Freedom finally (for poultry)

Is the fact that my back door hardly opens the real reason I rarely take photos?  Now that it's a little warmer (and we have got used to being cold in the house this winter), the back door often just stays open all day--to save the effort of reopening it.  Or closing it in the first place.  It's a big glass sliding door and no longer slides on its rails and needs to be replaced.  And very heavy and very hard to move.  That's my new excuse--but we are saving up for a replacement, hopefully within a few months.

Chickens, ducks and all other domestic birds have been granted freedom!  Well, the housing order has been lifted by the government, so our ducks are back in their own large yard and the chickens' tractor has been extended with a bit of fencing so they have a bit more room to move.  Well, not a lot of room still but the son and I still are moving them daily to a new spot on the lawn or garden, so they have fresh ground and fresh greens, and some actual daylight every day.  And we're getting several eggs a week in return.  

The son, daughter and I visited the allotment a few days ago to do a bit more sheet mulching and harvesting (kale, leek and rhubarb) and afterward we went around to say hello to everyone else's newly released poultry.  Lots of happy birds.  I want to get our chickens up to our allotment, but it probably won't be for at least another week.  Maybe longer, as their yard and coop there needs a bit of repair first.  Nothing major, thankfully.

Several weeks ago I brought home a large plastic tub from my work;  it had been thrown out with a hole in it.  The husband managed to repair it and the ducks have a lovely splashing tub now, big enough to get into fully.  I've seen the boy duck in it a lot, but finally saw a girl duck in it the other day (the husband says he's seen both girls in it at various times).  There are two water butts in the duck yard, fed from the garage roof, so I've set up a little hose to transfer water from them directly.  If there's no rain to refill, they can probably fill it about six times before they empty, but this is a wet time of year so no problem with that yet.

Poor germination?

I can only suppose it's been a bit colder than usual this spring, as I had hoped to be able to transplant some seedlings by now; the earliest ones are still only just sprouting up in their trays.  Even the early indoor seeds haven't progressed as much as I'd like, though the batch of popcorn seeds have outperformed everything else, coming up in less than a week (I'm still waiting for several different trays to even sprout).

At the allotment, the 300 snap pea seeds have come up very sparsely indeed.  Maybe about 20 have appeared, and it's been long enough I suspect that's it.  The 200 broad bean seeds have a similar showing.  After I sowed both, I covered them with insect mesh, and buried the edges all the way around, to prevent both birds and mice from digging them up, so I'm not sure why the poor germination rate.

On a different note, recall I've been using sheets of wool insulation in my seed trays;  a blue tit has been spotted wrestling little bits from the edges of trays, no doubt to make the coziest nest ever.  Our garden is a great place for wild birds and we often see many, but the blue tit only rarely;  does it nest in our garden, or is it just the occasional visitor?  No idea, but I get a thrill if I see this elusive little bird.

Seeds everywhere

My kitchen window is so full of seed trays, I've had to stack them on top of each other: I need another shelf! My tomatoes are individually potted (and growing), as is the corn (not yet sprouted). I put 25 purple climbing beans into toilet paper tubes--and another 50 seeds to pre-sprout in a jar on the countertop. I've got zucchini, squash and cucumber;  and eggplant and celeriac. And I'm not yet done with the indoor seeds--I'll need to make some space for any more.

I'm not done with the outdoor seed trays either, though my two patio tables are pretty crowded. I've got lettuce, kohl rabi and beets sprouting up: these need another few weeks to grow before transplanting out. In addition, I have cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts, and more beets and kohl rabi: all yet to sprout.  I have several more brassicas to start, plus a steady supply of the beets and kohl rabi.

In the ground I have done several short rows carrots and parsnips, and one short row of spring onion.  I want to get some turnip seed down too, but I think mostly I'm sticking to the carrots and parsnips.  These are all at home in the kitchen garden, as seeds at the alloment tend to disappear shortly after sprouting (if at all).

Using waste wool

I'm trying out a slightly different method for sowing seeds in trays, using some sheets of sheep wool which insulates our monthly milk delivery.  The sheets are about 5 cm thick and maybe 30 cm x 150 cm. I've been cutting the woolly sheets to fit the tray and sowing seed into a thin layer of potting compost on top. It's likely I'll need to use scissors to separate individual seedlings for planting so I've sown in regular intervals in the tray, rather than broadcasting; the idea is that the wool underneath the seedling will provide a sheltered growing medium during transplant and reduce transplant shock. You may recall I experimented with soil blocks last year, but was eventually unimpressed with them. Maybe this will work out better.

I've got quite a lot of these woolly sheets as two come every month; some of them are composting at the allotment (the packaging recommends composting), and I've tried mulching with them as well, though unfortunately the slugs and bugs seem to enjoy this cozy shelter. It might even work when sowing seed direct into the beds to employ the same method: lay down a sheet of wool, cover with compost, sow. I may try it.