Life on Nelson Road

The Nelson Road chicken flock increases in number......

2009-05-27T22:24:00.005+01:00

I wanted you to meet the new girls!

They came from a breeder in Dorset and picked them up while I was down there last friday.

I have 3 little Pekins (Millefleur, Mottled and a Blue) and a Partridge Silkie.

They are about 8 weeks old- and are all girls- however im a little suspicious of the Mottled Pekins comb- it looks a little large for my liking but ive got my fingers crossed as its a long way to go to take her/him back!

Because they are still young they are staying inside at night for the next weeks or so before going out permanently- and intergrated hopefully with the rest of the girls later in the summer.

We have decided the names of the new girls are:

Storm- the Blue Pekin
Twiggy- the Mottled Pekin
Fleur- the Millfleur Pekin
and Dodo the Partridge Silkie

Me trying to make friends with a Pekin Cockeral at the farm!

Could you give a chicken a new home?

2009-05-13T10:00:00.005+01:00

Hey everyone,

I don't know if you all know but I recently started keeping chickens in my back garden, and havent regretted it- as they are great fun!

However I have just received the email below and wanted to spread the word to see if I could help save some battery hens from slaughter- perhaps you or someone you know might be able to help by giving them a new home.

If you think you might know someone just forward this and the email below on to them- any questions just ask!

Thanks
Owen :)

>> Hello lovely people,I needed to get your attention - and quick!!

Little Hen Rescue are about to attempt the unbelievable.......by trying to rehome 10,000 hens in less than 2 months....

Yes, 10,000 hens in 2 months.....

As some of you may know, we have been working hard to empty a Norfolk battery farm for the last 9 months or so.

The girls in these barns have been in quite a frightful state and we have given thousands of them the chance of a new life.

However, this farm is now closing and going into something different (not livestock) BUT there is approximately 10,000 girls left in there. The farmer has the slaughterman booked for the 29th June. Any girls not rescued by then will go to slaughter, with no if's or buts and no second chances.

So.........Here's your opportunity to help!

Please you lovely lot, this is your chance to help rehome some of these beautiful girls. I really do believe that we can pull together and get these girls out.

Little Hen Rescue

littlehenrescue@googlemail.com

More info here:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090508/tuk-wanted-homes-for-10-000-scraggly-hen-45dbed5.html

If anyone can take some hens and find them safe homes, please get in contact with Little Hen Rescue.

http://littlehenrescue.co.uk/default.aspx

(NB Try ebay for a cheap hen coop)

Hens cost next to nothing to feed, provide you with entertainment and fresh eggs!

Thanks

Owen

Let the sunshine in!

2009-05-03T21:13:00.008+01:00

You can see in the above photo the newest leaves on the Tetrapanex Rex unfurling- the reason why the sun is shining so nicely through them is that I have cut down some of the branches of the Sycamore tree that you can see behind it.

The tree is on our boundary on the south side of the plot so casts quite a lot of shade at the back of the garden. The branch actually was about 20ft tall! So when it fell there was a real danger of it it flattening alot of plants in my garden! Luckily while i was on next doors shed roof sawing the branch P was down in the garden to catch the huge branch!

Luckily the branch fell slowly and a Bamboo and Arundo donex took the brunt of the branch.

Now something i didnt see happening after the cutting down the branch was that along with the branch fell literally thousands of Greenfly that covered all the plants and pots below in the garden- however the chickens got a welcome snack of greenfly from the pots- and despite the insects small size the hens were easily able to pick them from the pots.

The mini greenhouse is full of baby vegetables ready for being planted out on the allotment in a few weeks time.

The Persicaria Red Dragon has been moved from the sunny border into the shade and seems to be doing well so far- also in this photo is the Mouse plant, Astillboides tabularis, Bugle and a Schleffera impressa.

The Maiden Hair Spleenwort has pushed up its new leaves- and really glad i chose to plant it up in a pot rather than plant it out. Hopefully it will fill out much more over the summer.

This is one of my Dicksonia antarcticas- this is a potted plant- and sends up a larger set of fronds than any of my treeferns which have been planted out. It is also grown in full sun- its a lovely plant.

The Cyathea cooperii I got from Fibrex has been potted up- and become the central plant in the garden. You can also see to the left of the fern in the blue pot the flowers of the Sarracenia flava var Maxima.

Here is the large Aloe I bought from CGF, and also the Purple Aeonium, Echeveria and Agave attenuata from the plant swap. Now when i bought the Aloe it had a label but its disappeared since getting it home- any ideas what type it is?

The beautiful Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' I got from Fibrex nursery. Trying to decide whether to grow it in a pot or plant it in the fern bed under the Dicksonia antarctica. Im thinking it might be a bit dry in the fern bed.

These Asarum europaeum will be planted out in the shade borders. Ive been looking for the plants for ages after seeing them in the Natural History museum wildlife garden! I love the shiny evergreen leaves.

Bath day!

2009-05-03T20:28:00.005+01:00

It was a gloriously hot day on saturday so I decided it was time to give the cats their annual bath with some anti flea shampoo.

Now im sure many of you dont wash your cats at all- but Cleo recently has developed abit of a pong! So we decided it was time to get her a bath!

The cats obviously dont like having baths- and this is the first time India has been washed and as soon as they realise the bathroom door was shut they put up with it fairly well!

And they come out smelly all nice and get dried down with a towel.

The cats both got a cat treat too for being well behave -well Cleo was well behaved im sure India was muttering dark thoughts to herself when she went off to sit in the sun to dry off.

Cat vs Mouse at 2am :(

2009-05-01T10:37:00.007+01:00

So its 2am this morning and it sounds like someone is having a rugby match in the kitchen - that means only 1 thing- the cats have got a mouse. I get out of bed and find that the mouse is still alive but India has it in her mouth and wont let it go- and she is growling to the world in general!

