Hoping it will be all ok

Well My case is all packed and the to do lists have been written. Adam is in charge of the chicken's Ben is in charge of watering the plants and my dad is in charge of overseeing to it all! Earlier tonight I had a last look at my little seedlings, making sure that they all had a drink before I venture off. Everything seems to be growing I just hope when I come back they will be well and truly on their way and not green shriveled specks.
The chickens have been cleaned out today, and had a big pile of grass to keep them occupied while it was done. We only had two eggs today, Octavia is most certainly back on form we have been getting her little white eggs. Matilda has a bald head as she seems to be malting, she does look rather odd bless her.
Dad has been cracking on with the greenhouse. He had a few problems assembling the door as the parts that came with it are not the same as the sketchy instructions show, so it was a bit hit and miss, however he has promised it will all be done by the time I get back. Seems strange I'm going away and have not even left yet and I am already looking forward to getting back!
And finally.... thank you all that have been following my blog this far I hope you will return and continue to follow my gardening antics and follow the scoop from the coop! If you are missing my daily updates then why not check out my blog from last years gardening antics A diary of a gardening year where you can read all about the arrival of the girls, the successful crops and my general gardening antics. You can also access my other web pages about gardening and some great tasting recipes through the links on my gardening diary 2011. Bye for now x

Hair raising Idea

Well the nice weather did not last long, it has been rather chilly here today. I haven't been doing much in the garden today as I have been busy preparing for my trip. Today I was at the hairdressers when I saw all the hair on the floor I had one of those light bulb moments. About two weeks ago someone had posted on twitter about how good the human hair was for the garden,especially beans as a mulch to keep moisture in and as a fertilizer. I did a little bit of research and found that this was true. I said to myself next time I'm at the hairdressers I'll ask for the hair and of course as usual it had gone right out of my head until I saw the pile of hair. I know the saloon owner quite well and they all know I'm into gardening, however when I asked for the hair and explained they did give me a strange look! So I brought home my bag of hair and have turned it into the soil where I am going to grow my beans.

It is amazing what things are thrown away in to landfills that are in-fact excellent fertilizers for your garden. There's coffee grinds from the local coffee houses, and most will give it to you if you ask and we also have hair from the hairdressers if you can dare to ask. Horse manure from local stables are often happy for you to bag up and take away. Asking neighbor's who have garden pets like rabbits or guinea pigs will be happy for you to take the soiled bedding away. Put all this in your compost bin along with kitchen waste, grass clipping and any other garden vegetation will result in a great compost for your garden and the best bit of all is that it's free!

For further reading on using hair in the garden Human hair in the potting shed has a great article on hair and the garden.

A fantastic day in the garden!

It was a beautiful spring day today, perfect weather for gardening. I have been quite busy today, I know it is probably a little early but as usual I could not wait, I sowed out my swift potatoes that are an early variety. The shoots on them were quite large and they have been planted in my potato bags which are quite sheltered and being in the Southeast, we can plant out a little earlier than some places in the UK. I also sowed some more Mussellberg leeks, and some early purple sprouting broccoli. The little plastic greenhouse and the summerhouse are fast filling up with seed trays as are the window sills indoors. I'll be glad of the extra space when the new greenhouse is up and running.

I have finally managed to finish digging the vegetable plot, as the weather has been dry it was perfect. I put on loads of compost out of the compost bins and covered it with cardboard and then covered it all with a weed suppressant membrane. Over winter it had all broken down and I have now dug it all in. My soil structure has greatly improved since I first started out on the vegetable plot. The weeds were taking over, the soil was very poor and slightly sandy. Now since I have been working the soil I have a rich dark crumbly soil, all the hard work is starting to pay off as each year my crops get better and better. I sowed some parsnips today, I'm hoping these will grow as they are new seeds and last year the ones I sowed never showed up at all. I did not realize that parsnips are one of the seeds that do not last more than a season, and I was sowing seeds that I had left over from the previous year. As they say you live and learn. Everyday in the world of growing your own or gardening of any kind there is always new things to learn, it is all one big learning curve.

The blueberries I planted a few weeks ago seem to have taken well, there is plenty of new growth. They are still sitting in the summerhouse at the moment. In a couple of weeks I will put them outside for a few hours a day so they get used to the temperature change, they are in quite large clay pots, so one of the boys will be doing that for me! I watered all the seedlings and the sweet peas are shooting through and low and behold as I had sown some more leeks as I had given up hope of the ones I sowed several weeks ago ever appearing, they are now coming through too, so I will have plenty of leeks to keep me going through the winter. The girls have had a great day today, I emptied out a bag of soil that I had carrots growing in last year into their run, they have been busily pecking and scratching away in it happily all day. It is the quietest they have been when I have been pottering in the garden.

And finally.... I hope my blog has inspired some of you to grow your own vegetables or even consider becoming a keeper of hens If you don't have the room in the garden to have a vegetable plot why not consider a raised bed garden or even container gardening to try and grow your own vegetables. There is nothing better than picking fresh produce from the garden and they taste even better for it.

Greenhouse gardening

Now that the greenhouse is here and being put together it has set me thinking about what I am going to grow in it. In my little plastic greenhouse I only grew two cucumber plants and two tomato plants, these did not do very well as it was hard to control the temperature. I'm alright with starting seeds off in there and once they needed to be potted on I kept them in the cooler summerhouse and this worked out fine. As I want to get it as right as I can I have been looking at some books on greenhouse gardening The Greenhouse Expert by Dr. D.G. Hessayon is the one I am thinking of purchasing as I already have his The Vegetable Expert (Expert books) and this is the only gardening book I own. I have found it invaluable for answering most of my growing vegetable questions. It has easy to follow instructions and simple language from sowing right through to storing your produce. It has a great section on pests that each vegetable may get and how best to deal with them. There are plenty of colorful pictures concerning the pests which makes them easier to identify for a novice like myself. So far I have sown aubergines, tomatoes and chilies that I will be growing in the greenhouse. Once everything is set up I will soon see how much space I have and then I can make some decisions on what to grow in there.