From Sun to Rain

This has been an amazing summer so far, I can not remember such a sunny and warm one since I was a kid in the 90's. It's been brilliant! Even when the rain has come its still been warm and the garden has loved it! On the other hand it has made me rather lazy and many garden jobs have been neglected, my excuse as used by many nationwide "It's Too Hot!" has left me procrastinating. 

The big summer project, the greenhouse has seen little forward momentum for several weeks. My heart sinks at the thought of glazing it all on my own, I don't know why it's just not a job I want to do. If I could afford it this is something I would pay someone to do! 

With the weather being so good my veggie patch had started to produce enough that dinner time is almost all home grown. This has to be the best part of the year and fills me with great satisfaction. My new potatoes were a dinner time sensation! 

The rain has now arrived and I am glad of it, it great to not water the garden. 

The Stress of Keeping Animals

So the last couple of days has been ever so stressful as one of my chickens became ill. I have only had them for a few weeks and they have settled in very well and become very used to me already. They come running when I appear, I must spoil them with bread scraps to much! The Chicken that became ill was Speckle, when I let them out of the coop she was very lethargic, and was dribbling profusely. 

At first I thought it was from the heat, its been very very hot here. So I let her be for a while. In the time I left her alone she had become worse, sitting in the couple not moving and doing that eye thing chickens do when there not well. I picked her up and on her chest was lots of mucus that was extremely smelly. Its was a sour  smell and well I knew something was up then. Luckily my neighbour is a veterinary nurse who also volunteers for a rescue centre and so Speckle was whisked next door. 

So it turns out Speckle has Sour Crop which is an infection of the crop. The crop was empty and she was not eating and drinking so we have had to force feed her a wet mash for the last few days to build up her energy levels as well as some probiotics too. We have also given her some medication which seems to have ridden her of the infection for now. That first evening she looked terrible and I was thinking that we might lose her through the night, but by morning she had perked up alot but was not feeding still. As the days have gone by she has improved greatly and today she has been running around and eating for herself. Happy Days.

What got me was the lack of good information online about Sour Crop. I read various forums and pages all with differing accounts on how to treat it etc.  I expected to have to deal with illness with my flock but i was not expecting to have to deal with it so soon

I've Gone Poppy Crazy

Like the title says, I have gone poppy crazy this year, out of shear easiness (or laziness) I sowed a few different types in to my flower beds. One bed in particular I was hoping for a spectacular display, however its not quite turned out the way I had envisioned it in my head.Nonetheless I am happy with the flowers I have had and the amount of variation has been great. Here is a selection of what has flowered...

I am not a lover of pink flowers but I really have loved the pink pom pom blooms, The seed for these came I think in some wild flowers mix so I have no idea what its called the others I have bought. Come autumn I will be saving all the seed I can and creating my own poppy mix. I wont be sowing any poppy seed next year at all and will let nature take its course with what ever seeds falls to the ground.

Enjoying the Weather and New Additions

Another short holiday and a break from writing on here, just not found the time or anything interesting to post about. For the most part I have been enjoying the garden, taking it easy really not trying to do too much all the time which I had been doing. But at this time of year you can take it a bit easier just abit of watering here some weeding there and just watch things grow.

Since I last posted we have some new additions to the family, Chickens. Beaky, Matron, Duchess and Speckle.

I have had therm about a week now and they are settling well, already getting some eggs! They are very much enjoying the sunny weather we are having and escaping on to the onion pact and digging up my onions!

Strawberry Planter Project

At the start of the year I bought 30 bare root strawberry plants for the excellent price of £11.50! When they arrived I potted them  on into some small pots to grow on. They have soon out grown these and I have been in need of potting them on. For one of the varieties I had made a couple of window box type planters from old pallets, but for the rest I was short of something to put them in. I have looked at the various strawberry planters to buy but none of them really took my fancy and their cost outweighed their utility.

On hunting around the garden and shed I came across a length of 4 inch diameter waste pipe and decided that this would be perfect. This is what it turned out like....

So thats what it looks like as a finished item, and I have to say I was feeling pleased with myself. Its not beautiful but it certainly does the job, and the only thing  paid for were two large jubilee clips. On a design level what I was looking for was something portable, cheap and easy for propagating runners.

It was very simple to make, its just a pipe after all. But here is how I did it.

I got my 4 inch pipe, my drill and a 32mm drill bit to make the wholes.

The gaps between the wholes are roughly about 4 inches, I didn't measure at all and did it by eye. I did this all away along leaving roughly 4 inches at each end.

This took no time at all to do, it would take anyone with a better drill than me even less time. With all the wholes in it was time to think about how it was going to sit. Originally I wanted to hang it from the fence but decided against it. My other solution was one I made whilst drilling the wholes and this was what i came up with....

Simple really, the cut out from the pip screwed to 2x2 piece of wood made a perfect stand. As you can imagine I was patting myself on my back for sometime with this little bit of ingenuity. My partner did not share my delight in what I had done, so I showed my like minded neighbour who gave me the praise I thought I deserved!!!I made three of these and they hold the pipe perfectly.

Once all this was done I made the ends, I looked at getting real pipe end caps but the cost of these was to high even on ebay so some black polythene jubilee clipped on was the cheaper better option for me.

Well that's it really, it works. There is one thing that I will add when I replant in a year or so, a watering system of some kind that runs through the pipe. at the moment the water runs of alot. But it will do for now.

Garden Music

When I am out in the garden I do like to listen to music and I think take inspiration from it. Two bands come to my mind that I really feel influence my approach to the garden, as weird as that sounds. Certain songs really resonate and instantly make me think about my garden. I have never heard of a musically inspired garden but I hope there are some out there. I am sure there are. Well the first of the two bands that I feel influence and inspire me is, British Sea Power. If you have not come across them before...... They are amazing in my unbiased and not at all obsessive opinion. The entire aurora (for the lack of a better word) really touches me, not just the music, but the ideals they up hold, charisma...... well just everything about them really. I can not imagine who I would be with out coming across their single 'Carrion' in 2002/03. I met my partner through are mutual love of this band as she was the only other person I had met who knew who they are! This is a band that will write songs about the Larsen B ice cap, you won't see One Direction do that anytime ever! Anyway here is a selection of songs that I love to listen too in the garden. First up I must have 'Carrion' as this is were it all starts.



The next song speaks to the environmentalist in me, its very rare to here a song like this that tackles a subject like this and does not sound over the top and ridiculous. This is 'Childhood Memories'.  


This one is just so very sweet, 'Do You Wanna Be A Bird'.



I could go on and on and on and on and on and on................and on about BSP, but I will restrain myself and move on to the next band..... Grandaddy. Possibly the greatest band ever to come out of California IMO. I am no expert on bands from California that said. This is 'Broken Household Appliance National Forest'



and........ 'Now its On'



These are a very small selection of songs, I could go on, there are so many that really spark my imagination when I here them. These are some of mine I would love to here if anyone else has music that they listen too in the garden that is also part of their inspiration.

Blogging at Work on My Phone, How Modern!

I work in hospitality and its been a busy few weeks were I have had very little time to do anything else but work. The garden has taken some of my spare time, but its been mainly rushing around with the watering can in between shifts. I am at work right now writing this on my phone whilst all is quiet. 

Tomorrow I have a long awaited day off and time and good weather to get things done. A few things have happen out there on my "estate" which I hope to post about tomorrow. Although things have been crazy at work I have but to wait just seven days for nearly a whole two weeks of freedom and hardcore gardening!