Normally she would run out the cat flap when she sees me coming (as I'm a spoil sport and always take the mouse off her) but as the cat flap is set to in-only (as its fox cub season) she cant escape- I then proceed to wrestle with the cat trying to prise open her mouth and let the mouse go- the mouse decides its time to try to make a break for it and starts trying to bite me and India - probably scared out of its life! So eventually I get her let the mouse go and take it up the garden and let it go under a bush- I didn't give it much odds on surviving tho.

So now I have completely woken up, I leave a grumpy cat in the kitchen and head back to bed. I know I cant stop her hunting- and so I keep them in at night, but now she had the mouse I just didn't want it running behind the fridge and dying! Or a repeat of when I walked out of the bedroom and stepped on a dead mouse bare foot- eeuuuuggghhhhh!!

Now living with Siamese cats- you get uses to them making noises 24/7 but for the sheer variety of noises India wins the prize- she chatters at the birds in the trees through the window, yaps back at you like a naughty child when you tell her off for scratching the sofa or trying to climb up onto the shelf in the lounge by balancing on the tv) and mews at you to get attention. India was the cat that we really didn't intend to get, but our neighbours cat had kittens and we honestly only went to help our friend who wanted to choose a kitten for herself- and then we got caught up in the whole lethal cuteness that kittens seem to posess- so our friend took home Indias brother and sister and India came home with us- how did that happen? The Siamese cats definitely did not approve of this rash decision- and took months for them to settle down- luckily for her India seemed completely oblivious to the death stares she was getting everyday!

When you look at her India looks superficially like a tabby cat but she has good breeding in her family! Her mum is a pedigree Bengal Cat who fell for the charms of the local black Tom cat! So when you actually look at her patterns she has spotted coat rather than stripes as a normal tabby has. She also appears to have got her mums hunting instinct too resulting in 'fun' things like the above happening!

Akamba!!

2009-04-29T22:01:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday I met up with fellow Blogger - Julia (from We're going to need a bigger pot) and we both went to a HTUK forum meet at a brilliant tropical plant nursery in Birmingham called Akamba- Julia had rashly offered me a lift up in her car- but luckily for her she didnt mind my frequent rambling and indeed I think we chattered non stop for about 5 hours there and back!

At Akamba I met up with a lot of friends from around the country who all have a shared interest in growing tropical plants in the UK from the HTUK forum. It was a beautiful day, and was lovely to catch up with many friends who I hadn’t seen for a year or 2! and met many new faces that perhaps I only knew as user name or avatar in cyberspace. I think in all we were at the nursery for 4 hours and I reckon we left early compared with most people!

Can you spot me?- probably not!- there were quite a few of us! We even were given name tags!

Frank and Me engrossed in plant talk

I resisted in buying any plants from Akamba (something not many people managed to do!). However after leaving there was a swap in the car park where people bring their spare plants to give away or swap to others. I was able to get 2 Tetrapanex 'Rex' pups (as mine hasnt pupped yet- one for the sunny side of the garden and one for P's mum), a purple Aeonium, and an Echeveria subrigida.

Frank and Julia

Myself, Julia and Frank decided to go 2 more nurseries on the way home the first was Fibrex- which is a nursery which specialises in Ferns and hold the national collection of Hedera, Pelagonium- and I bought a Cyathea cooperii and some smaller ferns (an Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' and 3 smaller Asplenium scolopendrium muricatum, and once we had our fern fix we headed off to CGF- Cotswold Garden Flowers which has loads (and I mean LOADS!) of gems- i bought an Aloe, a Sanguisorba 'Tanna' for the grass garden, and 2 Asarum europaeum for the shady border.

I will add photos when I can of the visit! I fell in love with a metal crocodile- it was just the price tag that held me back! Thanks to Nick and Lucien for the photos above.

Allotment update!

2009-04-29T21:53:00.007+01:00

I wanted to share with you the very first sneaky glimpse of our new Allotment plot!!

We have been given a definite date of when we can have our allotment- it is ours from the 16th May!

The plot is as you look at the photo- all from the left handside with all the blue forget me nots- down to the shed (yes thats ours too) then along to the right to the old apple tree, and then back up towards us. I think this is half a normal size plot- but should be more than big enough to start with! In fact its bigger than our garden at home!

Really looking forward to it- as our seedling veggies are getting a little large now in the mini greenhouse!

Me and P are both taking a week off work around this time to be able to start the digging!

Next door really kindly offered us his old decking from his garden- which means we don't have to buy the gravel boards we were going to use to create the raised beds- so the front of our house looks like a builders merchant at the moment!

The asparagus crowns we bought a couple of months ago are shooting and some are about 6” tall at the moment- I don't expect much growth from them this year as they are only newly planted- but its very promising!

An End of April Update

2009-04-29T21:04:00.005+01:00

Hey guys,

Im sorry its been nearly 3 weeks since my last post- sorry about that!

Well whats been happening?

Hermione is still broody- I gave up dunking the chicken in the pond to cure her after about 3 days as it didn't seem to be working! And plus the neighbours were giving me funny looks. She gets turfed out of the nest box twice a day to feed and drink. And now just as Hermione might be coming out of it Flo has decided to get broody aswell! But they both like the same nest box so it's a bit of a squeeze in there for them! So that means no one is laying at the moment- we might have to start buying eggs again!

The under planting along the shady borders is almost finished with the addition of more ferns, Geranium phaeum, a saxifrage, Arisaemas, Rodgersias, Astillboides, Astilbe, Persicaria Red Dragon, Lamium, Sweet Woodruff and some Arisarum europaeum.

The tender plants have now been brought up out of the cellar and out from the kitchen and lounge where they spent the winter. Of the plants that spent the winter in the cellar in total darkness- the green Ensete ventricosum looks dead, and sadly my Passion Flower ‘Sunburst’ only bought last year at Hampton Court doesn't look like its made it. But on the plus side the Ensete Maurellii and Montbelliardii seem to be fine are pushing out new leaves already. Another Passion Flower and the variegated Brugmansia are also fine with this period of darkenss and no water!

