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On My Oasis – Warm Rain
Warm rain. That’s the feeling I had today as the skies opened and I pottered around the garden. It lacks the bitter iciness of winter’s downpours and is a tell-tale sign spring is here. There’s no scurrying for the greenhouse, unsure whether you’re about to be battered by hailstones or jolted by storms. It’s just a light, warm rain that feeds life to everything around you. And I LOVE it!
A long weekend in the Lakes
This week on my oasis has been rather busy, mainly because we went to the Lake District for a long weekend which meant over 10 hours of driving. Still, I won’t complain because the weather absolutely beautiful, the snow-capped mountains remained and there were fields of tiny newborn lambs bleating away and adding to the orchestra of calling birds. A little closer to home, things are marching on in an extremely quick manner.
More hens?
The poultry yard is complete, giving the hens a safe place to be locked away at night and far more room than the coop allowed. Within the yard they’re free-range; something I’m a little cautious of. There’s no netting or mesh should Mr. Fox appear in the middle of the day. Still, they’re happier rooting around the compost heap, nipping at the weeds and laying eggs all over the place.
The chicks continue to grow apace, and the young ayam cemani has started to crow already. He’s several months earlier than our first ever started to vocalise. I’m taking him to an auction on Sunday so hopefully he can go off to a new home and leave us (and the neighbours) in peace. However, I mentioned more hens!
A week ago we visited Claire on her smallholding in Suffolk. She has a lovely blog – Smallholding Dreams, and I got in touch in the hopes of getting some Naked Neck and Ixworth hatching eggs. Well, seven days in the incubator and we’ve got 7 NN’s and 1 Ixworth developing! I really want to grow more chickens for meat birds. In fact, I’d like to have 25; that’s one home-reared chicken every fortnight. I think that’s very achievable in a garden setting. Both NN and Ixworth are good dual-purpose birds and I’m particularly fond of the latter as they’re a rare breed native to Suffolk; ideal for our smallholding on the eventual Brimwood Farm.
Day 7 and the Naked Neck embryos are developing well.
Veggies Ahoy!
The vegetable growing season has really started now. Onions and broad beans are quickly growing, and I noticed today that the first carrot seedlings are beginning to poke through. There are winter lettuces, kale, pak choi and beetroot seedlings in the greenhouse, and I spent a couple of hours making a new bottle garden. I’m intending on planting lettuces into this; I think it’ll be a good way of keeping them out of reach of slugs and snails.
My first attempt at a bottle garden – great for recycling!
I’ve sown seeds for all our planned crops this year (see this post) but many will need later sowings for succession so I’ll keep the pace up. I’ve also decided to grow some chard too; a U-turn on last year. I’d also simply steamed it before, but it left a bitter taste I could do without. However, Claire had cooked them in a stew and they were delicious!
There are also TWO flowers on the plum tree (ooh, yes, a glut of fruit – not). Seeing as it was a £5.99 plant from poundstretcher, I’m still pretty happy. Seriously, if you want cheap fruit trees, you can find a lot of things in bargain stores. The raised strawberry trough is starting to green into life too; I’m hopeful for a nice harvest this year!
Just two plum flowers – better than nothing!
The Forgotten Ornamentals
From all this home harvesting talk, you might think I’d forgotten ornamentals, but they’re still very much on the cards. In the greenhouse, the bright new leaves of the chocolate cosmos plants are appearing. I’ve brought the dahlias out of storage and potted them up too; just as the first buds have begun to appear. Geums are well on their way to flowering, and I’ve planted two new bee-friendly containers for the front garden (I’ll be revealing what I planted in a post later this week).
Perennial geraniums are appearing.
Lovely new foliage on the heucheras
These simple geums are already flowering
My acer, which very nearly died last year, is unfurling its leaves and the pyracantha plants I’ve put in to create a new anti-burglar hedge are greening up. I need them to put on a lot of growth this year so I’ll be feeding them in a frenzied manner so I can really get as large a hedge in as short a time as possible!
All in all, spring is here and everything in the garden is thriving!
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