Catching up quickly before Christmas 2020

Well, the chickens and ducks are home and enclosed--and very dissatisfied with their lot.  The husband and son set up the yard on the Saturday, then I assisted in putting the netting over the top on Sunday, while the daughter was asleep;  it was windy and rainy and we all got very cold and wet.  The husband and son said only a couple chickens escaped (!!) during the transfer from allotment to garden, but they're all safely home now, and none have escaped here.  Yet.

We're looking forward to another lot of fresh garden veg for our Christmas dinner, including Brussels sprouts, a very fine cauliflower, and greens.  Not to mention some pumpkin (does it count as fresh if it was picked in October? It's hanging out with some friends on the dresser in the living room).  I also made the Christmas pudding last month, after saying I would, then saying I wouldn't, then relenting again.  I made it with our own dried plums, dried figs, and of course our own eggs;  unlike last year, a few hens are still laying for us.  

There's still a little more tidying to do out in the veg patch, and some more sheet mulch at the allotment;  and maybe I'll start one tray of onion seeds indoors at the very end of the month, but really that's it for gardening for 2020.  I'm taking the rest of the month off for blogging, and will return in January 2021 with a grand total of food--I've still been recording my daily/monthly totals on paper, just not been logging them here;  it'll be a big job totaling it all up.  I look forward to seeing how it compares with previous years.  

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The best laid plans...

A few days ago I received a package in the mail from the village council, the body in charge of allotments at our village.  It contained a detailed booklet ennumerating all the new requirements for hygiene and risk management regarding avian flu.  Once more, bird flu is a problem in the country and once more, all domestic poultry and fowl will need to go under cover--probably until spring.  

This last happened in the winter of 2016/2017, when we had to keep our chickens in a small yard with netting on top in order to completely exclude wild birds, as well as some other biosecurity requirements.  We had 14 chickens in total, and they were confined for about three miserable months in a very small enclosure.  

After reading over the allotment requirements, we have decided they are just too restrictive and would be cruel to keep our chickens confined there;  one of the stipulations is that they not be outdoors--not even with netting overhead--unless someone is physically supervising them.  I can't lock them up in their coop there--it's way too small.  They'll have to come home, where I can supervise them all day.

To that end, the husband went and got some tall posts and has started to put them up, to make a permanent yard here at home;  thankfully we still have a good sized coop here.  He'll get the gate up and posts in, put up wire around them, and then net the top.  It should be about as tall as the yard at the allotment allowing us to go in without crouching, and covering a larger area than their yard at the allotment.  All this needs to be done by 14 December--just about a week away.

Our three ducks will be going in too, as they are included in the order.  They've been free ranging for a few weeks, and I even moved the fence surrounding part of the veg patch to give them access last week.  I'll leave them out for as long as possible, but they'll have to be under cover by 14 Dec too.  It's going to be a hard winter for birds.

Tidying up for winter 2020

Pretty, but not very large kale

First frost was right on time, in the last week of November.  It wasn't hard enough to actually touch most of the garden, only slightly affecting the lawn and front.  We have had cold enough temps to frost for several nights in a row now, but I haven't really seen it--not even at the allotment which is much more open than our sheltered garden at home.

I did a little bit of tidying up here at home anyhow, pulling out some spent plants and weeds, laying them down on the soil to break down in place.  There are a lot of brassicas still standing such as the somewhat measly kale pictured above and a couple of good looking cauliflowers (a strong candidate for Thanksgiving but ultimately passed over in favor of cabbage and Brussels sprouts). 

It's really about time to let our three ducks in to do a bit of work flattening what I've missed, and to do some slug hunting.  They were confined to the Perennials section for most of the autumn so that we humans could enjoy a poo-free lawn;  however, they are free ranging again and I need to move the chicken wire surrounding the veg patch so they can access it but not the patio or gate.

I'm still working on digging out grass at the allotment;  the husband has dug out a little and also sheet mulched a corner of it with cardboard and horse manure/straw.  The son and I have had a few more fires up there in the evening--enough to scorch some small circles of grass.  It's a more fun method than digging, but not making a very big dent!  I wish our fencing situation there was robust enough to let the chickens have at at, as I know a winter of ten busy hens would go a long way towards grass eradication.