Above are my new Agave parryii which i bought from a garden centre back in January which had the most extraordinary large collection of agaves and aloes. The larger Agave on the right is Agave macroacantha Blue - which i bought from a nursery in Germany many years ago.

The beds have been mulched with some well rotted manure which has made the garden look very smart and neat with all the fresh foliage coming through. My new Thyme's are now potted up in matching pots to give the bees some food when they all flower.

The Musa basjoo seem to have mostly come through the winter fine even those unprotected- however those left to fend for themselves ive found ive had to cut more off the top of the stems to find new growth- the Musa sikkimensis haven’t done quite so well. The pups are all dead (not surprising as I didn't protect them) and had to cut off 3ft from the main trunk which was protected with fleece.

The tadpoles have hatched and have become fat black wiggly commas in the wildlife pond.

Most of the large plants have begun to sprout including the Robinia, Fig, Albizias- but my Manihot has not sprouted yet- much to my dismay! Fingers crossed it is just late this year! And the Marsh Marigolds are flowering in the pond. Below is a photo of my Schleffera impressa cool hand like new shoots.

The early purple tulips looked fantastic on the front porch but sadly are over now- with some pale pink ones taking their place with some late Muscari. (see top photo)

The cats seem to be enjoying the sunshine anyhow!

A Hedge in a Box!

2009-04-09T12:02:00.009+01:00

So I was up at 6:45 this morning so walk round to my local Post Office depot to pick up my native hedge that I ordered online last week.

It actually arrived yesterday but the postman didn't knock, and when I left for work all I found was the red note on the doormat indicating he had been- how infuriating!! As my bare root trees would now have to sit in the depot for a whole day extra without water- just because the postman didn't knock on the door! I was in!

So I picked up the box about 7 this morning – it was pretty heavy (its times like this i wish i had a car) and took it home to pot up the plants before I headed off to work.

They were very well packaged and no major damage at all to the plants only 1 snapped side branch- even better i dont think i knocked off any buds when unpacking or potting up the plants- which I thought was amazing considering they were all tied together and i manage to knock off my Japanese Acers buds reckless abandon when walking past the pot as im so clumsy! (speaking of Japanese Acers- of my potted plants my autropurpureum on the side of the pond i discovered to my horror is covered in scale insect on its stems and trunk- i must do something baout it this weekend). This hedge is destined to be put up on the allotment- so they would have to be potted up for a few weeks before they can be planted up there. I only had half a bag of compost- so I ended up putting the 33 plants together in 6 pots.

I bought the plants from Danny from Botanica (http://www.botanica.org.uk/), who are based in Suffolk. Was very impressed with the quality of the plants and the customer service received.

So onto the good stuff- what did I get?????

Note the 30 pots of Asparagus to be planted out on the allotment!

Well I figured rather than buy a Hawthorn or Blackthorn based hedge- go for a complete mix of species which should encourage a broader range of wildlife.

So I got:
Field Maple (Acer campestre)
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
Common Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)
Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus)
Spindle Tree (Euonymus europaeus)
Wayfairing Tree (Viburnum lantana)
Dog Rose (Rosa canina)
Field Rose (Rosa arvensis)
Hazel (Corylus avallana)
Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
Wild Pear (Pyrus communis)
Wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis)
Scots Rose (Rosa spinosissima)
Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)
Silver Birch Tree (Betula pendula)
Rowan (Sorbus acuparia)

That's 17 species in total and 2 of each species- I think I will let the birch grow into trees but the rest will be grown in the hedge.

Im trying to decide how high the hedge should be- I think I will let it grow to about 4 feet- this should provide some privacy from neighbouring plots but not too tall to block out the light.

Anyhow- am very pleased so far with the delivery and cant wait to get them planted out! Roll on the 4 day weekend!

Buying a Bumble bee colony

2009-04-08T22:00:00.008+01:00

You may remember I had seen on Jimmys Farm a bee box ready supplied with bumble bees- i loved this idea and wanted to see if I could find a source of these boxes- i got a few responses from my emails.

I discovered however that the species of bee in the boxes you can buy are actually not native species and mainly sold to pollinate greenhouse crops- so should not be released into the wild. Tut tut Mr Doherty!

I got a great response from Dr. Ben Darvill the Bumblebee Conservation Trust Director from the University of Sterling who wrote:

"Sadly the boxes of live bees currently available in the UK for use in commercial greenhouses are a sub-species from abroad. It is a criminal offence to wilfully allow reproductives (new queens and males) to be released into the wild because of the threat they pose to our native bees. In time we may be lucky enough to have a UK supplier of bumblebee colonies, and these would be a valuable interpretive and educational tool. However, a degree of caution is needed, because placing one of these boxes in unsuitable habitat would lead rapidly to a starving bee colony! Step one is to ensure that gardens, parks and the wider countryside are as full as possible with bumblebee-friendly flowers, and advice on this is on our website. Suitable habitat will be naturally occupied by bees, so there really is no need to buy colonies, other than for interest and education."

I got another email from Graham Collins who gave me these links on how to make my own Bumble bee box.

"Bumblebee nest boxes seems to be almost as common as bird boxes. A quick 'Google' for "bumblebee nest box" reveals numerous sites where they are available. They can be quite expensive, and the following links explain more about the principals involved and how to make one yourself -

http://www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk/nest_boxes.htm

http://www.cheshire-bka.co.uk/Articles/BumblebeeNests.php

I don't think you should try to buy active nests (wrong time of year anyway) since as far as I know the only available ones contain foreign strains of bees which are not supposed to be released into the wild (I think they are meant for pollination of glasshouse crops). They are more likely to harm wild populations than help them, and should be banned.

