How d'ya like them apples?

I made myself go to the allotment on Saturday. I had an increasing number of bags of chicken manure stacking up at home, so we went to find the composter we had made at the allotment.

Once the weeds surrounding the composter were removed, we found enough useable compost to half fill an empty grow bag. I put all chicken manure on the composter, along with any plants that are no longer useable, such as rhubarb leaves and tomato plants at the end of the season. I then cover it with some plastic, to keep the heat in and quicken the composting time. I have left the composter alone for a few months, and in that short time we have some lovely compost.

Chicken manure is too strong to be put directly onto the plants, but when mixed with the other plants, and the straw and wood shavings from the hen house, they speed up the composting process.

A lot of the weeds I pull up, go to the chickens as they will happily devour them. Anything they won't eat, such as brambles, get thrown on an evergrowing pile at the bottom of the allotment to decompose where they won't leave seeds in useable compost.

When we left the allotment, we had a full car. Two big bags of weeds for the chickens, and we harvested a dozen cooking apples. There were still more apples on the tree ready for our next visit. There were also a few on the ground that were good enough to be taken home and cooked for the chickens to eat.

As well as saving money on the commercial feed we buy for the chickens, they love having kitchen scraps and weeds to eat and sort through. I have also found that a busy chicken is a well behaved chicken, if they don't have enough to do in the run, they don't just eat the layers pellets in the house, they spend all day plotting on how to get out of  the run and eat the rest of my plants in the garden!

Tonights job is to get the microwave going, and cook all the apples. those that are in good condition will go to the freezer ready for me to make some crumbles and pies, and the ones that are a bit damaged will be saved to feed up the chickens while we are away next week.

We are having well earned holiday in Whitby for a week, and leaving the animals in the trusted hands of a pet sitter.

New seasons

I seem to be stuck in some kind of limbo between summer and autumn. It is darker when I get up and arrive home from work, and Fiz has stopped laying eggs, so I would have thought it was now autunn.

But tell that to the chilli and cucumber plants in our spare room:

 I know it doesn't look much like a cucumber, but that is the plant I grew!

I even have tomato plants that are still outside that are still producing fruit.

I think I will look at the animals for an answer though. Beth takes longer to get up now, waiting for full light before she ventures out onto dew laiden grass. And in the evening, she isn't happy until she is covered up by her duvet!

Smiley, our cat, has hardly been seen throughout the summer, spending most of it lay on top of the wheelie bin in the sun. Now he is perched on a kitchen stool most of the day and night, making a blanket out of Beth's doggy towel that was left there to dry.

At the weekend, I am venturing out to the allotment. The bags of chicken manure are piling up at home, so I am going to find the muck heap I made at the allotment, which is currently hidden by brambles. There should be an abundance of cooking apples ready for picking as well, so I will need to get motivated and cook some pies and crumbles.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

I am on a downer with the allotment at the moment. I was hoping to have a good attack at the work that needs doing on Saturday, with Matt, but Matt's shoulder had other ideas. So it was just me and Beth.

The weeds again had doubled in size and quantity, but the two squash plants I put in, looked close to death. Beth did her best, catching a couple of flies and eating a bit of long grass, but there is a lot more to do!

The weather was hot and muggy, and the ground was so dry there was no point in planting my young leek plants. I am not good in the heat either, I don't have the energy to be digging beds.

I went to the supermarket yesterday, and their autumn range was in, according to a banner in the carpark. I wish someone would tell the weeds it was nearly autumn, and they should start dying back! I am thinking I may ignore the weeds, let them die back, and then sort things out ready for next spring so that they don't take hold again in such a quantity.

I have never been so eager for winter to arrive!

The great egg hunt

With all the mite problems, the hen house had to be left shut for a day, earlier in the week. I put the cat carrier in the run with some bedding in, so they would have an alternative place to lay.

It appeared it wasn't good enough though, as I got home to an empty cat carrier. The following day the hen house could be left open, but there were still no eggs. I was starting to get puzzled as at least two of the chickens are one a day girls. However, when I let them out on Thursday morning, I just happened to see a little nest of eggs that the chickens had made under the house, with some old straw that was lying around!

There were five eggs under there on Thursday, and another three in the same place in the evening. I am surprised some kind of scavenging animal like a rat or fox didn't steal them overnight on Tuesday or Wednesday! If Beth had known they were there, she would have been in and ate the lot. A cat carrier is obviously not a suitable nesting place!

Slow and steady wins the race

Things are looking much better at the allotment. Well, when I say looking, I mean I am feeling better about the lack of work that was going on. It pretty much looks the same - weeds EVERYWHERE!

I was very disciplined last week and went every evening (except Friday - I need one evening to myself!). I did about an hour and a half each day, and went from All Request Dispair Monday, to wanting to stay longer on Thursday. I managed to fill a wheel barrow of weeds every day, but still couldn't really see a big difference.

