Chris and Steve’s Weblog - City Chickens

We went down to the plots last night at about eight o clock to do a bit of watering and came home with a lettuce, some raddishes and a piled high bowl of strawberries. We ate quite a lot after tea and I prepared eight boxes for the freezer. They are lovely again this year and we have about five different varieties some bought and some donated by friends.

Tags: , strawberry

Look at me. One week old already.

Tags: , ducks

All the Pak Choi seedlings, that I started from seed saved from last year, are now in the ground at the plots in various places where ever I could find the space. They surprised me with the numbers of seeds that germinated successfuly. Last season we never got to eat any as they all bolted so I am hoping for better results this year.

Tender green stems and dark green leaves. A quick growing oriental vegetable. Use baby leaves raw in salads or allow to grow a bit bigger for use in stir fry.

Rob has built yet another brassica cage and last night he planted up all the cabbages, cauliflowers and the sprouts. The cage is built with eye catching red netting given to us by my son Sean and it looks great. The sprout plants were bought from D T Brown in Newmarket and are an F1 hybrid called Maximus. We have never grown this variety before.

Sturdy plants with good disease resistance Brussels Sprout Maximus produces a high yield of excellent quality smooth, sweet buttons harvesting from September to February.

Tags: , sprouts

Yesterday was a lovely warm day but as Rob had to work a double shift he wasn’t home until 7.45pm. We went straight down to the plots when he got back and spent a nice hour watering the plants that are under cover and the seedlings then planting more pumpkins, five Cauliflower Moby Dick, five Cabbage Kilaton F1 and twenty five Lettuce Delicato. We brought home a bag of salad leaf and a few globe raddish to go with our very late evening meal.

Tags: , cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce

Look for the small things in life to bring joy. (Confucius)

We had given up on any ducklings from Jemima and Puddles as most of their eggs have been infertile. However, this morning, to my great surprise one of the eggs had pipped and by this evening we had a beautiful baby duck. I have already bought some duck eggs from ebay and they should arrive tomorrow. The bought ones are mixed colours so we don’t know what to expect. Waiting for Libbie to come up with a name for the new baby now.

Tags: , ducks, hatch

Tags: , tunnel

Robs week off is almost at an end and we have done most of the jobs we wanted to do despite the heavy rain that fell most of last week.  Yesterday and today have been much warmer with brilliant sunshine.

The pumpkin bed has been dug and planted up. Twenty six brassicas have been planted and another cage built to house the plants ordered from Marshalls. The first of the Butternut Squash is in place. All the runner beans are in. More seeds have been sown. All in all it has been a very productive week

The heavy rain was helpful in one respect as the ground has been very soft and so easier to hammer in the wooden lathes we needed in the building of the new fruit cage. We have used strong plastic tubes to build the side walls and attached the plastic covered wire netting that the original cage was made of. This will enable the bees and butterflies to get in and the finer netting on the top will keep out the birds whilst being easily visible to them so they don’t get tangled in it. Some fruit cages are covered in almost invisible netting which can snare a bird. The bottom edge has been built up with panels from our old fence from home just to stop weeds from creeping into the cage and stop the strawberry runners from straying onto the path. The wooden lathes have been used inside and out to strengthen the side panels and capture the netting. This morning we started to put the main net covering on the top. My brother has found us some nine foot steel rods which we have used at several points to strengthen the main construction. Hopefully we shall be finishing the top netting this evening when it will be a little cooler.

After a day of torrential rain the weather finally cleared up enough for us to pop down to the plots and install the second Cucumber Carmen in the lean to. The first plant is still surviving despite the cold spell we have had. We had a walk round to check on everything and so far no disasters and all the mini greenhouses are is still standing. We bought home the first of the pointed cabbage and some chard. Most of the seeds we sowed are through and the potatoes are doing really well. Rob is off work next week so we hope that the weather will allow is to complete the new fruit cage, plant the runner beans and get some pumpkins and squash into the ground. 

Back at home the melon seedling have been turfed out of the broody box to make way for seven new chicks, the final count of the hatch is two Pekins and five Orpington bantams. There is still a lot of potting on to do as the seedlings of pumpkins, butternut squash, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet corn, melons and pak choi are all crying out for attention.

Tags: , cucumber, hatch

Today is a special day as it is twenty five years since Rob joined Royal Mail. He has hardly had a day off sick in all that time and I am very proud of him. The time has seen him change from a young man into a wonderful Grandad.

Tags: , family