You should find out more about them before getting nests, and I would recommend Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland by Edwards and Jenner, available here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bumblebees-Britain-Ireland-Country-Conservation/dp/0954971302

This will explain the life history and how to attract them to your garden. Also that for all species it is only the queen that survives the winter and new colonies are founded each year. The earliest species are just beginning to emerge at the moment so you should have a month or two to get set up."

Im not quite sure i've got a spare £60 to spend on a book on bumble bees tho!

So i think the best idea to get Bumble bees in my garden would be to get my own bumble bee box and hopefully next year a wild a queen bumblebee will move in.

My dad on the other hand is halfway through his Honey Bee keeping course- he is due to be getting his own hive of Honey Bees in his garden about May time- quite exciting!

Its seed sowing time...

2009-04-08T21:25:00.005+01:00

We were given a free plastic mini greenhouse last weekend (thanks Rachel!)- which meant we could start our new vegetables from seed and baby plants to be put on the allotment (when we eventually get it).

Gosh what didnt we sow seeds for? Leeks, Peas, Courgettes (Yellow and Green), Spring Onions, Cabbage, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Chillis, Onions, Shallots, Jerusalem Artichokes and 30 crowns of Asparagus (not in the photo)

We just need the go ahead on the allotment and we can start planting them out! (We are just waiting for the current plot holders to take all the plants they want from the site!) Now to find the cheapest source of gravel boards to create our raised beds.

RHS Greener Gardening Show - 31st March

2009-04-08T19:57:00.009+01:00

Forgot to put up some photos of the Greener Gardening show here in London.

Its the last RHS show till the autumn now which seems bizarre as spring has hardly even started yet!

My camera was on some wierd mode so some of the photos have a blue tinge to it- but hope you dont mind!

There was supposed to be a green theme to the show, so along with the main display which was a show of how schools can create wildlife habitat in minimum of space by creating a vertical display, there was a bee keepers stand, a froglife stand and a hedgehog stand.

I couldnt believe myself- i didnt buy a single plant! Not one! I am not sure what was going on- I can normally persuade myself to part with cash so easily for plants! I think ive been thinking about my allotment alot recently so i reckon thats why i decided not to buy any normal garden plants. I was tempted by some Lamiums and a Lathyrus species from Hardy's plants but at £6 a pot i decided to give it a miss!

Feeling Broody?

2009-04-06T14:33:00.003+01:00

What would you have seen if you were my neighbour looking out of their window this morning??
Well….

You would have seen me walk out into the garden to the hen house- pick out a chicken from the nest box and then dunk her in the pond then put her back in the house and go back inside.

Call the RSPCA!! He’s mad!!

Well the reason I have done this is because the chicken has gone and got itself broody!

Its Hermione the brown chicken- its very funny to see as she simply wont budge from the nest box and when you go near her she fluffs up and growls at you!

Broodiness is when the hen decides she doesn't want to lay and egg and just leave it for us to eat- but that she wants to incubate it and hatch out some chicks! It can last 3 weeks- it sounds cute but in that time you don't get any more eggs laid, and they are so strong willed about sitting on the eggs they don't leave the nest very often so don't eat or drink as much as they should which could mean their health deteriorates rapidly! Plus on top of that as I don't have a boy her eggs aren’t fertile so will never hatch no matter how long she sits on them!

So ive decided to try to stop her being broody. Some places recommend you put the hen in a small wire cage made of chicken wire event he floor where the hen cant settle as the chicken wire makes it uncomfortable. However this takes up to a week- and ive nowhere to put such a cage if I had one.

I had read on the Omlet forum -the best method is to dunk the chicken in a bucket of cold water a couple of times a day to cool her down as broodiness is accompanied with a rise in body temps. I didn't have a bucket of water to hand this morning so I picked her out of the nest box and dunked her rear end in the pond!!! I felt a bit mean but when I put her back in the house she went straight down to eat! I closed off the door to the house so they cant get back up – so I might find an egg in the run tonight.

Lets hope this works! Think of it a bit like a cold shower to snap her out of it!

Chickens ehh?! Who would have thought the things id have to do!

The only other option is to buy some fertile eggs and let her hatch them! Im not sure the neighbours (or my garden) are ready for more chickens!

Murder on Nelson Road!

2009-04-02T21:34:00.007+01:00

Call the Miss Marple!- a murder has been committed with the purportrator left unknown!

Sorry if you were eating your tea when you read this but this is the second victim in 1 week! My poor goldfish are being picked off one by one! :(

The victim has its head and tail eaten with the body discarded on the gravel just next to the pond.

Any ideas on who decided to have sushi for lunch?

I have 2 cats but they have never shown any interest in the fish before- indeed ive never actually heard of cats catching a fish from a pond. We do have foxes and other cats that come into the garden- my money is on a male tabby cat who we often have to chase out of the garden as he menaces my cats- grrrr!

The murder scene.... (i put the ferns on the wood to the right since discovering the body to hopefully make it harder for anything to get at the fish.)

Breaking News!

2009-03-24T13:53:00.002Z

There is a possibility we may be able to get an allotment this year! Am incredibly excited about this as we try each year to grow veggies in our garden- but I never let P plant them out in the garden as I don't want to give up the space. And they never seem to do very well. (apart form our tomatoes in the hanging basket last year- they were great!) So if we get an allotment we can grow exactly what we want- and pretty much as much as we like!

The only solution was to get an allotment!

Will let you know if we are successful- but allotments are like gold dust around here- but this has been in the pipeline for some years.

Hmm will we be self sufficient in veggies too by the end of the year??- first eggs now veggies and fruit!

Wheres the goat and the bees?!

This could be the start of something beautiful! (and back breaking!)

A weekend by the sea

2009-03-24T11:43:00.006Z

Sorry I haven’t been able to add anything recently, ive been away at the weekend down to visit my parents for mothers day. They live down in Dorset in a cute little village by the sea. Its always nice to go and visit.

