State of the flock, September 2026

We're down to four chickens, none of them laying eggs.  Only Cookie (age 10), Rock (10), Cheep (8) and Birthday (3) are left.  I don't think we've had a chicken egg since spring;  I don't expect any of these old ladies to start up again either, and I asked the husband to put our names down for the next adoption with our preferred hen charity.  Our three Snowflake ducks (not yet 1) are regularly laying;  Girl Duck (also 10) is not--nor Boy Duck (8) of course.  

Birthday, Cheep and Rock (camera shy Cookie is not shown), September 2026

 I'm on the fence about replacing chickens actually:  it's kind of difficult maintaining two separate flocks.  That pesky Boy Duck--if/when he finally goes (and apparently they can live to 20?) I'll merge the chickens and ducks and decide then if I want to carry on replacing.  Not only is he a jerk to our chickens, drakes should not be mixed with hens because of the possibility of injury during mating attempts.  Cockerels can safely mix with ducks (though we have no cockerel);  it's an anatomy issue with drakes.  

The five ducks have been daily free ranging over the perennials section of the garden (not on the lawn) and chickens have had some free range over the lawn.  Both get locked away in their yards overnight and there is a temporary fence between them during the day.  I'm considering moving the other temporary fence from the kitchen garden to allow free range there--I want to start clearing away as most of my veg has finished and it's very weedy.

Why don't I just let the flock die out naturally without replacement?  I'm thinking of the last lonely hen all by herself.  It would be cruel to keep just one all alone--like ducks they are a flock animal and need friends.   

Duck flock in their summer yard, September 2026

Hot again, carry on cucumbers, bugs and good bugs, ducks

We've had record breaking heat this past week, almost unbearable at my work (a school kitchen);  because it's been so hot I've not done as much at the allotment as I'd planned--it's been too hot to get things done after my shift.  Normally this time of year I'm there both morning and afternoon;  instead I've been going straight home after work to try and cool down in the ten minutes before I have to walk up to collect the daughter from school.

So in the 15 or 20 minutes I have in the morning before school and before it's got too hot, I've finished planting out all my leeks at last, continued picking mange tout peas (sold to me as snap peas, but these are definitely flat podded peas, not the round swollen pods I expected), picked the last of the gooseberries, carried on loosening and pulling bindweed from my wood chip mulch, and of course watering all my containers.  Not all of these jobs in one day, unfortunately!  Though the daughter has helped water in the morning and the son and husband have done so in the evening.

The cucumber saga continues:  the plants growing in my kitchen garden are indeed growing, while I've lost a few more to slugs at the allotment.  Regardless, I feel a little more confident about the possibility of harvesting some, at least at home.  However, I may not be able to save seed as I have two varieties growing practically in the same bed:  a pickling variety and a salad variety.  I don't want cross pollinated seed as I really do want both types;  I might have to buy seed for next year.  Though if the salad variety at the allotment manages to produce I may be able to save some uncrossed seed from them.

It's only in the last week or so I've seen the cabbage white butterflies out and about, fluttering around my brassicas.  I've even found a few inside the insect mesh at the allotment;  the cabbages have grown so tall they've pulled the netting up enough for butterflies to sneak in.  While I have a few unprotected plants at home--the mature spring cabbages I've been gradually harvesting and a few late-sown kohlrabi--I put my last small piece of mesh over my newly planted pak choi bed.  

On the positive side, there are also a lot of hoverflies in my kitchen garden this summer.  And I mean a lot!  I've read they eat aphids in their larval stage, so I can only assume they've been busy earlier in the year.  I think they're really cute, hovering around my flowers and plants.  While not as populous as the hoverflies, I've also seen a lot of ladybugs and larva going about their business.  I let all the bugs get on with it for the most part in both my garden and allotment, and let the resident predators take care of any problems for me, a la permaculture.  My policy is live and let live and the only active role I take is against cabbage caterpillars, but not with insecticide or anything like that;  I pick them off and give them to my ducks.

Speaking of ducks, it's been about three months since we adopted those three nervous Snowflake ducks--how are they getting on?  We officially combined the whole flock in April, about a month after we brought the Snowflakes home.  They are much less quacky now, less scared of everything and used to free ranging in the garden;  we still lock them up overnight and let them out again in the morning.  Boy Duck still chases them once in a while, but they don't freak out about it and he's much less aggressive about it too.  Girl Duck has gotten really slow and trips over her own feet when she tries to run;  I worked out that she's actually about 10 years old now, and Boy Duck is 8.  The Snowflakes, not yet 1 year old, are all laying an egg a day:  big tasty ones with lovely white shells.

