Keeping Chickens

We now have chickens. We got them from the monthly Poultry Mart in Ballykeenan, Co Carlow, as "point of lay pullets". The first batch were murdered by a neighbour's hungry gundog, which tore the chicken wire of their pen to get at them.

We persevered and now have 2 Rhode Island Reds and a white one (Leghorn). After the trauma of having the first batch killed, we have come to regard them as livestock rather than pets. That said, we are fond of them and watching their antics.

To learn how to keep them I got a wartime book off Amazon which is excellent and funny: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keeping-Poultry-Rabbits-Scraps-Handbooks/dp/0141038624/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259319254&sr=1-1

Two hens explore the jungle beneath the "Alder Carr", which is really about 60 alders, planted as part windbreak, part soil drainers. They also "fix" nitrogen in the soil. I keep them lopped to head height so as not to spoil the view (the alders, not the hens).

Raised Vegetable Beds

Main pic: the vegetable beds at end May 2010. Foreground shows spuds under plastic. Far bed is for veg seeds now that temp has risen above 5 degrees. Note chicken-proof screen erected around whole area. The hens are a bit put out that their dust bath has been denied them. They gathered outside, eyeing up the jump over so I added a tripwire to put them off. I made them a small dust bath as compensation.

We have had varying success with raised beds for growing vegetables. By making them 8ft by 4ft with a timber surround, you can easily reach all part without treading the soil down. As you can see from the picture, they are sheltered by a hedge. I also made a coldframe from timber and an old double-glazed window. I removed the window frame as the unit was very heavy. The coldframe allows you to put out seedlings early in the season while protecting them from frost. The nice green area beyond is reclaimed for futher expansion of the veg beds. I planted a "traditional Irish hedge" at the end of the garden. More to follow on this. I also planted around 50 Alders to help dry the site and to create a shelter-belt (wind break). They need lopping each Autumn to keep the height down but have proved very effective in mopping up the wet area of the site.

Update: Jan 2010:

I have now spread all the compost over 2 of the beds prior to torrential rain, hard frost and snow. I will dig it in a bit more when it gets drier & before we plant anything out but the compost should help water retention and texture.

I have 'joined' Grow it Yourself, Ireland in Kilkenny so hope to exchange victories & defeats with other enthusiasts. Here's their website: http://www.giyireland.com/home.php

Future plans: I hope to build my own polytunnel in the green area I cleared in the late summer. It is sheltered by hedges on 2 sides. Here is a good online guide: http://doorgarden.com/10/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house

Good online guides:

Just copy & paste these links into your browser address bar to watch

Excellent YouTube videos from Claire Burgess. Lots of down to earth films to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRMMtOCMAV0&feature=PlayList&p=B07CCD2F921A8F08&index=0&playnext=1

http://www.growyourown.info/index.html
(Although this site isn't great to look at, it has a depth of info when you dig down)

UK Gardener's Almanac - when to plant etc: http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Indexes/index.htm


March 2010 update:
Having barrowed heaps of home-made compost over to the veggie beds, I dug this in back in January. I have covered the beds with heavy-duty polythene. For the new bed I have composted and covered with black plastic to keep in moisture, warm up the bed and suppress weeds disturbed by the digging. Indoors, I'm chitting first early potatoes (Home Guard) which I will be planting through slits in the black polythene. This should help make the soil better for future crops. The spuds won't need earthing up as the polythene keeps the light off them.

Indoor Sowing:
This year I'm trying the toilet roll inner method of indoor sowing. According to my mother, who has been gardening since WW2, You sow into potting compost-filled toilet roll inners then plant out intact when the soil warms up. Stand them in a tray and water from below if they need it. The roots are not disturbed so it suits peas, beans and carrots. The cardboard rots away in the soil. Carol Klein's book on vegetable growing is very good (co-written with the RHS).

Horse Manure:
My old pal, Mim Scala has kindly given me a big bag of well rotted horse manure so I will dig this in before the spuds go in, along with ALDI pelleted fertiliser. With all this preparation, hopefully this year the spuds will come out bigger than they go in!



DIY coldframe made from old double-glazed window unit. Painted white inside with weed membrane at bottom. Works well as intermediate stage between propagator and untamed Irish weather.

Wildlife Pond

I made the pond in early Spring and, by late Summer it was looking very natural. It attracted lots of frogs and frogspawn in the second Spring. Friends gave me pond mud and some plants to kick-start it with pond life. The frogs arrived themselves as it was always a wet site. We have 'wildlife corridors' of unkempt grass leading to the pond but keep a path around it mowed. It is lined with old carpets then butyl to stop leaks. At the deep end it goes down to around four feet. The shallow end allows creatures to clamber out, including the frogs. It naturalised after a couple of weeks and I then added a bag of organic compost which helped the plants to grow and gave it a nice, mysterious darkness. The addition of gnomes made it a great feature for the wildlife-friendly garden. The kids like it and are old enough to clamber out should they fall in. All in all a fantastic project which I love.

I read that the frogs will eat lots of slugs at night so I hope that is happening. The pond is sited near the raised veg beds.

Updates: I have now made a bench beside the pond out of old pallets and it is great to watch the insect life and frogs staring back at me. It is truly wonderful to watch the clouds passing over, reflected in the water with pond skaters waltzing over the surface. Giant water snails have appeared (from the pond plants and mud which I added). Last Spring we counted over 20 adult frogs peering out and we had frog spawn and tadpoles. We could hear them croaking at night - very eerie. Not many of the tadpoles seem to survive though. Not sure what eats them. There is plenty of cover from the weeds so hopefully some make it. We don't have any fish as they eat too many of the residents..

If you decide to build one, even an old sink will quickly become a living pond if you add a couple of pond weeds and some pond water to kick-start it. I had to wait for the kids to get old enough before I dug our one but it's the best feature of the garden...

Here's the RHS Guide: http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/thingstodo/inaweekend/put-in-a-pond.aspx

Frogs Arrive!

3 March 2010. Loads of frogs and spawn appear in pond. Same day as in 1969 back in Hornchurch, Essex.

Trial and Error