The weather was fantastic! Cant believe its only March! The sea was so clear!

My mum loved her Hellebore I gave her- hers havent settled in yet from the move from London and living in pots for a few years! I also help my mum create a new bed- we decided to plant some of the arid plants in an area of gravel round the front of the house. It was crying out really for some tall trees to help break up the wind that whips around the house but I will sneak them in later- this was getting my dad used to the idea of planting up the bed! He seems to want to leave it as gravel in case people want to park on it!

My mum inherited many of my surplus plants – and seems to have potted plants coming out of her ears so she was very glad to get some of them in the ground where they should all look after themselves as they are drought tolerant.

In the bed went Agave Americana, Aloe Striatula, Variegated Phormium cookianum, Trachycarpus takil, Brahea armata, Cordyline australis, a Variegated Yucca glauca, a Euphorbia mellifera and a sweep of Gladiolus byzanntius. The soil under the gravel was incredibly tough hardcore, followed by a 6” layer of clay followed by sandy soil. Not great for the cacti but I dug out the clay and replaced with potting compost and sandy sub soil.

It looks pretty good if I do say so myself! Looking forward to seeing if the Gladiolus survive as these are basically in 2” of soil and gravel! I will probably add some Echinopsis cacti from my garden when im next down, and any other succulents that may do well down there.

Columbia Road

2009-03-15T13:14:00.011Z

I went to Columbia Road Flower Market this morning. My favourite spot in East London!

Its the first time ive been since last summer- and have been looking forward to it- however my bed seemed far to comfy at the hour i intended to wake up- so didnt arrive at the market till 9:30 which meant it was already really busy. But the sun was out and it was good to be out and about so i didnt mind.

You have 2 options really with Columbia road- get there really early (ie 7:30-8am) and get the best bargains and beat the crowds, or go late ie 2pm when the traders are closing up and see if there are any bargains that the stall holders dont want to take home with them. I always opt for the early bird session i cant resist the thought of perhaps missing something 'if only id gone earlier!'

I went looking for some more plants for the different borders and wasnt dissapointed with the choice. However its quite obvious the current trend for exotic plants is still big with palms, orange trees, strelitzia, and treeferns available on most stalls. Primulas and Pansies seemed to be the plants of the moment with most stall holder shouting out deals on these- "6 for a fiver!"

As i'd hoped there would be there were a couple of stalls selling freshly dug up perennials (5 for £5) and bought 3 Echinacea purpurea and 2 Rudbeckia 'Goldsterm'- although after the guy had put them all in a bag i changed one Rudbeckia for another as it only had 2 growth points ("There all the same mate" said the stall holder- err no the're not im not buying an apple here, they may only be £1 each but im not getting a rubbish one just cos you gave it to me!). I walked past the stall later and saw he had Echinacea 'Magnus' next to his E. purpurea and hoped id bought the normal species as 'Magnus' will probably be too tall for the border- never mind though.

I also bought a small Pteris cretica albolineata fern for £1, and then from the bulb stall, hooray i found a plant i thought it was too late in the year to buy as a bulb- Allium spaerocephalon bulbs - 20 for £2 these were just shooting, i know its a little late to be buying these but they were cheap and I hope will catch up soon! these will go in the grass garden.

Then a stall id passed on the way in but decided to come back to it, the guy had a lovely range of plants for sale- i perhaps could have bought more but decided not too today. I got 2 Digitalis ferruginea for the grass garden, Cephalaria gigantea for the butterfly border this is loved by bees, an Angelica with purple leaves (the guy wasnt sure of the species) for the butterfly border, and a large Pteris(?) fern which for the life of me I cant think of its latin or common name (its got a label on the pot but its not the correct name!)- will have to get a photo up to get an id. Its in the large pot on the back left of the group.

Update just got an id for my Fern it is Dryopteris sieboldii its an evergreen Japanese fern. Thanks Steve!

A new Echeveria!

2009-03-15T12:49:00.005Z

On thursday I met up with Chris from the HTUK forum to swap some plants, Chris works in central London so was easy to meet up for a chat and a beer (well i had the beer- Chris had a coke as it was his lunch break).

Id been meaning to meet up with Chris for months as he had a plant for me that id asked about ages ago and never got round to meeting up to swap it.

Its Echeveria rosea a beautiful succulent plant that turns a fiery red colour in winter. And best of all its hardy :)

Mine is only a baby at the moment- but i can look forward! to it turning into this before too long!

Back in the garden noticed that there are some plants you have in the garden that you just dont appreciate how well they look after the winter we have just had- this little Puya i bought from an RHS London Show 2 years ago as a unknown species and has been left unprotected and has shrugged off the cold. Its lovely apple green colour with silvery undersides and reminds me very much of a pineapple top- which is not surprising seeing as Pineapples are Puyas. It is a prickly little plant though- watch out fingers when moving it around!

Lastly we set up an area at the back of the garden for the hens run. This was they can be outside of their pen and scracth around in the soil without eating all my good plants- which they have been attempting to do up till now! I know its looks a mess but i intend to make the pen more pretty and make the sides a bit better with corner supports but the roll of wire and 4 bamboo canes will do for the moment! Its a 3ft fence so I hope the hens wont even think about trying to clear it! The plant in front wrapped up like a mummy is my Musa sikkimensis Red Tiger which has been there 3 years and grown from a 6inch plant to a 15 foot monster! :) The area between the hens run and the front of the border is to be plante dup with all the new ferns that are lined up in the pots on the bed. Anything inside the run is chicken food but the bamboos and Arundo donax and Paulonwnia tree are quite tough so should be ok.

Mushroom Harvest!

2009-03-15T12:36:00.005Z

For Christmas P got a Mushroom growing kit from my mum! (it was my idea really she asked what to get him and it was the first thing that popped into my head!)

I'd seen these for sale before in the garden centres but we have never tried growing them before. Its actually been very easy and its kinda cool too!