No room! and a duck truce

So much to do at the end of April.  My sowing window is almost closed for summer plants.  But next up are autumn and winter plants, some of which are already going (leeks, cabbage and Brussels sprouts).   And as usual, I'm running out of space to plant everything out.  I want to grow it all!  But where do I put it?  

I had earmarked a bed at the allotment for my squash but now that push comes to shove, my cabbages are ready to plant whereas my squash aren't even sprouting yet.  I desperately need kimchi so I can't neglect my cabbages, right?  It's ok, I have a backup plan:  when I harvest my garlic I'll put the squash there, despite it growing in that same bed last year.  It won't mind, so long as I put another generous helping of well-composted horse manure on the bed first.  

I also wanted to grow my tomatoes directly in the ground but it looks like that's not going to happen either;  they'll have to grow in containers again.  About half of my containers are already full of overwintered onions however--I'm not certain when these will be ready for harvest, but I can tell it's not imminent.  Luckily I've acquired a large wooden shipping box and have filled it with some of that horse manure, ready for at least four plants.  I already had another one, just need to fill it.  They are more like raised beds really, not like the individual plastic planters I already have.

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I finally got those lethally prickly rose branches sent off in the gardening waste collection but even after two pick-ups, I haven't cleared all the bamboo roots!  That was a big plant.  There's still a mighty clump waiting for the next collection in two weeks' time.  I'm kind of wondering if I should have saved some more of it to grow as screening, for instance in the small front garden (recall I did save one small piece, replanted in a container sunk in the ground out back).  I guess it's not too late to break up that big chunk--I'm sure it'd still grow even three weeks after uprooting.  In containers, of course.

I think the Snowflake ducks are settling into the flock, a few weeks on from their forced integration with our two old ducks.  Initially I was letting them free range with Boy Duck and Girl Duck but locking them up in two separate yards overnight (Snowflakes in one, Boy and Girl in the other);  however Boy Duck--and as my sister once remarked, "that duck is a jerk"--had nightly been breaking out of his yard and into theirs.  So after a bit too much of that malarkey, we decided they might as well be locked up together.  And after a few weeks things have somewhat calmed down--at least we're not hearing panicked quacking at all hours. 

Duck discord, and Perennials renovation

The son has been practicing his photography, April 2026

Our three new Snowflake ducks have been free ranging with Girl Duck and Boy Duck;  they are still very nervous and Boy Duck has been terrorizing them regularly.  Drakes are real jerks!  The Snowflakes haven't gone around the garden much as Boy Duck keeps chasing them into a corner and not letting them out (while eating their food and splashing their water).  The daughter keeps asking if she can whack him (the duck whacking stick is a light, whippy bamboo cane--it gets his attention but doesn't really hurt him) but I've told her no:  they have to sort it out themselves.  Hopefully it doesn't last for much longer, though I'm thinking of locking Boy and Girl in their yard for a few days again, to let the Snowflakes have a break (although Girl Duck hasn't been aggressive to them, it would be unfair to separate them as they are a bonded pair).

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In other garden news, the son and I have been gradually reducing our bamboo stand out in the back corner of the Perennials section.  We're using a shovel, a hand saw and a lot of brute force.  It's a clumping bamboo but has outgrown its space;  I'm actually going to get the whole plant out, discard most of it, and replant one piece into a large plastic planter.  This can be sunk back into the ground where we dug it up, and hopefully will keep it contained;  the plant has been there maybe 15 years, and I don't think I'll be able do this job again in another 15 years.

For several years the Perennials section was also the large duck yard, and as such it has been a bit neglected.  I've just cut down a large feral rose back there, right on the fence line.  The growth was spectacular;  it was at least 3 m tall, maybe more.  Normally I keep all my green waste on site for composting, or for kindling/firewood, but these trimmings are outrageously thorny:  dangerously so!  Instead I'm putting them in the garden waste bin to be collected next week (the bamboo roots will go in too).  

I have a vision for that back corner of the Perennials section.  I imagine it a little hideaway:  shady, screened in on all sides by greenery, with a little patio just big enough for one or two chairs.  A secret place, good for kids and grown ups too.  The greenery is there--it just needs a little taming.  

