have at home and the plot we should get a better crop of things than we did last year, and although it's not going to be huge amounts it's an improvement on last year, so if we can keep that trend up then next year should be even better, well that's the theory at least.

Here's what the plot looked like after we left - 

Still needs work, but it's not too bad.

Thanks for reading.

Allotment update & problem chickens ... ...

We've actually had some sunshine, and for more than a few hours, so I took the opportunity to visit the plot, not much to report, although things are progressing at a nice pace, the spuds are doing okay, but will need lots of water, which means many trips to the tap with buckets and watering cans.


The spuds -

Still got some growing to do.

The strawberry plants seem to be doing okay as well, soon have some fruit on them - 

Best keep the kids away from them, or they'll disappear quickly.

I also managed to get some more peas in the ground and some broad beans (bit later than I intended) and I got a row of turnips in, quite like a nice turnip, there's a fair bit of weeding to do in amongst the stuff that's already been sown, but I shall probably leave that for a slightly less warm day, it was very hot.

The string for the peas and beans - 

The kids love peas straight from the plant, but then who doesn't.

 And apart from the odd bit of weeding that's about all I did, just keeping on top of things really.

You may or may not know that we have 3 chickens at the moment, and for the most part it's been pretty much plain sailing, but we have had some small issues, although not really a problem to be honest it's all adding to our chicken keeping experience.

Problem chicken - 'A' (also known as Zelda)

She's fine now, and doing well despite the problems.

Yes meet Zelda (subject 'A') we noticed a couple of weeks ago that she seemed to be staying away from the other chickens, and she seemed kind of down and not very enthusiastic about anything, not even food, it was then that we noticed her crop was very large, and felt like a balloon full of water, it was also very warm to the touch.

So after some checking online we discovered that she may have something called sour crop, which is essentially a fungal infection caused by the crop not emptying and the food that's in it fermenting, and that's what would have happened had we not discovered that for some odd reason the daft chicken had some how swallowed a large stone which had basically blocked her crop and was stopping it from emptying.

One of the things you can do to help with sour crop is to pick the chicken up and tip it forward which make the bird vomit, not very pleasant, and it has to be done with some care as you can cause the chicken to choke, this is how we discovered the stone, it came out on the second attempt at getting her to vomit (luckily) and after that she was fine, we did give her some natural yoghurt which helps balance the bacteria in the crop out, they really like natural yoghurt by the way, I am pleased to say that Zelda is now back to her old self, which basically means eating anything that moves.

And now subject 'B'(also known as Dotty)

Wot you looking at ! ?

This is more a normal problem, if there is such a thing, it seems Dotty has turned a touch broody (okay a lot broody) this is basically a natural response to laying eggs, she's trying to hatch them, which might not seem like a problem, however the eggs aren't going to hatch, and so she's sitting on any eggs she finds and staying there, and because of this she isn't eating as much as she should, chickens have been known to starve themselves trying to hatch eggs, not good.

The treatment for this is patience (on our part) we've been disrupting her when she's in the nest boxes, we've also been taking the eggs away when they are laid, although Dotty herself has stopped laying, and as soon as the other chicken have laid we now shut off the nest box altogether, we've also been leaving it shut over night as well, it sounds mean but it's for the best, and at least now once she realises she can't get into the nest boxes she goes and eats and scratches about like she should be doing.

Ideally we would separate her from the other so that disruptions to the other hens is kept at a minimum, but we aren't really set up for that, and things aren't too bad, in fact I'd go as far as to say things are slowly improving, one of the other things we tried and had results from is putting Dotty into a bucket of cold water, yes you read that right, because she is running very warm (she's basically a walking incubator) using cold water cools her down, and because she can't get back to the nest boxes she's not able to warm up as quickly, this apparently cures them of the broodiness, so far it seems she is much less broody than she was, but the main thing is she's eating and not likely to starve any time soon, I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for reading.

A couple of projects for the kids and you to try - Pt 2 - Planting seeds.

Now this next project is to be honest an experiment in what things will actually grow.


Ever since I got into gardening I have tried to grow a variety of things, the usual garden type stuff, flowers etc I also grow veg and fruit as well, and this is where I got this idea from.


I have in the past spent a fair amount of money on quality seeds from garden centres and such like, and I have had mixed results, I don't claim to be a professional gardener (or even a halfway good one) and because of this I started to look for alternative sources for buying less expensive seeds, I now get a lot of my seeds from pound shops and I manage to grow a good amount of things, but I have also grown some slightly less obvious things, and this is something you could try with your kids, you don't even need a garden. just a window sill that gets a bit of sunlight.


So what to grow ? well why not try anything that you can get seeds from ? do you have a tomato or two in your fridge ? why not scrape some seeds out of one and try and grow them ? all you need to do is wash the seeds to get as much of the fleshy stuff of them and then put them in a pot of compost in your greenhouse or on a window sill.


Gardening experts will always say it's best to use bought seeds because they are guaranteed to grow because you will get better crops, but this way you might get something useful out of it (something you can eat) and the kids can learn a bit about plants, and all for the price of a bit of compost and a pot or two.


Here's some examples of stuff I've grown.


Sweetcorn. I have actually given up buying sweetcorn seeds, and now I use this (no really I do)

Honest this is what I use, it grows just as well.

I'm not joking, a bag of popping corn costs under a pound and you get loads, and it works even if it's out of date, and it will grow if looked after properly (like any plant) sweetcorn you can eat with a bit of home made butter ;-)

And just to prove it the next picture is some popping corn growing in a pot, the other plants are in the ground, and I couldn't get a good angle with the camera, but I will post pictures when they produce some corn later on in the year.

Popping corn growing in a pot 

Pop corn growing in a pot.

I also have an avocado plant growing in the kitchen, if you feel like trying to grow one my advice is to get a pot, fill it with compost and put the seed into the compost about halfway, and then give it a good water, and just keep the pot watered, don't soak it. After a while you should notice the seed starting to crack, this should mean it's starting to grow. I've have grown a few of these, they get quite tall, the last one got broken by our dog because we had to stand it on the floor due to it's height :-(

Other things will grow, you can grow pumpkins from the seed you find in a shop bought one, and butter-nut squash.

And then there's slightly more exotic stuff, like physalis, I have managed to grow the seeds from a passion fruit, but the plants died in the winter, I will try these again now I have a cold frame.

Here's a couple of pictures, the first are physalis plants, the second are apricots.

Physalis plants.

Physalis plants.

Apricot plants.

Apricots, may be some time before they grow any fruit.

The apricots were difficult to do because you have to crack them open to get at the seed, nut crackers work well, once opened plant the seed like any other.

Even the head gardener thinks I'm mad :-)

It'll never work, pop corn indeed.

Of course buying packet seeds will no doubt yield better crops if you are looking to grow your own veg, but there's no harm in trying to grow seeds from a shop bought tomato, or planting an apricot, although with apricots and cherries and the like it will be some time before you get any fruit, and there's a chance you won't ever get any fruit, but the planet isn't going to suffer if you plant another tree is it ? and it's a fun thing to try with the kids.


Thanks for reading.