Life has been very complicated lately, but here's a little effort to start catching up.
Saturday 3rd November 2018
4 Muscovies and 2 Pekins gone!
The male Muscovy ducks which were born earlier in the year had reached a good size and were eating me out of house and home. Time for a little trip to the freezer! Bad news for two of the Pekin ducks, as I decided to keep five of them for breeding and eggs rather than seven.
I'll spare you any photos from today.
Sunday 4th November 2018
A fine autumn day outside in the veg plot, preparing some of the beds for next year. I am having a very big rethink, going back to smaller beds but without the network of grass paths which were impossible to keep on top of and gave too many edges for the slugs to hide under.
I don't think any of the no-dig systems I have come across are perfect or practical, so I plan to combine a number of methods, using cardboard, green manure, grass clippings, straw and compost to mulch and top up the soil structure every year.
Preparing the beds for the big change to no-dig has involved a surprising amount of digging! However, it should be a one off exercise.
There'll be much more on this new way of gardening in future posts.
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Activites for winter nights.
Sue tries to make a carpet but Gerry
has already decided to sit on it
before it's even finished!
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I spent the morning fixing chicken houses. Goodness knows why they make the doors so close-fitting. A little bit of damp weather and the doors no longer close. Pulling them hard to open them in the morning inevitably loosens the screws which hold the bolts. So I have put handles onto the doors and shaved the tops so they don't catch. A little air circulation in the chicken house is a good thing.
Sue has been working hard on her peg-looming as she has the winter to produce enough carpets to line the floor of our tipi. Did I mention we have bought a tipi?!
With the nights drawing in there is a balance to be struck between outdoor pursuits and indoor evening pursuits. Winter gives me much more time for baking so today I made a gooseberry custard tart. Gooseberry recipes are hard to find beyond the predictable sponge, pie and fool. I made bread too, the first time using some nice Dove's Farm flour. I don't know whether it was the quality of the flour or the new dried yeast I am using, but the finished loaf was one of the nicest I have ever made.
Looking forward to hearing about your no dig methods. We have been trying it a little but our beds were very shallow on the hard polytunnel floor so we'really raising them up a bit and hoping the slugs and other pests don't move in.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a recipe for your gooseberry custard tart? I'm always looking for something goodd to do with gooseberries.
Dans
You might be ok with slugs and snails in the poly if it is on the dry side. Though it only takes one to destroy a tray of seedlings and once the jungle grows up late summer there are still plenty of hiding places for them. Torch-lit night-time hunts can be very effective. Often they are crawling up the polythene. Show no mercy!
DeleteHere's where I found the recipe http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/43807/gooseberry-custard-tart.aspx