A few jobs here and there

Our three new ducks, now designated the Snowflake Ducks (or Snowflakes), are still enclosed in their temporary yard and not hiding in their little coop quite so much.  They don't like us coming too close but will hopefully get used to us being out in the garden as time goes on.  They've been with us just over a week and I'm not ready to let them mingle with the old ducks.  Maybe after another week.  Moving from a barn/farm to a garden/free range is enough of a big scary change--I want them settled in before they face Boy Duck and his territorial aggression.

We've had two birthdays in the past week so not a lot of garden/allotment action has happened.  The son and I managed to get to the allotment on Sunday for sheet mulch;  in addition, I picked some leeks and rhubarb and prepared a bed for beet seeds (hopefully to sow within the next day or two).  What's more, I even caught enough of a sunny spell to wander around the garden with a pair of secateurs and prune my remaining roses, currants and grape vine.  

I've pricked out several trays of early seedlings now (but still more to go), and have started some snap peas in a jar;  I like to soak/pre-sprout my peas and beans before sowing.  And at last a few broad beans are sprouting up at the allotment, after sowing more than a month ago.   I'll need to start clearing weeds and spent plants in my kitchen garden so I can begin sowing there:  I'll be focusing mainly on root crops at home this year.  I like to rotate what I grow there, and last year was mainly brassicas and leeks.

A friend gave me a couple of small potted fruit trees (belonging to her relative who died recently):  a pear and a Bramley apple.  I've wanted a Bramley or other cooking apple for a while now, ever since the big feral tree in the next village over was bulldozed:  we used to pick a couple of sacks every autumn, and they lasted several months on trays in our living room.  I already have a lot of fruit trees, and two other apple trees besides!  Nevertheless we were able to tuck the Bramley in the back corner of our garden.  I also already have a Kumoi pear so the little pear tree might go to the allotment later on;  it's now in a very large container and I'll have to decide if I want to leave it or plant it out.

New ducks

New ducks, March 2026

After several years of trying for some more ducks, we have finally adopted another three females.  We like having ducks, which are excellent at slug hunting, and also lay very nice eggs.  The eggs are just a nice bonus in my view;  pest control is the main draw for me.  We haven't quite settled on a cohort name (we no longer name individually, but as a group) though the daughter has suggested the White Ducks.  Not a bad name!  But we have had a group of White Ducks in the past, so we might think about it a little longer.

The son and I fenced off the small section of garden next to the chicken yard, also enclosing our old chicken tractor in with them;  our two old ducks shun any sort of shelter--they were even sleeping out in the snow this winter--but the new ones have been raised in a barn and aren't used to the open.  We'll keep them enclosed for a week or two while the other ducks free range, to let them get used to each other.  Last time we introduced new ducks, Boy Duck took all summer to finally accept them.  I hope they can get along sooner this time, not least because there are more new ducks than old.  I won't lock them in a yard together until I'm sure everyone is friends.

Boy Duck and Girl Duck are around 8 years old now;  while I don't know how long ducks normally live, I feel like 8 is pretty old.  None of our other ducks lived that long.  These three new ducks are around 12 weeks old, so I hope we get at least 8 years with them too.  Or at least I hope they outlive Boy Duck, as the last duck standing needs to be a girl:  the only reason the ducks live separately to the chickens is because Boy Duck is such a jerk to them--otherwise all our birds could live in one mixed flock.  And of course one duck can't live on its own;  they need a flock or they get too stressed. 

Sheet mulching and mulching

I've begun sheet mulching again at the allotment.  Truly, I should have been doing it all winter, as my beds emptied.  But you know:  rain, dark, cold, etc.  I didn't.  Technically it's still all of the above, except possibly a little less dark;  however, I've begun at last.  

Actually, I'm experimenting with some wood chips for mulch this year.  The site has always had stables with a manure pile, my go to for mulch (soiled straw);  this has a tendency to sprout new weeds and harbor bugs and slugs.  I anticipate there will be no weed seed hiding in the wood chips, though I can't speak for the pests--possibly woodlice may be a problem.  Still, I'm trying it with the new (and hopefully continuing) supply of wood chips next to the manure pile.  Many people at the allotments have been using the wood chips for their paths.  If I see my next door neighbor there, I may ask her what she thinks about them on the path between us, too.

I don't really mulch at home in the kitchen garden, though every year I dig out some extra good compost from the chicken yard to spread on one bed, in rotation.  I also divvy out the less composted first layer to my fruit trees, as a top dressing.  Though before I start, I need to tidy up the beds:  weeding, clearing spent plants, and so on.  I already let the ducks have a week of slug hunting, but have locked them out again as they trampled a few of my emerging spring bulbs.  I may let them and the chickens in briefly once those flowers are done--if there's time;  I may start planting the beds first.

