Mother Natures' bounty

Here folks, are some pics of our allotment. We actually have 1 and a half one, but technically the half is mine.

We took over our allotment about 5 years ago now, and this is how it looked when we enthusiastically started work on it.


As you can see, it was BIG! It SEEMED endless when we rolled up, unloaded the spade, fork etc and stood looking at it, wondering what on EARTH we were doing!

It had been used as a dumping ground for a while, as you can see from the redundant pond left there.


THAT proved very useful for covering areas to get them weed free and ready to dig. But pond shaped beds don't really work too well, so we needed to sort that out. Eventually, we did, and soon our first bed appeared, helped along by the wonderful Adrian, who dug and dug and dug.




THE most useful piece of information we were given by established allotmenteeres, was to take it slowly, dig a bit at a time, plant SOMETHING in it, and then move onto the next. It is VERY VERY daunting to see all that space waiting to be cleared and dug, and over the years we have seen SO many people come along like we did, unload all the tools, dig and weed furiously for a whole weekend, and then not come back for a few weeks, take one look at the weeds, and walk off despondently, never to be seen again.

THAT is so sad, as the allotment is one of the joys in our life. It is also one of the pains, the flaming weeds just grow and grow, as does the grass, and you HAVE to keep on top of it. The end rewards though, FRESH, untainted, no food miles fruit and veg...well once you try it you'll never want to eat supermarket stuff again!

The other tip that we always pass on, is only grow things you KNOW you'll eat, no point in growing a whole bed of celery if you hate the stuff.

The weather can be frustrating too, this year we got our spuds in late, mid way through April, because it was just too wet, the lottie is slightly below the water table, and though dry on top, it was mud city 6 inches down, can't plant anything in that.

They are coming along nicely now though, and this year we hope to keep ourselves in fresh fruit and veg all year. I have a poly tunnel on my plot and we are hoping to keep quite a few things going throughout the year in there as well.

This pic isn't from this season, but it DOES show the plot about 3 months after the pic of Adrian wielding his spade!



Having watched The 11th Hour last night, I am even more convinced that growing our own veg is the only way to go. IF we had more land, we'd have animals as well, and YES for food. We have the chooks in the garden, but we REALLY do want to be self sufficient in everything.

Until then, we will continue to work on the lottie, to grow our food, to dig and get backache, watch the weeds grow, and est THE best tasting veg we have EVER eaten!

Shires and More

Every year over the May Bank holiday weekend, there is a Heavy Horse show at Southsea. There has only been one year missed, due to restrictions following the Foot & Mouth outbreak. This year it was the 23rd show, and as ever, was delightful!

The picture at the top is of one of the Fullers Brewery pair, this one is Pride, and he's JUST gorgeous! He is 18 years old now, so quite elderly, is HUGE and..he has BLUE eyes. He alos won the obstacle race, with a good time and no penalties, a steady old boy is Pride.


He also works in a pair with Griffin, they are seen below.



As well as the horses, there was a very entertaining hour spent with a shepherd and his dogs. But this was no ordinary shepherd, this guy worked his dogs and explained the method he uses to train them, it certainly works, they were VERY well trained indeed. He also used GEESE and DUCKS for them to herd rather than sheep, and that made for a few laughs along the way as well.


The chap got the dogs to herd the ducks around an obstacle course at the end, and let lots of kids join in, they and we, had a lovely time.

Apart from all the fun and frivolity though, this show raises an awful lot of money for local charities. The guys give their time, and show the horses to their very highest standard, for pride, yes, but also to raise money. Over the years, tens of thousands of pounds have been raised, this year was for the Wessex Cancer Trust, I hope they made a packet again!

Perhaps one other major point of shows like this, is the maintaining of the breeds. These horses are NOT used for working any longer, there are some breeds that no longer exist, and those that DO only exist because of dedicated people like these guys that come to shows like this.

One lady has a pair of horses from Austria, there are ony the pair in Britain, and they are NOT classed as heavy horses, as such, she could not be placed in the race, even though she took part and the horse did well. She brings them to these shows for the fun element, and to keep them in good condition, well trained and in the public eye.

The people who keep the horses and keep them trained up for ploughing shows etc, are preserving our heritage. Long may they do so I say, and long may these giants of the horse world keep us all enthralled by their might and majesty.

The Lost Garden of Milton!

That's what we have here! We USED to have a garden, it was lovely, all green and had flowers, and a pebble pool, even a little wildlife pond! We would sit out in the evening, with our chiminea it, and soak up the evenings with a glass or three of chilled wine, and talk a load of nonsense.

NOW we have something resembling a bog, NO really it IS! The pond is in dire need of cleaning out and refilling, the white gravel that had a lovely medicine wheel in the centre made of super cobbles is long gone, buried under much earth and detritus. There are now NO plants under 3 feet high, and in many places there are round holes gouged out of the earth that USED to be flower beds.

Now, you may ask what catastrophe has befallen our once blooming garden? What has happened to change all this and turn it into a bog? Well I can tell you it was no catastrophe, and the Garden Pixies didn't get upset with us and take it all away. What happened was this...

We rehomed some ex battery hens! Folks this is by far THE best thing we have ever done! I cannot imagine life without chooks ever again. We (well I but then Adrian thought it might be a good idea as well) decided just over a year ago, that we had room for a few chooks in the postage stamp we call a garden. A coop was found, bought new from Ebay, and delivered AND put together by the guy we bought it from, and all we had to do then was wait for Rescue Day. All too soon, we were setting off and collected the first 4 girls we ever owned. OH MY! If only we knew then what we know now!

The first few days were as traumatic for us as they were for the girsl, Rosie, Daisy, Henrietta and Violet. They had no idea how to drink water from a drinker, so we had to show them, they didn't know how to get up the ramp from the run to the roosting section, so Adrian had to crawl in there and help them up till they learned how. I worried constantly that they wouldn't settle, that we didn't know enough, that we would do something wrong and they would die. But they didn't, they thrived!

Slowly their missing feathers grew back, and they started looking less oven ready by the day. Then came the day we let them out of the run to investigate the garden. OH WHAT JOY! I was nearly crying, they very gingerly stepped through the door into the outside, somewhere they had NEVER been! Then they began scratching around, nibbled the plants and started to dust bathe as well. To see them having so much fun and wonderment was TRULY magical.

I can watch my chooks for hours. Each one has a different character, and we have more now as well. We have lost 3 in recent months, and over the year, a couple only lasted a few weeks, and were replaced with more, those cages REALLY shorten their lives, and some just don't seem able to carry on.

So we try to keep our 'flock' to 10, we are down to 7 at the moment, but next week 3 more will arrive to replenish the coop. There WILL be some spats, there always are, and we need to make sure that the new girls don't get TOO bullied and get their share of the food, but after a few days, all settles down, the pecking order is sorted once more, and off they go.

Poultry keeping ISN'T for everyone, but if YOU think you have room for a couple of chooks, and trust me you CAN have them in small gardens, you won't go wrong with rehoming some of these girls. They WILL give you hours of pleasure, AND fresh beautiful eggs EVERY day, but not from every bird every day, we average about 5-7 eggs per day from 10 birds, and we ALWAYS have a waiting list of people wanting to buy them!

So if you DO want more info, just check out this website http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ They do a FANTASTIC job, and you too can have the joys of keeping backyard hens!