I was due to start work this week, but, due to the fact I have booked a ridiculous amount of time off to go on holiday, enjoy guests being here and to celebrate a big birthday my start date was put back to the 10th June, so I am using the time to get some serious tasks done in the garden.
We go on holiday in a few weeks and have a troop of fabulous house sitters coming so I need to get organised for them and make the garden look something like a garden.
You may remember that one of our fab guests began the mission of raking the lake of all of the dead stuff around the edges and I am ever grateful for that.. so this week now that we are snow less and frost less again I decided to finish that task.. Waders were involved which is not a good look but the results are great.. It wasn't as fun with one of me doing it and seemingly I am a bit slow as it took me 4 times as long to do the tiny bit which was left .. but never the less its done and no frogs or toads were injured.
Now speaking of toads it appears that its mating season for them.. they are all over the place sat on top of one another.. and they take an AGE.. I have had two toads in the porch most of the day.. at it!! as one of my friends just said they are Tantric toads clearly :-)
The garden is really starting to wake up .. I have been planting some shrubs and climbers and having to find ways to stop the chicken's from nibbling everything.. Mr W bought me a book about the subject and as is typical of many such books there are a few bits of good advice and a whole load of waffle.. however having cut through the waffle I have learnt that its the soil's pheromones that attracts them when you dig a hole so the thing to do is fence off the new plants until the soil settles again and they become established plants.. Now granted the garden may look insane for a while but still it will stop me wanting to choke my feathered friends when they wipe out yet another plant.
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| Tantric Toads |
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| and more.. |
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| new strawberry tree .. with chicken protection |
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| Lovely new climber.. with added chicken protection |
Mrs Mallard (Fergie) is still sitting on her eggs.. we rowed over for a visit and she has thrown 3 aside (they do that if there is something wrong with them.. duck eugenics it would seem) so no idea how many she is left looking after .. it should only be a week or so before we see. Meanwhile our girls have been trying their hands at laying eggs.. so far a complete failure (soft shells or broken up) but still they are growing up.. Mr W did some research and we have now added oyster shell to their diet (yum.. not) so lets see what happens there.
The lambs are doing well in the field.. down the road from us the sheep are numbered and their lambs have a corresponding number.. on my way down to the dump the other day lamb number 8 had managed to get out of the field and couldn't get back in.. I was not entirely sure what was the right thing but decided as he was getting a bit stressed that he should at least be with mammy who was looking on with a worried sheep face.. so I hopped out of the monster truck scooped him up and popped him back over the gate.. that was a nice few minutes.. lambs are just beautiful and that 30 second cuddle was a bit lovely.
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| Number 8 lamb (middle) and number 8 mammy (will let you work that one out) |
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| Not number 8's but funny anyway.. man behind me in his car not seeing the funny side though.. was in a suit .. men in suits rush too much :-) |
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Sophie and Blueberry's first eggs. Good start girls but more to do.
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The kitchen garden or allotment as I call it is now in full swing.. Mr Ws dad was a fantastic help last weekend when he finished digging over the last of the beds and swept and tidied better than I can for sure.. for a man in his 70's he certainly shows me up and probably half of the British population for that matter .. he has set the standard in tidy allotment.. I now must make sure before him and Mr W's mam do their house sitting stint that its all smart and shiny.
I have started to sow seeds outside and some of the seedlings too.. so far we have the following growing; raspberries, loganberries, redcurrants, blueberries, honey berries, gooseberries, rhubarb various herbs, carrots, parsnips, peas, French beans, beetroot, onions, shallots, red onions, cabbage, sprouts and leeks well they are in the ground .. in the vain hope that they grow.
There is more to follow when I get a mo :-) The greenhouse is still full to the brim of flowers and other vegetables the veg will go out before I set off on holiday but the flowers need to get a bit bigger otherwise I may as well just hand them straight to the chickens.
Mr W has been lending a building type hand and has made me a fab strawberry cage with push up sides for easy watering and picking (was told I had to add that bit) and he also constructed the Chiminea that my sister and the children got me for my birthday last year and made me some frames to cover the beds so that other birds don't eat the seedlings.. Is it just me or do I spend 1/2 my life protecting plants from birds. Hey ho.. its not a bad life spending my time trying to outwit feathered things. I am eternally grateful to my dad for putting a gate on the allotment :-)
