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On My Oasis – Here Comes Autumn
Good Lord, isn’t it wet? I know I’ve harped on about the lack of water, but now it’s here with great abundance. I’m stuck inside with a stream of toxic gas coming from the dog (I gave her a new chew bone yesterday and boy has it created some filth). I’m also battling lousy depression today – for no apparent reason I’ll add – so I thought sitting down and writing a gardening post might help a little.
Livestock
Things have been fairly quiet gardening-wise mainly due to the rain. Poultry-wise? Not so much. Last week one of my ex-battery hens, Guilleflower, experienced a prolapsed vent. I only noticed because I could see the other two hens pecking at her rear. Upon inspection, she was bleeding heavily. I pulled her from the coop immediately, bathed the prolapse and gently pushed it back inside, though it popped straight back out. I can’t say I ever expected to be sat on the lawn with my finger up a chicken’s bum! Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to stay in, and over the two next consecutive days, she laid eggs too which definitely didn’t help the matter. I read online that sometimes the prolapse can shrivel up and fall off so, because it hardened and got a large black lump, I left it alone other than cleaning. Then, a couple of days ago the blackened part fell off and I tried to push it back in and this time it stayed. Hoorah! I’m waiting for her to lay an egg before I put her back with the others because I want to make sure the prolapse holds, but I have my fingers crossed at this point.
Meanwhile, the heavy rain caused a slight problem in my Polish bantam coop and I had to rescue the frizzles and bring them into the shed too. Unlike normal feathers, frizzle feathers don’t provide protection to either wind or rain and so a chicken can very quickly get chilled. That was the case of my favourite hen – Clumsy (named due to her obvious characteristic) and she was shivering quite a lot. She’s been tucked in the shed with her brother for four days now with tonic water, scrambled eggs and lots of other goodies and is looking much better. I popped them back into the coop today and, you guessed it – a downpour. Still, she’s disappeared inside the hutch with her brother so it seems all is okay. I will have to keep a close eye on her during the coming days.
Ivy (foreground) and his brother (back). Frizzle feathers aren’t resistant to wind or rain so need extra protection.
New black crested hybrid hen, Brianne.
As for flock management, there’s a new hen – Brianne. She’s a black cresting hybrid laying hen. A lovely girl and she’s settled in quite quickly, though no signs of eggs yet. I picked her up at the local auction, after attempting to get several others. There was another couple there who were obviously putting together a laying flock and had quite a lot of cash – they kept snapping up all the gorgeous birds! I missed out on the Ayam Cemani pullets and so hubby bought six hatching eggs – yes – the incubator is BACK on. Meanwhile the five younger chicks are all growing and it looks like four of the five Polish are roos! So that’s eight Polish chicks hatched and FIVE roos! Ack! The next poultry auction is the end of October so those younger three roos may have to go. Ivy’s now started crowing, though rather quietly and so far his brother and the d’Anver cockerel haven’t made a peep. I bought a low ceiling’d hutch purposefully so when they’re shut in at night, it’s hard for him to stretch and crow. However, I HAVE bought some cock collars so if it comes down to despatching or attempting a collar, I’ll have to try the latter.
Veggies
It has to be said that my veggie attempts this year haven’t been great. The tomatoes are actually ripening, but I haven’t had a heavy crop. The onions and broad beans failed. There’s been a few beans and peas, but the gourds have failed to go mad. My late planted brassicas really are growing SLOWLY so I’m not expecting too much there either. The only things that ARE okay are the radishes, chard and brussell sprouts – the latter of which I cheated on and bought plug plants from a local nursery.
The beans have been relatively successful.
There’s a number of reasons for my failed attempts; firstly in that this is a brand new garden that hasn’t been used and so the soil is pretty poor. I’ve also never had a greenhouse before, so that’s a learning curve. Also, the local wildlife is very different to that of London. I can honestly say that the vast ladybird population in the capital means aphids aren’t a problem. Well, here in Essex – they’re a nightmare! So that’s stunted my crops, as well as the plagues of cabbage white butterflies flitting over the garden. They may be insects but damn, they can find their way through the tiniest hole to lay those eggs!
In my attempt to look forward instead of despair, I’m trying to take winter growing by the horns. Crocus were having a 20% off sale yesterday so I snapped up some Pak Choi and Winter Lettuce seeds. I also grabbed some onion sets and garlic whilst I was at it. I NEED to get this stuff going as soon as I can; particularly if I’m intending on doing some farmers’ markets next year. I’ve also realised that I need MORE space. I haven’t quite worked out what I’m going to do about this yet – but I expect some veggies will work their way into the herbacious border. I want to sell veggies, eggs and plants. It means that I need more of EVERYTHING!
Farm Plans
Finally, I’ve got another farm project weekend in a few weeks’ time where my band of merry helpers and I will be strimming down the wildflower meadow, raking off all the excess to make straw/compost and planting bluebell bulbs. I’m praying for good weather because camping in the rain is NO run. This is also rural camping – we have no loo or showers etc. So strimming a wet field down will be filthy work and if we have nowhere to clean up? Yes – we won’t be happy bunnies!
So, there’s a lot going on in my mind right now. Perhaps that’s why depression’s taking hold – because I’m struggling to organise my thoughts. Still, it’s only one day so roll on tomorrow.
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