A new path across the lawn

Taking advantage of sunshine, the son and I placed some strategic stepping stones from our patio gate to the chicken and duck yards (they share a wall).  The son is in charge of their daily chores (mainly feeding/watering) and he was slipping on the too short grass;  now we can all safely traverse without any more damage to the lawn.

As a result however, all domestic birds are locked away in their yards until spring.  The grass just can't take any more abuse.  The two ducks have had regular free range until now, though the eleven chickens haven't had much, sadly.  While they have a fairly large yard, it's got no greenery.  I'm trying to keep it topped up with wood chips to soak up the mud/poo (an uphill battle).  The ducks like mud, so I'm not quite as concerned with the state of their yard at present.  If it gets too pooey, they can have some wood chips too.

Our two oldest hens, Rock and Cookie, are still with us at age nine;  if they make it to April, we will be able to celebrate their tenth birthday!  Before these two, the oldest chicken age we've ever experienced was six;  Rock and Cookie are true record breakers.  The son asked me if we would be getting any new rescue hens (of our flock, seven of the eleven are rescues) and I think we will wait till we're back down to around six chickens or so.  Rescue hens in particular are fairly short lived (getting to age four is pretty good and we get them at around 18 months old) so it's not outside the realm of possibility that we will get new ones in the coming year.  It's not been quite a year since we adopted the Birthday chickens.

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I'll be taking my Christmas blog break from now until January;  I'm hoping for as much homegrown food as possible for our festive meals.  I'll be back with my grand total of food for 2025:  have I beaten last year's record?  I'll try to get a last few things harvested and tallied before the deadline and we can find out together.

State of the flock, October 2025

I think we only mowed the lawn twice this summer:  it was too dry to grow most of the time, and we had to keep our flock off of it.  Now it's grown again and we're leaving it a little long--just a couple inches--for the ducks and chickens to free range.  They all like grass and it will probably last them until January if they're lucky.  The two ducks are still getting several days of free range a week, but the eleven chickens only get a couple hours a week (not fair!) because they need supervision.  The chickens are laying us maybe three eggs a day now:  unexpected and very welcome.  

I'm considering sending the chickens back up to their yard at the allotment for a month or so before winter, to scratch it up and eat the weeds;  however, it still has all the achocha, one more squash and a self sown tomato covered in fruit--they can't go just yet.  I don't want them there during winter, but if an early frost kills the plants in their yard--they could go then.  Their yard at home is pretty muddy/pooey though I did get some free wood chips to spread around, hopefully to dry it up a bit.  Some sort of mulch is needed, especially in the wet months of winter.

Our Pekin bantam:  Cookie, aged 9.5 years, Sep 2025

We haven't had any deaths all year, despite having a very aged flock;  the ducks are about six years old, and the chickens range from two years to nine.  Some of the chickens are molting and the ducks had their molt in late summer;  hopefully this means everyone is getting ready for the winter and will see next year healthfully and happily.

Pak choi, cabbage, onions and leeks

I thought I'd be planting out my Chinese cabbages* in the kitchen garden and sheet mulching over the failed beetroot bed;  I changed my mind and instead transplanted the cabbages into that bed at the allotment.  The son helped me re-weed the bed (recall it was matted with couch grass roots after I pulled the new potatoes), digging out grass once again and pulling some small weeds.  It looks like only about a dozen beets actually sprouted--probably old seed after all.

I managed to get a tray of pak choi in the kitchen garden along with six extra Chinese cabbages.  That bed held my very first early leeks which I pulled, washed and put into the fridge last week, and the long green leaves got chopped and frozen for later stews and stir fries.  I let my two ducks have several days of free range in the kitchen garden ("We're Going On a Slug Hunt");  and after planting out my tender little plants, not only did I net them (sorry lettuce, but you are now big and pak choi is small) but I very liberally covered the ground with crushed eggshells.  Here's hoping the slugs are a) not willing to cross, or b) not there at all.

It's about time to empty the pots of cherry tomatoes at the top of my allotment--I may move them back to the bottom (close to the water supply) over winter and replant with onions, now sprouting up in a pot at home.  I've tried growing onions over winter once before, without success--actually onions in generally have never been a winner for me, winter or summer.  Still, I want to be self reliant in all vegetables we eat and onions are a staple:  I'm not giving up just yet.  

