FROSTS

     Frosts. Four out of seven days there has been a morning frost. That has delayed getting out into the garden and getting on with stuff (ok it is an excuse, lol). 

    The ongoing task of forking and weeding beds continued this week with some good progress being made on two larger beds. I even managed to clear my small round flower plot! Pulled up all but one swede which is a reasonable sized one and hopefully has not been attacked by slugs etc or has some form of internal fault! Never know with swedes! The overall crop has been poor but I am happy that I at least got to make some swede and mash. As with it would seem all brassicas and derivatives of brassicas the chickens love the leaves and completely eat the them leaving just the ribs and will make every effort to get at them no matter there is netting over the plants. No doubt I will try again this year. Continue to dig up/pull carrots that were sown last year and they are an edible size. Always good for this time of year, however, they need to be eaten up as they are starting to produce tops and that means they are going to seed. Dug up a few leeks, again, a disappointing over winter crop. In my opinion they have not stood the frosts well despite being a winter leek variety. Thinned out some more self seeded parsnip just because they were there in the bed. Long row of peas sown. Always worth sowing peas early.

   The main chicken coop cleaned out and we have a broody hen! She is sat on eight eggs and who knows if they are fertilized or not. Time will tell. Daily egg production down this week with 4.8 eggs per day.

Bulb bank narcissi starting to flower

Broody hen