Well its taken about 5 weeks down in the cellar(2 weeks longer than it said on the box)- and we only got 5 mushrooms to show for it- but like everyting you grow yourself it always seems to taste so much better and im really pleased with them! 5 mushrooms! What to do with them? We decided to have them in a stir fry for tea. And there are some more growing so hopefully can have some more in a few weeks time.- apparently the mushroom compost can be reused 3 times with each time getting fewer and fewer mushrooms! I think i might stick to buying them if im doing a mushroom risotto it may take some time to get enough!

Sunny day so out in the garden!

2009-03-13T22:10:00.010Z

Today spent the day in the garden, and really had a major tidy up- and i have to say the garden looks 100% better than it did before if i do say so myself! I planted a purple cordyline tat had been living in a pot for about a year, into the sunny bed to replace a Phyllostachys Shangahi 3 bamboo which did not seem to do very well there- probably lack of moisture (ie me watering!).

The photo above shows just part of the view that looks out over the new grass border and onto the butterfly border in front of the palms in the bed behind. The whole bed where the butterfly border will be was dug over and manure added, and 2 yuccas were taken out that didnt deserve their prime position! The Butia palm in the bed in the centre of the photo almost was dug up today as it has never settled in even in 3 years and its new leaves always came out browned- i assumed frost damage but it should easily have coped with the winters we have had. I have given it 1 more year to prove its place as this winter it has put up 2 new leaves but both seem damaged- there is just something that the plant doesnt like about its new home.

The Acacia is in full bloom and looks and smells beautiful! Will have to cut it back after flowering as it is a huge tree already about 20ft tall! And its only been in the ground 2 summers! I wonder if Acacias reshoot from bare branches after being cut back (pollarded) or does there have to be a bud/branch already there? Will have to do some research.

We are up to 4 lots of frogspawn in the wildlife pond! :) I wonder how many more we will get?- its only a small pond! I counted roughly 200 eggs in one lump of spawn. I managed to catch the white goldfish that is in the pond as he would definately look at the tadpoles as lunch! I left the Golden Minnow in the pond as I hope his mouth is fairly small! Although may take him out and put him back once the tadpoles are out of danger in a month or so.

This little plant above is an Orchid. Dendrobium kingianum. Now its only a small plant about 4" tall but has beautiful sprays of pink flowers in spring. This little plant has proved to be prefectly happy outside over winter on my window ledge. I was surprised how well it has coped. It prefers growing in shade and fingers crossed for some flowers soon!

Lastly a photo of Susie having a drink from the wildlife pond. Am getting increasingly twitchy about whether the chooks are going to have free range in the garden for much longer- i guess there is going to be a period in the spring when all the new shoots are emerging that will be particularly prone to chicken attack so will just have to keep a close eye on them when they are out.

Could spring be officially here?

2009-03-12T21:10:00.003Z

For me there is no better sign of spring than the fact there is frogspawn in the ponds! :)

The Common frogs (Rana temporia) have been calling in the ponds outside for about a week now- but today was the first lot of frogspawn of the year. Its also the first lot of frogspawn ive had in the garden since moving in 3 years ago. Best of all it was laid in the wildlife pond i built for them last year! There are however 2 fish in the pond one Golden Minnow and one goldfish. If i want the spawn to survive i must remove the goldfish at least. Im not sure if the minnow could eat tadpoles it has a very small mouth so I hope not. The minnow was introduced to eat the mosquito larvae that are found there.

This is Blechnum tabulare its a beautiful evergreen fern - however the winter temps haven turned a few fronds brown but wont have caused any fatal damage. This will be probably planted in the shady border- its spent the winter so far on top of the wormery however since adding the most recent layer to the wormery its no longer stable enough for such a heavy pot.

Lastly some good news my Yucca rostrata which I had almost given up all hope for looks like it is finally showing signs of recovery. I bought it bare rooted 5 years ago from Germany however it never re-rooted properly and i moved it around a bit and in the process managed to break the roots that had started to grow. The central growing point browned off and died away and I thought uh-oh ive managed to kill it- sure enough it started loosing its crown and thought it really should be chucked as it looked awful!

However instead of chucking it I potted it up about a year ago into a pot and forgot about it- putting off the inevitable. And then about 2 weeks ago I decided to have a closer look at the plant.

There right in the centre a new crown had begun to grow- now it will take many years before it looks halfway decent again but im so chuffed its regrown that im looking forward to nursing it back to being respectable again. Im hoping this means its root system has been established now.

This morning the chooks got a porridge breakfast made with moist layers pellets, chopped tomatoes, grain and some Diatom powder. Yummy! Or at least they thought so! Flo went straight for the tomatoes, Cilla and Susie the grain and Hermione hovered around and waited for the others to finish. I think this is showing how Hermione is now lower down the pecking order than I originally thought- Cilla has certainly starting pushing her way up! Susie crouched for me when I put in the food- ive read that this is a sign the hen is amost ready to lay. Apparently about a week after they start crouching properly you can expect your first egg- lets see if thats true! Watch this space!

A trip to the Market

2009-03-12T19:28:00.006Z

I took these photos when I went to Borough Market last autumn with my sisters. Borough Market is just on the south bank of the River Thames by London Bridge Station. Its open on fridays and saturdays and is a great place to pick up something for dinner!

Its also a great place to go round and try samples of the food on offer- if your hungry you can almost get a free lunch! :) We got some fantastic Apricot Balsamic vinegar there.

You can get all sorts of meat at the market- here is a sample you can see Kangaroo, Kudu, Springbok, Wildebeast, Bison and Zebra. They also sell Crocodile and we had Ostrich burgers for lunch (quite nice actually!)

Autumn mushrooms

London Eye!

2009-03-12T10:43:00.005Z

On Tuesday eve we went on the London Eye!

I have actually been on it twice before but both times were years ago when it first opened and you forget how magical it is to view our city from above!