Unlike my onions, leeks have always been a reliable crop for winter and spring harvest for me;  this is the first year I've grown an early variety (Lyon) in addition to my usual late one (Musselbrugh);  I started picking them last month.  I expect the earlies to last until winter before I move onto the lates.  I've been using them as an onion substitute with tasty results:  the long white stalks are very similar to onions in taste and the green leaves are mild like spring onion tops, though a different texture.  The only downside (and really only a slight one in my opinion):  they aren't as easy to clean as an onion, with sand and compost trapped in between the outer layers.  

*First it was going to be cauliflowers, then Chinese cabbage--now I'm aiming for spring cabbage!  Something will go there, I promise.

Sorting the wood store, making a duck yard, growing squash

Making kindling bundles, July 2025

The husband took this action shot of me, making kindling bundles from the last of the hedge trimmings we cut about a year and a half ago.  At the time we'd piled them up and just left them to dry;  the son and I spent a couple days sawing the larger branches into stove lengths and breaking up the small sticks into kindling.  I don't know how many bundles we made in total--maybe 50?  They're great for starting our wood stove in winter;  since that's our chosen source of heating, collecting as much free fuel as possible is a priority.  True, it's time consuming to make these bundles, but there are times when I just want to sit out in the sunshine and enjoy the garden.  As the son and I were doing this each day, we also supervised the chickens' free ranging:  multitasking!  

Where that pile now isn't, we are constructing a new duck yard.  Recall that the two ducks have a large yard in the Perennials section, which is about four times the size of the chicken yard (for 11 chickens!).  Well, the ducks will share a wall with the chickens;  the two yards will be a similar size, under the shade of our big horse chestnut tree (they need separate yards because Boy Duck is a bit of a jerk to chickens).  As the ducks already get regular unsupervised free range, I hope this move isn't too much of a shock to them.  The husband and son have set in the posts--and an old bathtub--and I've ordered some new wire to enclose it all.  I look forward to having use of the Perennials section again--it'll need a full renovation I think.  

I accidentally left the gate open and the squash escaped!  July 2025

Above is the chicken yard at the allotment, growing squash vines like crazy.  At least five squashes have been spotted, both in this and another bed (not pictured). 

The flock, using graywater, protecting the harvest

 

Eating some grass at the allotment, May 2025

I sent the son to the allotment on Sunday for the morning chicken check (I've been going up myself both before school and after work), with instructions to take a photo of the chickens for me.  They went up a week ago to a very grassy yard and have done a lot of mowing.  At this point I'm not sure how long they'll stay.  A few weeks?  All summer?  No definite plans at this point.  I wanted them up there to clear away the grass at the very least.  However if we get a heat wave they'll have to come back home to their house and yard in the shade.  Bonus from all that grass I presume:  egg numbers have gone up.

The ducks are still at home, locked in their large yard for the present.  I've been planting out the kitchen garden including the non-fenced portion;  when my new plants are bigger they can have some free range again.  

Once again, it's not rained at all in the previous week.  The husband and son wrangled the washing machine so it pumps out the dryer vent;  I've found some of my collection of pipes and hoses (I can't seem to find all of them), to direct the water onto some of the beds surrounding the patio.  I use homemade soap in this laundry (it's made with tallow, lye and water only, and well aged to make sure all the lye saponifies with the fat).  The pipes empty onto the soil itself at the top of the beds to seep downhill, not splashing directly onto my vegetables.  I'm generally doing one wash every morning.  

The water butts still have a very small amount of water, but I'm also saving some water from the house to take outside:  some bathwater (hard to transport), the water used in cooking and washing vegetables, that sort of thing.  Mainly I water my pots and planters with this saved water, the beds with the washing machine water.

This weekend I netted both my Morello cherry tree and my small strawberry patch at home.  Hopefully both are bird proof, as there's definitely not enough to share!  I also remembered to put my purple sprouting broccoli seedlings under insect mesh--I found one small patch of eggs on one of the leaves.  I really need to plant those out as they're getting too big, but where?  I'm thinking maybe I can plant them in gaps in the beetroot bed at the allotment--it still has insect mesh on it (mainly as a pigeon deterrent). 

Ducks and chickens, February 2025

Recently I read that Wales has imposed an enclosure order for domestic birds because of the spread of avian influenza.  We live within about an hour of the Welsh border as the crow flies, so I am expecting the same for our birds any time now.

