Chickens let loose!

What a fantastic weekend weather wise it has been! Most of the weekend has been spent in the garden so the girls have been let out quite a lot. The patio is almost weed free too, which is most pleasing as it is a job I detest and often takes me hours to do.

I have finally managed to get the front garden sorted, I weeded both the flower beds. It was a bit tricky doing the central one as I had sown seeds and I was a bit unsure of what were weeds and what were seedlings. I have pulled out most of the weeds and left what I hope are the seedlings! As I had sown different varieties  in different sections I left what appeared to be the same specimens in and took out anything in each section that looked different. We shall soon see once they get a bit bigger and I shall then take a photo for you to see.

The front flowerbed had hundreds of Cosmos seedlings I removed all but four, which I have left to grow. I also planted out two Dahlia tubers from which I had grown from seed last year. I planted out some Foxglove, Canterbury Bells, Malopes and Sweet Williams. Hopefully in a month or so there will be a beautiful floral display.

I have had a bit of a tidy up and sort out in the back garden and placing out the grow-bags ready for the courgettes to be planted into. The stalks on the garlic is now starting to yellow and it will soon be ready to harvest. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this has grown as last year it did not do very well. I will hopefully get about twenty or so decent sized bulbs. Another month and it will be time to lift the over wintering onions ready to dry out. They look quite a bumper sized crop too with big thick stalks.

All the strawberry plants are in flower so we may get a crop from these after all. The potatoes are growing really well as are the broad beans which have thick pods now developing, however my broad bean plants are no where near the size of my neighbors. The peas have doubled in size since I planted them out and have not been munched by the snails, but I found a couple of snails nestled in the cabbages again which the girls enjoyed tossing around on the patio to break the shells then eating.

I emptied an old used grow-bag into the run earlier the girls had a great time scratching through and feasting on the bugs. They had a dust bath in my fruit border and have made a bit of a mess so I will have to go round with the broom to tidy it all up again. I gave everything a good soaking yesterday and as we are on a hosepipe ban I had to do it all with the watering can. It took me almost two hours to do. Tonight I have only got the greenhouse, the hanging baskets and the front garden to do, hopefully it will not take as long as yesterday!

It will not be long before I will be using my trug to collect my harvest, I better get it out and give it a bit of a clean as it has been sitting in the summerhouse for almost a year. To see a great collection of garden trugs visit:  http://www.squidoo.com/sharing-the-good-life-the-humble-garden-trug

And finally.....We are having a Bar-Be-Q with the new gas Bar-Be-Q that Jay spent the morning putting together, which actually went together rather well considering Jay usually has bits left over! I hope you have all had a great weekend x