Veggie Gardens

[nickguzzi]

Impressive Rob!

Looks a lot more like a posh Orangerie than a recycled set of windows.

[RobClubley]

Now with gutters. After enough rain this week to fill that 400L water butt several times over.

 

[nickguzzi]

Its amazing how quickly even a big looking butt fills.

And how quick you can use it if not sparing.

[RobClubley]

Got some of the inside done. SWMBO has installed a few tomato plants now.

Also have used a few tubes of gap filler on the cracks before I paint the outside white.

 

 

 

 

[nickguzzi]

Hurry up Rob, it will be your winter soon and nothing pushing through yet.

Really good job. 

 

Unlike me, who has been doing just a few odd jobs between the rain.  Greatest accomplishment this week, connected up the big butt.

Nearly finished our own frozen peas which is a bit sad as they are so much nicer than the bought ones.  Big planting later. 

As we have a long south facing fence, we are going to fix some pig fencing along on stand offs then use that to grow as many Alderman peas and runners, French and borlotti beans as possible behind the raised beds.

[mac11irl]

Hows the tyre wall looking now? The pics have vanished, i think, so ive not seen it :(

[RobClubley]

You can see it a bit on this one:

Bit weedy at the moment but much greener at least!

[nickguzzi]

Looking good.  Is it just weeds or have you tried green manure? 

I tend to use mustard, because its so easy, but a neighbour has used rye mix on their old strawberry bed to good effect.

I have used phacelia which gives a nice purple flower and is very attractive to bees.  Killed by frost, so here at least no danger of it being invasive.

 

Just been outside, and noticed the stable roof mostly has gone.  Bottom.

[RobClubley]

It's half weeds and half sown wild flowers. There are some pumpkin plants growing to go in the top but it needs work

[nickguzzi]

I should imagine a load of ornamental squash would look good tumbling down there.  Cucs and cherry toms too.

[RobClubley]

Saturday night entertainment. Collecting fertiliser from a friend's horse paddock!

 

 

 

 

Also I built a palette fence

 

 

[RobClubley]

New chicken palace:

 

 

 

[nickguzzi]

Well, chooks leave me divided.  Love the fresh eggs, especially poached on toast made from fresh home made bread. 

Not so keen on the ****-a-doodle doing at 3am in the summer.

The Hen house looks good as does the fence.  Do you have predators?

 

Our growing season is just about to start.  Have the spuds chitting (red Duke of Yprk again, really excellent flavour last year, Lady Crystal a nice very early and Anya to try because they look like Pink Fir which didn't do so well last year) and the winter sowings of garlic, onions, broad beans and peas are all sprouting well.  A muntjak deer took the neighbours broad beans on Sunday, we at least have a dyke to protect us from them.

 

We have a nice day promised today, so I'm out finishing off the raised beds and preparing the seed bed.  

The pot grown Bramley which we bought tail end of last year will hopefully go in soon too, if we can finally agree on exactly where.

[RobClubley]

Rats are probably the worst thing for the chooks, though I suspect they would eat a rat given the chance.

One of the main reasons for the bigger enclosure is that one of them roamed into next door's garden and got eaten by their dogs. She was the best layer too!

[nickguzzi]

Well they are too stupid for their shirt aren't they? 

The neighbour has got down to 4 brown ones like in your pic.  They are decent layers, all last week when I was looking after them there was four every morning. 

She also has some fancy black and white ones, useless critters, I don't think they have laid an egg yet.  Last time I was looking after them, one of the really stupid ones escaped, refused to go back in, just ran about (like a headless chicken) if I tried to catch it.  One morning - I was amazed the fox didn't get it - it was limping and ended up visiting the big black pot.

 

Despite they hens producing up to six a day in high season, I still think they are out of pocket.  As a purely fiscal arrangement, it nonsense, but she likes having them.

 

Anyway, Good luck.

[@Lee]

don't know if you know, Rob but the horse **** will need to be left to rot down for a few months.

[RobClubley]

It's sitting in black bags, decomposing nicely

By the way the chicken house is made of about 75% palettes.

[nickguzzi]

And very nice it looks too.

 

Pallets are the trickle down wonder of the industrialised world/global economy.  

Useful raw materials delivered to your door for free, as a by product. 

Collected from any industrial estate for the asking.

 

Unfortunately, semi rural Norfolk is a fairly low income place so there is competition for them, and the ones available are often stuck in the middle of a very muddy field.

 

I used to live in south Leicestershire.  There are LOTS of horsey folk.  Round the corner was a livery stable, the girls would do the poo pick every day.  Each week would yield an Octavia sized pile.  Help yourself - Pleeeze!

We thought our bit of Norfolk would be rather different.  When we came for a look round we didn't see a single nag.  Only huge prairies of cabbages and sugar beet, or orchards, mainly derelict.  It turns out there are quite a few horses.  They mainly produce stable muck ie with lots of straw mixed in, which is even better for me.   It works as a "brown" to mix with the copious amount of grass clippings + its own included nitrogen starter.  Its all just bagged up at the side of the road. 

There is a slightly bigger operation which has a big pile - free to take away, but it needs a trailer.  I NEED a trailer.

 

My compost bins are made of old wriggly tin.  All about 3' high.  8'x8' for the first, 8'x6' for the intermediate, and 4'x8 for the finished stuff.  Bin 1 gets pretty hot. Turning takes a bit of effort and time, and it usually needs a fair bit of water, which I try to provide, if you know what I mean.

We produce prodigious amounts of clippings, in high summer they are a real pain.  but mixing with stable straw rots  them down very quickly.  As soon as wew have that dark brown crubly texture it goes into the next bin for the worms. 

Compared to Lubenham, we don't have many slugs.  They actually were pretty useful on the compost there.  They could slime their way around, turning kitchen peelings into mollusc manure.  This was a bit of a break through, as they seemed to stay there, laying their eggs in the heap and staying away from my salad.

[RobClubley]

Wwell we had many many tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, a couple of figs, loads of squashes, rhubarb and a few other things this summer. Corn is almost done.
It's autumn now, garden is looking like this!
 

 

 

 

Found this guy under a rock
Harmless but pretty big.