We went at about 7pm so it was quite dark at this time- perfect as the city scape is lit up from the lights of the buildings.

Please excuse the sharpenss of the photos my camera isnt great at taking long distance shots.

A free day in town

2009-03-12T09:28:00.012Z

So you discover you have a day to yourself- Yippee! Now what to do?

Some people go shopping, others the cinema, a visit to London Zoo? (ooo tempting!) perhaps a walk along the Thames (a very good 2nd choice!)- if im down that way I like to drop into South Kensington and the Natural History Museum.

Now weekends are a crazy time to visit unless its very early in the morning as the families descend! An sometimes there are huge queues to get in. So I try to dip in and out making a visit only last 40mins or so that way you dont get tired, and annoyed at the families getting in the way! I try to go at least 3 times a year. And also in good weather the wildlife garden behind the museum is a beautifully calm place to visit.

I always find there are new things to see, but here are a few of my favourite things:

Fossilised Crinoids (thanks Julia!)- this is a huuuge slab of rock in the main hall with these beautiful flower-like fossilised creatures.

Ichthyosaur

Giant Sloth (Megatherium)

Sabre Toothed Cat

Irish Elk

Madagascan Elephant Bird Egg

Wooly Mammouth Skull

I got my plant buying fix for the month!!

2009-03-08T16:20:00.010Z

Shopping Expedition!

Went to Crews Hill in Enfield today looking for plants for 3 different parts of the garden.

Crews Hill is a great place to visit as on one road (Cattlegate Road) there must be about 15 garden centres and pet stores one after the other- you can spend hours there if you felt like it (and quite often we do!).

So apart from being a great way to spend a sunday (in my opinion! not the other halfs!) we were looking for plants for:

The Shade Bed
The Butterfly Bed
and the Grass/Prairie Bed

Now I have to say even I was surprised at how many plants I bought today- but in my defence most were in the reduced section for £1 or £2- and all the plant I bought were ones I had pre-written down on my list. Well apart from the Eremurus and the Maidenhair Spleenwort(Asplenium trichomanes) but they were just cool plants!

We first stopped at Woldens where I picked up a couple of Achillea 'Credo's which are a pale lemon yellow colour and some Sea thistles (Eryngium planum) for the Grass garden, and a yellow Eremurus and and 3 small pots of Ox-Eye daisies for the Butterfly border. For the shade border I got 4 Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum' ferns, and Maidenhair Spleenwort. And also a double purple Hellebore for my mum for mothers day.

Onto the 2nd nursery Oz Ferns- here we picked up an Oregano and Chives for the butterfly border, and 2 Dryopteris alata and 1 D. affinis ferns. The best buys were some great Stipa tenuissima grasses for £3.50- i bought 6 pots of this. Also some over flowing pots of Bugle for ground cover the shade border (and its flowers are great for insects).

Last visit was to the Gardening Club next door, you have to be a member to go in here- but its well worth the £5 yearly entry. I made a beeline for the reduced plants trolley by the tills and to my delight found a whole trolley full of grasses and ferns reduced to £1 or £2 a pot. Excellent!

So here I decided to splash out and bought loads of them- they were practically giving them away i told myself! The ferns were £2 each- i got 9 more Athyrium otophorum 'Okanum' (i know this is now 12 in total- as id bought 4 earlier! but they are great plants and i want to go for the block planting look), 2 Lady ferns (Athyrium felix-feminia), 3 Athyrium felix-feminia 'Friselliae' (i dont actually really like this fern but didnt realise what it was until i got it home), and 3 Polystichum setiferum (i love this fern!).

The grasses were £1 each and so I got 3 Carex 'Bowles Gold' for the shade border, 3 Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln', and 3 Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' for the grass border.

I also picked up 2 Sedum 'Herbstrude' aka Autumn Joy, and a Yellow Lupin for the butterfly border too.

Most people were looking in our trolley very curiously- to them it probably looked like we had a load of dead plants in our trolley!

Oh plus 3 bags of manure, 2 bunches of tulips, and a big 20kg bag of Chicken Food.

So it hadnt even got to 11:45 yet so I had done very well I reckoned! So we went home (i doubt anything else would have fitted in the car!

Back at home and unpacked we had about 20 mins before it started to rain so we fixed the last 2 pieces of trellis on the fences and let the chickens out for a run around. Herminone got spooked by something and started squawking alot but couldnt see what she was moaning about- i got everyone back inside though when it started pelting down as didnt fancy staying out in the rain to supervise them!

Planning on a relaxing evening in front of the tv and the Natures Greatest Events program- think its the sardines tonight! :)

A day in the garden

2009-03-07T21:03:00.009Z

Spent the day in the garden today- fixing up some more trellis to the top of the fences, and tidying up the garden.

The chickens got a good run around which i know they really enjoy! I dont know what they are actually eating but they are constantly picking at things from the soil and the plants. Ive had to chase them off a few plants like my Digitalis ferruginea and the Gentiana lutea- and im dreading when the hardy orchids come up in! Do chickens eat emerging fern fronds? I guess i will know soon enough.

Cleo seems completely relaxed around the hens, however India still seems to get excited aorund them so im not completely happy to leave them all alone in the garden.

(left to right) Hermione, Susie, Cilla and Cleo the Chocoloate Point Siamese.

I was tidying up some of the pots on the window sill when i noticed the Echeveria agavoides looked like it was sitting strangely in the pot- when i moved it the whole plant came up in my hand- that could only mean one thing- VINE WEEVILS :( I hadnt treated my pots last year with Provado and obviously these grubs have been eating away at the roots all winter. I doubt the plant will recover which is a real shame as its one of the hardier echerverias available.

However I did feel a feel alot better when i fed the grubs to my wiling helpers!

