Over the past couple of weeks, Tom’s been using the impact hammer my dad gave him (us? Nah, I’m happy to leave those kind of toys to Tom) as a moving-in prezzie to dig up parts [...]]]> It has been lovely and warm this last weekend, so we’ve been getting on with all those jobs we wanted to do last year but couldn’t find time for because we were too busy building chicken runs / houses etc.

Over the past couple of weeks, Tom’s been using the impact hammer my dad gave him (us? Nah, I’m happy to leave those kind of toys to Tom) as a moving-in prezzie to dig up parts of the drive so we can extend the beds which border the top garden, and on Saturday and Sunday I finally dug out the turfs from where we want the bed on the hedge-side of that garden (we marked it out around May time last year!).

Yesterday, Tom had to leave for work around 5pm and as I was wandering round the garden, having already packed away the tools, I passed the fern which has been a bit of a bane the last couple of years. Every Spring I’ve said “Must dig that out this year,” and failed to make good on my intentions before it unfurls and blocks off access to that part of the garden. Well, last night I looked at it and thought “Must get that sorted this year,” and then thought, “well, why not make a start?”

By 8pm I’d got about half of it out, and was expecting to be putting in as much work again over the next few evenings, but somewhat amazingly it only took another hour! Now we just have to agree on what to put in there instead…

Mini Pit of Former Despair!

A view of the hole to show the scale, against the oil tank

Really? All of that came out of that hole?

Of course, I agreed, but it has got me [...]]]> “I hear you’re a chicken lady,” one of my colleagues said to me today.
“I have chickens,” I replied, somewhat guardedly, in case he’d politely omitted the word ‘mad’.
“Do you hatch them?”
“Not yet. My cockerel’s not full grown. We might be able to hatch some next year though.”
“If you do, can you let me know? One of our chickens disappeared, and we only had two to begin with.”

Of course, I agreed, but it has got me wondering just where we might end up heading in a few years’ time. After all, we got the cockerel so that we could (at some point) raise another generation of chickens, given the breeder we’d been buying from has now retired, but…
…I have a feeling that this is how a lot of people get into breeding, especially rare breed chickens…

After my last post about April showers, we had another dry-ish spell, but May has been making [...]]]> Well, it’s definitely summer now here in the mountains of Mid-Wales. The roses are coming out, we’ve picked our first maincrop strawberries from the greenhouse and alpine ones from the garden, and there’s so many radishes and lettuces spilling over between our rows of parsnips and potatoes that half of what we harvest is going to the chickens!

After my last post about April showers, we had another dry-ish spell, but May has been making up for it and so the garden, fields and hills are looking lush and lovely. It’s drizzling again today which the chickens aren’t too impressed with, but I’m sure the apple trees and fruit bushes are lapping it up!

First rose of the year in our garden, photographed last weekend just before we headed off to the Royal Welsh Spring Festival:

Rosa 'Compassion'

Tom’s now planted out all our broad bean seedlings and filled in the spaces with the remaining seeds. Sadly, there’s nothing to show from [...]]]> …are most welcome indeed, given we’ve had quite a dry March this year. Lucky for us though, the weather disagreed with our expectations so instead of a day getting on with indoor jobs after a morning’s heavy rain we were able to get out & continue with our springtime preparations.

Tom’s now planted out all our broad bean seedlings and filled in the spaces with the remaining seeds. Sadly, there’s nothing to show from our autumn sowings, but we’ve had good results from spring sowings before so we remain hopeful for a decent harvest again this year.

The chickens are earning their keep now – one has come into lay and has dutiful produced an egg every day bar one for the past week, and all three were busy scratching around and de-slugging the freshly turned earth when Tom finished digging over the bed for the parsnips, turnips and spuds.

I, meanwhile, have continued in my campaign of re-modelling the garden. Today’s victim of my secateurs and saw was a euronymous that had been blocking rather too much light from the greenhouse and a couple of young saplings growing between paving slabs.

Maybe tomorrow it will rain so I can get on with all the potting-on of seedlings I need to do!

Thankfully the weather’s been good so we’re also making good progress with all the jobs that need doing at [...]]]> Our first daffodils of the year are just about open so I think spring must’ve finally reached us up here in the mountains. The currants, gooseberries and raspberries are coming into leaf too so the garden’s changing on a daily basis. I’m even quietly hopeful that we might get some blossom on our apricot tree this year.

Thankfully the weather’s been good so we’re also making good progress with all the jobs that need doing at this time of year. We’ve got a couple of tubs of strawberries that live in the greenhouse during the spring and early summer to give us a longer season, and today Sandra moved them back indoors after getting a decent winter chill outside. While she was at it she potted-up all the runners they’d thrown out in the past year. Last year we had 14 plants in the tubs, we’ve now got an extra 38 – all rumours that we’re starting a nursery are entirely false!

I’ve been busy too, working on the new bed we’re creating on the slope across the middle of the garden. I’ve been recycling some of the buddleia we pruned a couple of weeks ago into stakes to reinforce its turf retaining wall, which seems fairly easy until you try driving one of them through a stone! Most of the bed has been dug over now with just a little left to do around the back of the Christmas tree, and the plants have started to go in.

Seed sowing continues apace, and the indoor bulbs that kept us cheerful through the winter have had to move into the greenhouse to make way for all the seed trays and modules. Spring has sprung – here’s to the start of another good growing season!

We did have rather a lot of them though, as well as two hibiscuses (hibisci? or is the plural just ‘hibiscus’ like [...]]]> I just finished planting the bulbs we’ve had waiting since we bought them on a cheap end-of-season deal. Yeah, I know, you’re supposed to plant them in autumn not spring! Past experience says we may not get much of a show this year, but they’ll sort themselves for next year :-)

We did have rather a lot of them though, as well as two hibiscuses (hibisci? or is the plural just ‘hibiscus’ like the singular?) and two roses which we got for less than a pound apiece. The border I made two years ago for my sunflowers has been widened (again – I doubled its width last year) to about 2.5′ in order to accommodate all these new plants. Tom’s laid out a new border as well, which will hold two blackcurrant and one redcurrant bushes as well as a prostrate rosemary (birthday present for me!) and probably a bundle of annuals, when we’ve grown them.

All in all, a decent afternoon’s work, and my toes are starting to feel defrosted after 10-15 minutes sandwiched between hot water bottles!

We got them from the people at The Wernlas Collection who were good enough to let us have a look round while we were there. Saw a couple of breeds that I’ve not really fancied from seeing pictures/photos but I may be quite tempted now… [...]]]> We collected our chickens today – 3 point-of-lay Light Sussex pullets. They seem pretty chilled out (considering) but haven’t yet ventured down from their house into their run.

We got them from the people at The Wernlas Collection who were good enough to let us have a look round while we were there. Saw a couple of breeds that I’ve not really fancied from seeing pictures/photos but I may be quite tempted now… I’m going to have be very firm with myself and not go getting any more birds for at least a couple of months!