Free range, February 2025

Because of this, I'm implementing as much free range for my own birds as I can;  the two ducks are getting it in the morning, including the veg patch.  I've covered over the most delicate plants with netting (including a newly planted row of strawberries) and they can help themselves to the rest;  while omnivorous, they tend more towards the carnivorous/insectivorous side--chickens tend towards herbivorous.  The ducks don't much bother about my plants (though they do dig/dabble a bit and can trample).  I want them in there for slug patrol right now, their favorite treat.

Envious, February 2025

In the afternoons when I get home from work I usher the ducks back into their own yard, shut the gate to the kitchen garden, and invite the chickens out for their turn on the lawn:  they get to free range until dark.  Chickens are not yet allowed into the kitchen garden and the fencing around it is low enough for them to jump/fly over;  I have to be home to supervise their free ranging.  Where the ducks might unintentionally flatten a few things, the chickens would scratch and peck everything down to nothing;  there are plenty of weeds I'd like them to annihilate (and hopefully they will later in the spring) but right now my cauliflowers, cabbages and pak choi are too precious.

The different preferences of chickens and ducks really complement each other in the veg patch:  one cleans up the pests and the other cleans up the weeds.  Both give excellent fertilizer too.  My chickens are laying a few eggs a week, and Girl Duck does keep sneaking off by herself, to Boy Duck's dismay;  but I haven't found any duck eggs yet this year (she doesn't lay in a dedicated nest).  

We are ready to cover our chicken yard completely if we get an enclosure order;  the ducks will have to join the chickens in there (not fun for anybody) but there is enough space in both the house and the yard for all eight birds.  I might even see about putting in a few perches into the yard to give the chickens a place to rest out of the way of Boy Duck:  he is pretty aggressive to them, though luckily he isn't very fast or sharp.

Frozen

 

The view from my back door, Jan 2025

After our two week break from school/work, we got a snowfall;  I was hoping it would melt in an ensuing rain, but there was too much snow and not enough rain--it froze and stayed that way for more than a week.  No harvesting vegetables in those conditions.  I'd missed our allotment visits the week before too as the daughter had been sick--in fact she had such a high temperature on Christmas day we took her to the hospital.  Thankfully she's fully recovered now but it meant no trips out until she recovered.  Then it snowed.

Cranberry flavor, Jan 2025

At least she (and the rest of us) were well enough to enjoy the surprise snowfall.  We made snow ice cream (above)!  I would have liked to make it with homegrown ingredients, but as we had such short notice, we made do with half a liter of cranberry juice poured over a bowl of snow. 

Made by the daughter (age 4), Jan 2025

The kids also made a snowman each, we had a short snowball fight out on the street, made hot chocolate and cookies, played board games...it was a fun snowy day.  It was the first day back at school the next day, so we tried to make the most of it.  

And since then, complete frost, with the whole garden iced over.  I had wanted to pick leeks and turnips at the allotment, but I knew they wouldn't come out until it melted;  I'll try to get over there later today.  I've got some cardboard to sheet mulch with too, but again, no point sheet mulching on top of snow.  I'll have to see if the turnips survived;  hopefully my overwintering cauliflowers at home are also ok, buried in snow with temps down to -6C at night.  In fact, I was so worried about the ducks in that cold, I let them have full free range including the patio and left the garage door open for them just in case (they won't normally sleep in a shelter;  they're waterproof after all and prefer to be in the open).  They were ok, as were the chickens who mainly stayed in their coop.

Last bit of work for the end of 2024

This past week I haven't done much outdoors--it's been dark and miserable.  However I did manage to visit the allotment twice for sheet mulch--I'm back to collecting cardboard boxes from my work, a few at a time.  I've got the tomato bed covered and am now moving on to the (large) squash bed.  Little by little.  Over the summer one of my allotment neighbors brought in several stacks of large cardboard pieces from his workplace, I assume a warehouse.  These were wonderful for sheet mulch!  But I haven't seen him for a few months now, so I'm collecting what I can--small pieces are better than nothing.  I've been covering it with used stable bedding from onsite:  horse manure and straw.

At home I'm mainly only going out to give scraps to the chickens and ducks.  We are letting each flock take turns free ranging the lawn for an hour or so in the evenings;  the seven chickens are still laying a couple eggs a week but haven't seen any eggs from Girl Duck for a while.  She may have laid some, I just haven't gone looking--too dark and miserable.