I made a start of clearing some of the rasberries that has self planted, as they were in the middle of where I wanted a new bed to be. I was pleased to find in amongst the new shoots, some established plants that had fruited, so I took them home. I also foraged some blackberries that were growing in our allotment and on the drive to the carpark, so some jam making is in order soon.

At the weekend, I was given some leek shoots that my dad had going spare after he had thinned his out, so on Tuesday I tried to extend the bed where I had some other leeks growing. I didn't manage to finish the job, as I came across yet more carpet that had been buried 4 inches into the ground by the previous people at our allotment.

After pulling the carpet out, I abandoned digging and decided to harvest my garlic, as the green stalks were dying back. I was pleased at how they turned out, as I picked a couple recently and they were very small, but there are a few that are a good size.

They are now drying on my dining room table, so most of the house smells of garlic! Our cat, Smiley is trying to help by chewing on the stalks. Very strange...

A lot of my time at the allotment was spent trying to figure out how we could get away with having a couple of pigs for two weeks or so at the alotment. If I had my own small holding (one day!) I would just leave a couple of pigs to clear all the weeds, and manure as they go, and then I could get planting. They eat the roots as well, so it would be perfect. Unfortunately, that would involve having pigs in my car, getting in trouble with the council, and possibly pigs on the escape in Nottingham when they have barged their way through a fence! There are piglets due at Stonebridge City Farm, where I volunteer with Matt, and I am sure a couple of those would love to visit the allotment. However, I remember from the last time they had piglets there, that they aren't the quietest animals to pick up and carry out under your coat!

Don't let the bugs bite!

I now know what will be my demise.

Let me introduce you to the dreaded red mite. Whenever the weather is hot, we get red mite in the hen house. They live in the corner of wooden houses, and come out at night and bite the chickens. They particularly like hen houses with felt on top as they live in the warmth in between the felt and wood.

We have had them a couple of times before, in the large hen house, and they usually take a couple of days to get rid of, following a good dose of jeyes fluid sprayed in the house a couple of times a day. They are very difficult to see, but I usually find them when I clean out the hen house and find three or four, on my arm. Often chickens will be reluctant to go in the house at night if there is an infestation, but ours have never bothered.

However, the other day the new young chickens didn't go into their house at night, and instead went into the bigger hen house with the others. They did this for a couple of days, so when I went to clean out their house, I wasn't surprised to find red mite. Instead of the usual 3 or 4, there were about a hundred all running along my arm.

Despite two doses of jeyes, when I checked this morning I could still see them running over the small hen house. I have now moved it out of the chicken run, so I can leave the bedding out and just keep up with the jeyes until they are gone. The felt on top of the house will also be removed at the weekend!

I also showered, but I still feel itchy, and everytime I see a little black dot, I think another one is on me. If this goes on for more than a couple of days, I shall be rocking in the corner picking imaginary bugs off my arms!

I am seriously thinking of saving up for a plastic hen house, as they don't get red mite... It's for my own sanity, as well as the benefit of the chickens!

I hope anyone reading this feels itchy just thinking about red mites, so you too can be part of my anguish!

No rest for the wicked

I took this photo yesterday, and as I took it I realsed I had taken a similar photo a couple of years ago when we first took on the allotment. We have done some work in that time. I have three beds dug, and there is a raised bed. But each year we lose the battle with the weeds.

So, this week Operation Allotment began. My hours have changed at work, and I now finish an hour earlier. I am taking the oportunity to go to the allotment on my way home and get in an hour or two of work. Slowly fighting the battle of the weeds.

Yesterday was slightly depressing as I checked on the onions in the raised bed to find most of the stalks had been eaten and the remaining onion below was pretty pathetic, more the size of a shallot. Last year, the onions did really well and I had a bumper crop of onions and shallots that were massive. I don't think I will be using the words "bumper crop" much this year!

The strawberries have been a disaster as well. I decided to put them in the ground rather than the usual strawberry planter. But the surrounding weeds overshadowed then, and the net tunnel I put over them didn't even let light in so there was nothing to protect from the birds! I took the netting off last night to reveal three small green strawberries from about 6 plants.

The potatoes were more succesful, and despite only getting about 3 potatoes per plant, there was more than enough for some of Matt's famous homemade chips!

I picked some garlic at the weekend, but was disappointed to find it hadn't split into cloves. I know the frosty weather is supposed to do this, and I can't remember if it has been cold enough since I planted them. I had thought that the wet weather would have really suited them. I am wondering if the soil needs a bit of a boost from some manure or green manure before planting next year.

I haven't given up on this year yet though. I am planning on putting some brassicas where the potatoes were, growing them at home from seed and then planting when they are established.

At home I have had my first tomatoes, which seem very late. Some plants have only just begun to get flowers.