It's been quite a while since I last posted on here. Sorry there were no photos of that garden I promised everyone but to be honest it was a total disaster. I grew brussels, cabbage and broccoli but all of those got eaten by the dreaded cabbage white's catapillar.
The onions were far to small and I don't think they liked the stoney soil too much. Neither did the root veg carrots, parsnips or potatoes. Infact all i've had success with is chard and beetroot, even the peas didn't come to much.
I suppose it's all a learning curve and I can't wait for the spring to come when i'll be trying new stuff. One thing i failed to do which i should've done is write down the names of the species of vegetables that i grew. I expect i'll pay for this in the long run but i'm sure next years veg will be a lot more bountiful than this years. My polytunnel has just surcome to the gails and the end has ripped off!! I've decided to cut it up and make some frames then cover them with the polythene sheeting i'll have saved from the polytunnel. This should give protection from those dreaded cattepillars. I'm going to make some raised veg and fruit beds and put them down where the polytunnel was, as well as tidy up and secure the home veg patch from the animals. It's looking good now since i fenced it off with corrigated sheets.
The photo above left is the original veg patch before any work was done to it, i'm just about to get on with cleaning and digging it for next season, so that the frosts will loosen the soil after digging it.
CHICKENS
We've now got the chickens moved down to the stone pig sty, I've found that it is water tight and quite warm for them, although it lets moisture up through the floor and wets the hey that I put in there in the hopes that they'd lay. Next thing to do is to make some nest boxes and fit them on the walls so the birds are hopefully more comfortable and will start to lay properly, 1 egg last week was all we got! Luckily though I was asked by Andy up the lane to look after his hens and they provided us with 8 eggs in 3 days. Lucky begger!!