I picked a few sprigs of fennel and mint the other day to make some tea (cutting back on caffeine).  I'm also still harvesting a few radishes and beets;  I've had all the big ones now, it's on to the smalls.  Also leeks, cabbage, turnips.  I'm whittling down my squash stash, still hanging out on their own rug in the living room;  and the bags of various frozen summer veg (I can't believe how many tomatoes I froze!).  And of course, eating kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers, etc.

I'm ready for my Christmas break, though work and school don't finish till the end of the week (and not till next week for the poor husband).  I will be away from the blog until January, when I will reveal my grand food total of 2024.  I know I haven't been logging it here, but it's all written down on my wall calendar in my kitchen.  Will I beat 2023, my best year yet?  I better get my calculator out:  I can't wait to find out.

Eggs, flowers, frost, squash and kimchi

 

Dahlias blown over the veg patch, September 2024

I'm rather shocked that we're still getting three or even four eggs a day from our faithful hens.  Two of the eight are no longer laying, and two more are four and five years old respectively (but still laying once or twice a week).  At this time of year, as the days are much shorter, I'm actually surprised to get any eggs at all.  All the hens are at their small yard in the allotment;  Girl Duck and Boy Duck are currently at home, free ranging on and off (off when the grass gets too poo-y).  No duck eggs for at least a month;  she doesn't have a dedicated nest so I don't always find them but I don't think she's laying this time of year anyway.

My big sunflower finally blew over, but as it wasn't uprooted, I just went out and tied it up to the tree it was growing next to (a medium-sized pyracanthus).  Hopefully its seeds have enough time to mature for next year's plants.  My beautiful red dahlia also got too top heavy and fell over, but again I was able to prop it up;  it's up to my shoulder:  pretty tall.  Its pink and white neighbor is just as tall but still standing unassisted thankfully.  All three of these are still flowering beautifully in my veg patch at home. 

There was a touch of frost at our local country park at the weekend, though it didn't touch the garden and the allotment looks all right too.  I went out for my run at 7.15 in the morning and while I didn't see any frost on any cars or lawns I passed, I did see it on an open section of grass at the park.  To be on the safe side, when I saw the forecast, the son and I went and picked all the squashes from the allotment the day before.  I took my chances with the remaining beans and tomatoes.

Speaking of squashes, I lent my biggest one to my work (a school) and we're having a "guess the weight" contest.  My squash is famous!  And huge!  Seriously, I won't publish the actual weight until the contest is over (later this week) but I will say that it is at least twice the size of my biggest one last year--and I thought that one was a giant.  In total there are eight squashes this year, plus two small immature ones that might not be worth eating (picked them anyway).  The big one is coming back home with me after the contest, for lots of pumpkin pie.

What else?  More kimchi of course!  Of the twenty or so pak choi from my first sowing, I was able to make a liter of kimchi at the weekend, now fermenting for a few days on my counter.  I still have a 1.8L jar of kohlrabi kkakdugi and half of a 3.3L jar of kohlrabi dongchimi in my fridge.  So not lacking in kimchi just yet--though I do go through it pretty quickly.  I have a small tub of the leftover kimchi paste in my fridge at the moment and am considering giving beet greens/stems the kimchi treatment with it, I mean why not?

Keep it coming, September 2024

It feels like summer barely began and now it's finishing.  It certainly began late this year (I was planting out some of my summer veg in mid to late June even) and while we've had some warm days, and a few hot ones, there have been a fair few cool ones too.

I cleared away my main kitchen garden bed, home to kohlrabi (mostly they went into kimchi).  After hoeing and raking, I replanted with fennel, winter lettuces, pak choi and a few komatsuna (another Asian brassica).  The son helped me cover it loosely with another piece of netting, more for pigeon deterence than butterfly--I think cabbage butterfly season is over.  

He and the daughter also helped me move our motley collection of fencing materials and wrap them around the perimeter of the veg beds, excluding them and the patio from our two free ranging ducks (chickens are still at the allotment for the present).  Actually I locked the ducks back up too, to let the rain wash away some of their poo off the lawn for a few days.  When they're allowed back out they'll get the whole of the lawn and back garden but not the veg beds or, critically, the patio--they love hanging out on the patio and it gets poo-y quickly.

So even though we are now officially into autumn--equinox was on Sunday--I'm still hard at it.  Not only am I still planting out (got more winter lettuce, komatsuna and cauliflower seedlings), I'm still harvesting a lot of beans (both green and purple podded), cherry and plum tomatoes, and a steady stream of salad cucumbers, beets and lettuce.  I'm not ready to finish yet:  keep it coming!

