A quick and easy way of reducing your food bill for chickens. Also what I do to keep foxes away from my chickens.
Following on from my post the other day, I posted this video on YouTube so you can visualise how my plot looks. Go check it out.
A couple of weeks ago, I took the decision to give up half of my allotment plot. I started my allotment journey back in 2012, when my first plot measure 12m x 5m, and then moved to a 25m x 5m plot in 2014, and then in 2016 took on the plot next door, giving me a 25m x 10m plot. However, since having more room to grow vegetables and fruit, I don’t seem to be using it efficiently enough and have been harvesting less and less each year. My theory is, by giving up half my plot, I have to think properly where to grow stuff and will have to manage it properly.
So last weekend, the downsizing began. We (myself and my family), moved one of the sheds and converted it into a chicken coop. The shed was just a dumping ground and wasn’t really been used, and with the existing coop needing to be replaced, an unused shed was perfect.
Unfortunately, I started to take the shed apart before taking pictures, but it didn’t take long to dismantle it. Luckily, when the shed was originally erected back in 2014, I put it on some pallets, so it’s still structurally sound.
I managed to source some new pallets to put down before moving the shed. So these were put in place, ready for the shed to be moved.
Once moved and erected, I measured the door and cut a hole big enough for the chickens to use. Some perches were built and made some nest boxes out of some large black plastic tubs. Unfortunately, I forgot to get some pictures of the inside 🙁
The final job was to move and re-attach the water barrels to the side of the shed so I can collect the rain water. Overall, it took us around 4 hours to move everything and I’m extremely happy with the results.
As I type this, it’s the first week in September and it feels like summer has come and gone. Summer as been a weird one for me. Everything started so well but then come June, everything just stopped, and took ages to get going again 🙁
Last weekend was our annual show at the allotment. It was a good day, although a long one. Has Chairman, I arrived early to get everything setup and was the last one to leave. We had a good turn out and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
I’ll leave you some photos from this summer, including from last weekend. Most of these have been posted on my Instagram, go check it out and give me a follow.
June has come and gone, and I have to say it’s been a weird one. Everything was growing so well in May and all of a sudden everything just stopped. For instance, my garlic was doing really well at the beginning of June, and I went down one day, to find they had gone yellow. I pulled them up the following day and left them to dry in the greenhouse
Last weekend marked the start of my potato harvest. I started to dig up my first early potatoes, just to see if they were ready yet. I was quite surprised by them actually, no slug damage and also a reasonable size. I dug a couple of more plants up this morning.
I’ve also started to harvest all my soft fruit. My raspberries and gooseberries have done extremely well this year. Most of them will be used to make a summer fruit jam. Yum.
Until next time….
So at the beginning of May, I made a list of jobs that needed doing. I’m glad to say that I’ve got them all done and the plot is ready for summer.
The frame for my grapevine was strengthened using some metal poles that were kindly donated to me by another plot holder. My squash has been planted out with my sweetcorn to follow within the next couple of weeks, and finally the greenhouse was completely gutted and tidied.
In regards to my strawberry bed, I’ve decided to use water bottles with holes drilled into the bottom. I’ll simply fill the water bottles, place them on the soil and the water will trickle out through the day. Well thats the plan.
The only thing I’m struggling with at the moment is room for my sprouts, I simply haven’t got a spare bed for them. I think I’ll have to wait until my garlic has been lifted (only a couple of weeks away by the looks of them) and plant the sprouts in that bed.
I’ll leave you with a couple of photos I took yesterday.
Until next time…
I thought I had everything under control this year. The plot was tidy, I had my seeds ready and I completed all my winter projects. However, we are now in May and I’m wondering where the hell the year is going. April flew by for me, I was busy with various projects at work, and so I didn’t have a chance to spend much time down the plot.
I come to sow some seeds during the week but couldn’t find them anywhere on the plot. I’ve either thrown them out when cleaning the sheds or left them out and someone has pinched them. So instead of worrying and having to order seeds in, I’ve decided to buy most of my veg plants this year.
I suppose not having to look after tiny seedlings, allows me to get a few more jobs done before the task of daily watering and weeding starts in summer.
No doubt there’s something I’ve forgot…
I managed to get an hour down the plot this morning with the aim to plant out my remaining onions. I planted out a load of them at the beginning of April but I purposely didn’t plant out one tray, as I’ve had problems with birds pecking the tops off them. Fortunately, they’ve left them alone this year, so I should have a decent harvest from them come summer time.
I’ve been growing my onions from sets for years. I did try growing them from seed a couple of years ago, but germination was extremely poor, so I’ve grown them from sets ever since. I simply plant the sets into seed trays, grow them in the greenhouse until they are around 6 inches tall, and then move them to my cold frame for a month or two.
While having a walk around the plot, I noticed how much the weeds have grown since last weeks rain. Fortunately, my Oscillating Hoe made short work of them. If you haven’t got yourself an Oscillating Hoe, I highly recommend you get one, I find it a lot more effective at dealing with the weeds. It cuts the weeds beneath the soil level where they are most vulnerable.
I’m going to leave you with a photo of the plot looking from the shed.
Until next time…
Things have been a little hectic recently. I’ve had a lot of work on recently that’s taken most of my time up, so my time down the allotment has been rather limited. I’m hoping to get down there this bank holiday weekend as the list of jobs is piling up. That said, on Easter Sunday, myself and the other allotment committee members, held a volunteer morning followed by a BBQ in the afternoon.
For as long as I can remember, the allotment association has always held volunteer mornings a couple of times a year to help keep the communal areas nice and tidy. This was the first one we organised since been voted in as committee, so we wanted to get a lot done.
It was a great morning, we managed to get the portacabin painted, weeded the communal flower beds and also tidied around the compost bays. We had an excellent turn out too and everyone got stuck in.
The afternoon BBQ was a great success too. We had an egg hunt for the kids, egg painting competition and various raffles. I’m looking forward to our summer gathering.
I finished work early today to try and get down the plot for an hour. It felt nice to get down after work to be honest. My aim for today was to plant out my first early potatoes which I bought back in January from a local garden center, and like every single year, I cannot remember the variety. D’oh!!!!!
Most of the seed potatoes were either shrivelled up or really small. To be honest, I think I left them too long on the window sill and I should have really planted them a couple of weeks ago. Oh well.
I’ve still got my main crop of potatoes to plant out, which again, I can’t remember the variety (I do it all the time). These will go in within the next couple of weeks after I’ve finished preparing the bed.
While I was at it, I also planted out half my onion plants. I’ll give it a week before planting out the rest, the birds have a habit of pecking off the tops of the plants, so I don’t want to lose the entire crop. These were a bargain, 80 onion sets for £1 from a local DIY store back in January. I wish I picked up a couple of more bags to be honest. Oh well….
