RAIN!

Chicken damaged tomato

   Vegetable gardening on the scale I attempt it has ups and downs. Keeping animals like chickens adds to the downs and ups. Like in the picture.  Chickens like tomatoes. Seems it does not matter if they are ripe or not they will go for them. There is a preference for the red bits but if the weather is dry then they will eat the green bits too. They also like anything  young and green, like lettuce, beetroot, kale and cabbage! Having said that the amount of slug and snail damage I get to anything I grow is minimal. I am happy to say that one of our hens we call Mrs Chick (do not ask why)  has managed to hatch out three out of six eggs she was sitting on. We have also managed to incubate four Ixworth chicks and have obtained another five chicks from a friend. Our current Ixworth cockerel will now be heading for the freezer. He is just too aggressive.

Three latest arrivals...

   All in all not a lot done in the garden or the poly tunnel this last week. It has been too hot and as I have nothing to plant at this time. Picking cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, digging up some potatoes and harvesting tree onions is about as much as I could manage! Of course, watering has been done in the poly tunnel also the melons and squash still had to be done. There has been a little rain this week accompanied by a stonking thunder and lightning storm so sitting back and sipping an ice cold beer has very much been the order of the day. All the first earlie's, variety Nicola, (new potatoes) are now dug up. Thirty three kilos harvested from three kilos of seed potato. Reasonable crop I think. In the supermarkets here new potatoes cost around 1 euro 60 cents a kilo! A very small number of borlotti beans have been picked, de-podded  and put aside to use in stews etc. They had dried on the plant. It has been that hot. Failure of another lot of own sown lettuce has meant the purchase of another lot of Batavia Blonde lettuce from the Aigurand market. I lost eight out of twenty four of these to the hot weather and the rest are now established in the poly tunnel. Now I will not have any till the end of August for lettuce. Annoying as my succession planning was working well.
    So, what is on the horizon? Next Friday I will purchase winter leeks from the market and plant those out. No swede this year, seedlings killed by the heat. I may strike lucky and find some in the market but it is not a usual plant to find there. Hopefully it will get cooler and maybe a bit of rain? Who knows. Fingers crossed.

Summer heat

Stutgarter Risen onions

Red Sun shallots

   It is about two weeks since my last blog entry. That is quite some time in the vegetable garden at this time of year. I
 was away for a week in the UK to see my youngest daughter and grand daughter up in Gods own county, Yorkshire. Plants grow quickly and before you can say "Bobs your Uncle" you are inundated with produce. And so it has happened. On my return I harvested shallots, onions, cucumbers, haricot vert, carrots, haricot buerre (yellow beans), potatoes, mixed variety tomatoes, courgettes, parsley and lettuce all being harvested in various quantities. The last week has seen daily temperatures of thirty degrees plus Celsius and not a lot cooler at night! I only water the plants in the poly tunnel and outside cucumbers, melons and squash. The rest take their chance and unfortunately the winter vegetables (cabbage, purple sprouting, sprouts) are all starting to look a little tired. Despite the continued hot weather when I was digging up potatoes the turned over soil was still damp. A testament to how much rain we had earlier
 in the year. I continue to sow lettuce seed 
to maintain a supply. Slugs managed to 

Sibley winter squash

demolish half of the last ones I had grown but fortunately I still have enough to eat! So it is back to the market to get lettuce plants to cover the gap while waiting for the seeds to germinate and  grow to a size that they can be transplanted.

Waltham butternut squash

   On the animal front things have been happening. The female duck and the Limousin hen have died, however, a lamb has been born and one of our hens (Mrs. Chick, do not ask) is sat on seven eggs and is two weeks into her brood (eggs should start to hatch at about twenty three days). Our first pair of Ixworth chicks are now close to being integrated with the others and the second pair now have adult feathers. It looks like we have an Ixworth chick coq so our Mr. Ixworth will be replaced by his son.