State of the flock, June 2024

And now for something completely different.  I've been so focused on the allotment this past month I've not been paying much attention to my own garden or my poultry.  The son is the main caretaker for both chickens and ducks;  he's 14 now and is fairly responsible when it comes to their care.  I sometimes have to remind him to collect eggs still, but he remembers to feed and water them every day thankfully.  The chickens are laying around four eggs a day, from eight hens.

The chickens and ducks are both locked up in their respective yards at home for the present.  Some of the chickens got to make a pass of the lawn in their tractor for about two weeks but it's growing too quickly for them to efficiently graze now.  So we're mowing and giving them the clippings.  The ducks have had periodic free range (usually for a day or two at a time) but I'm still putting in new plantings and I don't want the ducks dabbing them out--I lost a few small marigold transplants this week, so back into the yard went the ducks.  And I can't let the chickens free range at all while my veg patch is in growth.

Boy Duck is maybe calming down a bit after the spring breeding season.  He gets very protective of Girl Duck (who doesn't seem to notice) but if he tries it on me, he better watch out--I've been known to send him flying.  Thankfully he can't jump and is not sharp anywhere so his attacks are pretty ineffectual.  He's been spotted chasing pigeons out of the garden (hilarious) and won't share his patch with chickens either.  He's a big duck and stands fairly upright with a long neck and short legs, surprisingly (and comically) fast.  Once he starts to molt in summer I think his hormones ease up a bit.  Girl Duck is smaller and has the more usual duck silhouette--also short legs--but doesn't do a lot of running.  She just sort of waddles around, with Boy Duck in her wake like her security detail.  Girl Duck does lay the occasional egg, but not in a dedicated place:  I don't always find it in time.

Chickens and eggs

A bit of free range, March 2024

In the days leading up to the weekend, I let the chickens and ducks have regular free range but that has now stopped as I've begun sowing seeds in the kitchen garden.  The ducks have been locked back in their large yard and the chickens have been taken to the allotment until further notice.

However, I do plan on planting up their yard at the allotment with vegetables later this spring so they probably won't be there too long.  But we'll see;  plans are still a bit fluid.  The yard at the allotment is full of grass and weeds and bugs, so the chickens have had an upgrade from their yard at home at least.

The kitchen garden has gone through periods of being fenced with temporary fencing over the years;  fencing plus supervised free range is my preference for our feathery friends.  I may try to rig something up later on;  the two ducks in particular are pretty easily foiled by fencing (unlike chickens who can jump).  Or I may fire up the chicken tractor once more, focusing on the lawn rather than the veg beds.

Action shot! March 2024

It's definitely spring if the chickens are laying this much--even two of the oldtimers are making an effort.  Not the other two though;  however those two venerable hens celebrated their seventh birthdays yesterday.  For the sake of mathematical ease, we mark all our hens' birthdays on the first of April, but for Rock and Cookie, it's their actual birthday/hatchday--I can hardly believe they actually made it to seven years old!

Feathered friends working (and photos!)

 

The daughter (age almost-4) and the back door

I can go out my back door!  This has been possible since the start of December actually.  And I can take pictures too!  This has always been possible...

The laundry line had to be relocated when the old umbrella-style one broke last year.  Now my laundry sometimes blocks my view of the garden, although this time of year the view is a bit dismal.  Have a look.

The not so beautiful view

On the bright side, the micro-climate of the patio does make the laundry dry faster than when I used to hang it out in the middle of the lawn.  

The chickens tractored the veg beds for me over a week or two (chicken tractor on the right, reflecting light) except the far edge at the left, still growing a couple pak choy, fennel, and strawberry plants. 

Feathery fennel in front, pak choy fortress at back

I've sent those four hard working chickens back into the yard with the rest of the flock;  we started the tractor with the four non-laying oldies, but their work ethic was pathetic so we swapped to the younger still-laying hens who completed the job admirably.  I may let them have another pass before I start planting--it's a little cold for most seeds still, and there are still a few weeds here and there.

Three of the four oldies in their yard

The two ducks have had a good amount of free range, slurping up all the slugs and snails.  I like to have them out on patrol, but they poo so much!  So I lock them back in their large yard for a week out of every three, to give the rain/worms/etc time to clean up.  Incidentally, Boy Duck is obsessed with the new back door:  he comes charging up to it several times a day and pecks it with his muddy beak (Girl Duck has absolutely no interest in it whatsoever).  I should have chosen a brown door instead.

Thank you, Girl Duck!