Scrapheap Challenge

[Snadger]

Planted my tall (Alderman) peas and sowed the rest around them. They are in the greenhouse which i haven't got round to adding glass to yet and will hopefully climb up the strings I had foor my tomato plants.

Put a large flat container in the run and filled it with straw for the remaining chooks to lay in.

Added canes to my toms in the polytunnel. Noticed a few of my carrots are germinating.

Did a bit of hand weeding. Need to start adding support canes for some of the chrysanths before they fall over. Leaf celery is slow to germinate but I think a few arer showing above ground.

[Jungle Jane]

Your plots looking great now you must be really happy & that's the most important thing enjoy it

[Snadger]

Your plots looking great now you must be really happy & that's the most important thing enjoy it

Thanks JJ I do enjoy it and its a joy to just chillout after work just pottering or sometimes even dozing in the summerhouse, letting the world go by!

[Snadger]

Bought a yellow and red Aquilegia from Poundland. Unusually it wasn't dead and looked quite healthy, unlike most of the other plants they had. Also bought some bonemeal as a present for another plotholder who though he had blight on his toms but hopefully it is only a phosphorus defficiency. Either Superphosphate will help or a more organic alternative of bone meal should do the trick.
Tied my toms in the polytuinnel to their support canes. Potted on a Yacon plant into a large pot. I now have Yacon outdoors,yacon under fleece, yacon in polytunnel and yacon in a pot in the summerhouse. Not as well yaconned as Jay-el but pretty close!

As discussed on another thread I am now a daddy again, this time to a tiny stripy chick! More to follow i hope but in the mean time I had to shoot to the petshop and a get soime chick crumb and a water dispenser. Hopefully all will be well, but if all three heaps of a dozen eggs hatch I'm going to be overrun with chicks!

[Jay-ell]

Bonemeal is the longer term organic way, but a little bit of super phosphate may be more immediately available

[Snadger]

Bonemeal is the longer term organic way, but a little bit of super phosphate may be more immediately available

They don't sell Superphosphate in Poundland!

[Jay-ell]

Well we've (hopefully) identified the problem
Soil may be too acidic/alkaline - isn't it in half pure muck? That would affect the solubility of the phosphate.

[Snadger]

Well we've (hopefully) identified the problem
Soil may be too acidic/alkaline - isn't it in half pure muck? That would affect the solubility of the phosphate.

We shall see.................

[Snadger]

Another busy evening at the plot. Very warm compared to recent evenings. Sorted chooks as per chook thread. Cadged some chicken wire and fastened it over a small portion of the run that I thought would not be chick proof.
Sowed parsnips earlier in the year and oly a few germinated. Sowed another packet later in the original positions. Nothing seemed to be happening so I sowed swedes in between the rows. Swedes and parsnips have germinated together so I don't know which ones to pull out or which ones to leave?
Spent the rest of the evening moving corrugated pan tiles stacked at the front of the summerhouse further along in front of the run so i can plant up the area in front of the summerhouse. I have a passion fruit plant which I intend planting in a humungus pot and trainng it fan wise over the front of the solid section of the summerhouse I will hopefully get it planted tomorrow evening.

[Jay-ell]

Pull out half a row of swede and half a row of parsnips. Just make sure it's not the same half for both.

[Snadger]

I'm getting a bit sick of those vampires dossing in my summerhouse so I thought "I'll fettle you!"



This was the garlic from one large plantpot and I have another five large pots to empty when they are finished growing. Not bad I thought!

Managed to get a grainy piccie of the FIVE chicks that have hatched so far, along with the two mothers that are looking after them.



The other broody hen keeps swapping between the two clutches of eggs that are left. I hope for her sake she manages to hatch at least one chick from them.

At great expense, ie a whole bag of potting compost, i potted up my Passion Fruit plant that I grew from an edible passion fruit seed that I started into growth last year.
The idea is to train it, probably in a fan on the front of the summerhouse then hopefully cut it back before the first frost and transfer it into the summerhouse for the winter.



I dug up one of my Charlotte potatoes which although it had huge foliage (as can be seen in the background of the garlic piccie) only yielded a handful of spuds. I'll stiil steam them though and enjoy them as the first of many, hopefully.

[Ms-T]

I do enjoy reading your posts...and i love the chicks.

[Snadger]

I seem to have lost a chick! I just can't spot one of the black ones. I don't want to hypothesise where its gone.I cleared the last of the eggs out of the nest as they were cold and wern't being sat on. I have a fancy that some had part formed chicks in them but I didn't have the heart to break them open.

Bought some leek seedlings at Homebase as a backup for the ones i have. I just put them in a clump on the plot and waterewd in well. These will, along with those i have grown myself, be planted in the keyhole bed vacated by the Charlotte early tatties. As i dig each tattie up I will plant a few leeks, that way I will have a succession of leeks.
Watered stuff that needed it and added some comfrey tea to the watering can I watered the polytunnel stuff with.
As planned, the hundredweight pumpkin I planted in the corner of the polytunnel is now making its way along a cane I positioned to lead it through one of the vents.

Gahthered ten fresh eggs from the temporary neting area I set up in the run while the chicks were hatching in the nestbox.

[Snadger]

Set the hose up and watered everything on the plot this evening including polytunnel. Pulled up all the red onions that had bolted Its a good job my overwintered Japanese red onions are doing well
One of the chicks fell out of the coop through the pophole and was running around the run floor squeeking like mad. Mother hen came, got the chick to follow her then promptly jumped the 3 feet to the pophole insteads of walking the chick up the ladder frame. Chick looked at her and must have thought " Are you for real, I'm two days old and you want me to jump 3 feet verically?
I finished up risking life and limb and managed to get the chick into a box. I put the box next to the pophole and tried to persuade the chick to go back in. It was then that the mother hen decided to attack me as she thought I was hurting her chick, rather than saving its life!
I'm just glad she's got that mothering instinct!

[Snadger]

Harvested and cleaned another two large pots of garlic. Weeded my toms and cukes in the polytunnel. Watered my toms and cukes in the polytunnel. Planted out the last of my Yacon and a strange looking supposed pumpkin.

The chicks are all out of the coop now and have set up camp with there three foster parents under the coop (coop is 3 foot off the ground so there is plenty of room for them). I re-positioned there chick crumb feeder and small water feeder close to them. I also put a latted bar up at the side of them to discourage the other chooks and thew some straw down so they could make a bed. I'm not happy with them being on the bottom but the three foster mums should protect them, I hope.

It is amazing to see four chicks with three mums!