Burrowing critters eating the carrots

Cucumber and mixed variety tomatoes

Summer is moving along

Cucumber

   Here we are in the middle of July. Time flies. There will not be a blog next week as I will be away from the garden visiting my youngest daughter and grand daughter.
   Despite the long run of sunny dry weather the garden as it is is holding up well. The soil is still damp a couple of inches down and reflects the amount of rain we had earlier in the year. 

Sturon onions

So in the garden digging up potatoes continues with a good crop of earlies and second earlies and the promise of a decent amount of main crop to follow despite Colorado beetle. Sometimes planting early pays off and with the potatoes it certainly did. I have a decent crop of onions with the variety Sturon looking the better of the two varieties I planted. I gathered my first Sanguina beetroot seed and removed the plants from the poly tunnel. More Touchon carrots sown with the hope of getting a decent germination and growth for the winter. More haricot vert sown to try to keep a succession going. Harvesting courgettes and a few cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are a disappointment so far this year but I changed my mind and have been putting in tomato shoots in the poly tunnel and as would have it the poly tunnel plants are looking good. The outside Wautoma cucumbers are once again starting to produce so there should be a few from them. The chickens has reeked havoc on my few aubergines and are trying hard to get at my lettuce plants! Lettuce in the poly tunnel is looking good with the next lot of plants starting to show. Once again germination of the lettuce has been poor but I persist!!
  On the animal front Mrs Buffy (Buff Orpington) has abandoned her nest, however, Mrs Chick (unknown variety) has now gone broody and is sat on at least three eggs! Our incubated Ixworths are growing steadily and we have obtained another five chicks to raise. Most will probably end up in the freezer. As always lots to do and more than enough to occupy my day. 

Time....

Sturon onions

    Time. How it flies. Two weeks more or less since my last blog. Somehow I missed a week. I put it down to the weather. Sunny and hot.
    So what has been going on in the last two weeks. Well mowing grass for one! That aside the vegetable garden is beginning to produce and plants are really starting to take off. The bit of rain we had certainly was welcome and certainly encouraged the plants to get going. Courgettes, spring onions, onions, peas, potatoes, a little haricot vert and a little mange tout have been harvested. Oh nearly forgot there has been a couple of ripe tomatoes! Least I got to those before the chickens.  Plenty of weeding done and more to do. More lettuce sown, cucumbers transplanted to an outside the poly tunnel bed, more beetroot transplanted and resowed lettuce and swede where seed had failed to germinate. Another small row of Swiss chard sown. Not my ideal vegetable but my daughter wants to try it. Volunteer (not deliberately planted) violet potatoes dug up. One of the Wautoma cucumber plants has a cucumber growing on it. In the poly tunnel the cucumbers are in flower and they are growing rapidly. The three chili plants look good and I am hopeful that I will get something from them. Having decide not to plant tomatoes in the poly tunnel I have now changed my mind and have been taking side shoots from other plants and growing them on. I gathered beetroot seed from the plants left in the tunnel. Gathering vegetable seed is very satisfying. The parsnip seed is all but ready to gather.
   On the animal front the last sheep has been sheared and normal maintenance completed (cleaning out coops). The hens continue to lay well, between seven and ten eggs a day!  Over two hundred eggs laid in June. Mrs Buffy has not yet hatched her egg (she only has one left out of seven) and I suspect it will not be viable. Our four Ixworth chicks are growing fast and the first two are now seven weeks old.

Squash patch

Parsnip gone to seed

First tomatoes..Gardeners Delight and Jens orange

The SUN is shinnnng...

   The sun is shinning. At last a prolonged spell of sunny weather is forecast. Well that is this week. Last week? No heavy rain, some sun, not bad. 
   On the animal front it has been a sad week. Our Buff Orphington cockerel was killed by our Ixworth coq. I am not really surprised,  however, our Buff Orphington hen has gone broody and is sitting on a clutch of seven eggs. Hopefully we will get some chicks. Our Ixworth chicks are growing and the first two are becoming more aware of their world and are now outside in an enclosed space. We continued to shear sheep, only one left to do. Usual maintenance, that is, cleaning out, of the coops done.

RIKEA potatoes and peas

First round courgettes

   In the garden early potatoes in abundance and the first courgette has been picked. A very good crop of peas so new potatoes and peas dominate the dinner plate! Some mange tout but it is a poor crop which given the good pea crop  is a surprise. Lots of lettuce and it looks like I am going to have a gap in my lettuce production! Darn it.  In an effort to mitigate this gap I have transplanted some lettuce to pots. The idea being that they can grow to a decent size to then be planted outside. Time will tell if my idea is worth anything! Ha! I have found Great Lakes lettuce seed in the local agricultural shop. I love Great Lakes lettuce. It is an iceberg type. Tomatoes are mostly doing ok but blight is setting in. Hopefully my diversification plan will at least allow some to produce tomatoes. Colorado beetle have and are being a pain but at least the potatoes are at a stage where they can be harvested. A sign of the year zooming buy...first sowing of swede in modules done. More Touchon carrots sown and it will soon be time to start to pull the first round. More still need to be sown though. More beetroot transplanted. Growing in modules is definitely the way to grow beetroot. I have been surprised by by haricot vert in that they are climbers!! The cucumbers in the poly tunnel are picking up which has come as a surprise as I thought they had been attacked by aphids. Hopefully I may get some cucumbers as the outside ones are currently looking very sad as are the melons. I fear no melons this year.
  So the season moves along and thinking for more winter crops is kicking in. 

The rain continues

Chickens clearing the gone to seed lettuce

    Sometimes they are a help, other times a menace! I allowed my chickens to clear the "gone to seed" lettuce and as usual they did a good job.
  In desperation more than anything I transplanted my water melons and five dessert melons to the melon bed. I do not  think we will be getting any melons this year. The plants do not look happy. Too wet, too cool. More lettuce picked. It is being a good year for lettuce and I am not starting to pull my own home grown lettuce
rather than plants that were bought from 

Violet garlic crop

local market. The weather is still mild and damp. I have been able to do some weeding and I have got the next patch of ground ready to sow more carrots. I noticed that the peas are ready to pick. I have three lettuce leaf basil plants that I have now transplanted out in the poly tunnel. More Jack Ice lettuce transplanted in the poly tunnel. The Colorado beetle menace is still present in the new potato crop but I am hoping to get them dug before it gets too bad. In the mean time its hunt and squash! Of course grass cutting continues and rain has interrupted the latest round.

   On the animal front we have finally managed to start to shear our eight ewes this last week with four having been done. We caught and examined the female runner duck. She has a swollen ankle and has done for a while. No infection or indication of a break so the guess is she has pulled or twisted something. Need to try to keep her in the coop for a few days. We have two more Ixworth chicks from the last batch of twelve we incubated. The two from the first batch continue to thrive and are growing quickly.

Its raining, its pouring, the old gardener is snoring....

   Well what can I write? The last week has seen thunder, lightning, heavy rain, floods and roads being destroyed or damaged in our little hamo. One side of my garden turned into a river with the flow being divided by the tomb and the garden is now saturated. To make

 matters worse our little community started to put things back together and guess what? Another storm appeared, more heavy rain but fortunately this time not so intense. Despite the bad wet weather plants in the garden continue to grow quite happily. I am very late in getting my water melons and five dessert melons in. It has just been too wet!
  Due to lack of germination I had to buy some moss curled parsley which has been planted in the poly tunnel. More haricot vert  

Water is starting to pour into the poly tunnel

sown into modules and the three peppers I had transplanted into a bed in the poly tunnel. Outside I transplanted some Wautoma cucumbers which were promptly set upon by the chickens. Two were destroyed. I have a love hate relationship with our chickens. 
  On the animal front we are now left with nine ewes. Everyone else has now gone. We were going to keep two rams but Socks, our first bottle fed ram, died and that left Boxer, our second bottle fed ram, on his own so he had to go to a new 

Water is disappearing down a mole hole!

home. The chickens are laying well and our two Ixworth chicks are currently thriving. They are developing feathers on their wings. So I have a desperate need to get on the beds to weed and to transplant some more plants. I am hoping for drier weather but the forecast is not good.