I've been tidying up my carnivorous plant barrel and was pleased to see some flowers beginning to form. The plants remain pretty much evergreen but by the spring the older traps begin to go a bit brown and its easier to cut them off now before the new leaves emerge in the spring- as trying to cut around new leaves always leads to mistakes and i always seem to cut off new leaves by mistake!

Flower buds just emerging on the Sarracenias

The hens are really settling in which is really good to see, Susy and Hermione are happy to feed from my hand but Flo and Cilla are more reserved and prefer to wait back until you scatter food for them. Cilla the Barred Black Rock, who always seemed to be the underdog is beginning to asert herself over Hermione and Flo, through mock threats and runs and some pecking. I know this is normal behaviour with establishing a heirachy but its not nice to see and I hope things settle down soon- it makes it worse as Hermione and Flo just take the pecks and bullying without retaliating which makes it seem worse!

Oh well this is all part of understanding chicken behaviour! Strange creatures!

Oh and lastly my Tree of Life poster came in the post today! You could order it for free as part of the Darwin season on BBC2. Ive stuck it up on my kitchen door! Really pleased with it! :)

Off to Crews Hill tomorrow and hopefully start picking up some plants for the new beds im planning. I need shade lovers, butterfly plants and some grasses for a prairie bed ive decided upon as the new theme for the main bed this year.

Jimmy Doherty- In Darwins Garden!

2009-03-05T22:20:00.003Z

I've just finished watching Jimmy Doherty in his new series on BBC2 about the experiments of Charles Darwin which he used to explain the processes of Evolution- i thought it was a really interesting and a great introduction to the subject.

The piece that caught my eye was the Cat/Mice/Clover/Bumblebee experiment part.

Jimmy appeared to be bringing in for the experiment 6 hives of Bumblebees with wooden hives.

My dad is taking a Bee course at the moment in preparation for getting his own hive of Honey bees later this year- but i thought a Bumblebee hive was a lovely idea. As well as helping a declining species.

I am currently doing some research to see if I can find somewhere that sells hives with a bumblebee colony aswell- as I may have missed my chance to get a empty hive colonised this year by a wild bumblebee queen.

Will let you know if I get any response from my emails.

The Garden

2009-03-05T11:16:00.012Z

I thought i'd show you some photos of the garden - we have been in the house 3 years now- the time has gone so quickly- I cant believe it- the house and the garden was a tip when we moved in and its been fun sorting it out.

Heres a photo of what it looked like when we moved in!

And now some taken last summer 2 years on. Everythingyou see had to be carried through the house as there is no side return- we even had to dismantle our new kitchen to manhandle 30 8ft Karri Wood Sleepers through the house to make the beds!

As you can see I love my tropical plants- we have Hardy Bananas (Musa basjoo and Musa sikkimensis), Treeferns (Dicksonia antartica), Palm trees, Bamboos lots of ponds and a lot of plants in pots!

Ive got a couple of favourite plants one is my Grass tree (Xanthorrhoea glauca) a native of Australia in New South Wales and Queensland, and is hardy over here in the UK.

The other is my Black Tree fern (Cyathea medullaris) again another plant from Australia and New Zealand- but sadly not hardy- I have killed many of these plants- but I keep persevering in the hope that one day I will be able to get a plant with a tall trunk as seen here when I was on holiday in Tresco in the Isles of Scilly! In the mean time ive got my baby plant to grow!

The Sirens Tank

2009-03-04T20:58:00.005Z

At the start of this year id decided it was time to get a larger fish tank. My current tank is actually only about 5 gallons in size, and was home until very recently to a pair of Lesser Sirens (Siren intermedia) and one plucky Zebra Danio.

Sirens are amphibians that look like a cross between and eel and an axolotl. They breathe through gills which are on the sides of their heads, and only have front legs and no back legs. Id never seen them for sale before- so when i saw them for sale back in early 2008 i jumped at them- but they werent to everyones taste in the house!

But i think they were really cool! :)

They eat blood worm and frozen lance fish and seem to locate their food through smell rather than sight. Unfortunately before I realised what was going on I also discovered that they also are caperble of eating Danios. There were originally 4 Danios in the tank aswell however the Sirens obviously decided they looked too much like a snack to them! The one Danio that remained has lived with the fish for about 7 months now and seems to know he is pretty safe with them as often tries to take food from the sirens mouth once they have grabbed it!

I've always wanted to get a larger tank for the lounge with more fish in it- and decided that the Sirens would have to find a new home as I didn't want them to think they could eat all the new fish! So they went to live with a guy who already had a female Siren and was planning to breed them.

Then the chickens got in the way and I decided to put the larger tank on hold for a while until I could save up for the larger tank.

So now Siren-less and with only 1 Danio in the tank I decided to get a few more fish to keep him company, as Danios are naturally schooling fish- I hadn’t bought any more previously as I didn't want them to get eaten. So I went to Crews Hill in Enfield and bought 6 GlowLight Danios, 4 Pencilfish, 3 Otocinclus and 2 Corydoras. These fish all occupy different levels in the tank so do not crowd each other. The Corydoras live on the bottom hunting around the plants and gravel for food. The Ottocinclus feed on algae so spend all their time on the glass walls or on the plants. The Pencil fish are midwater swimmers, and the Danios are Upper Level swimmers.

I also have in the tank 6 Cherry Shrimp- these small invertebrates would be lunch for larger fish but the fish I have are all peaceful and would not consider an adult shrimp as food. They are bright red in colour and also feed on algae like the Otocinclus and any left over food they find. These are beautiful creatures and I have high hopes they will breed in my tank - most shrimp species have a planktonic larval stage where the young just float around in the currents- in an aquariumt hese would soon be sucked intot he filter and killer- but Cherry Shrimps hatch into miniature adults so imediately cling to plants and wont get sucked into the filter. However the little shrimps will have to be quick witted as the fish in the tank will probably consider them as a snack!

New butterfly border for 09

2009-03-04T20:48:00.003Z

As much as I love the tropical plants I grow in my garden- one thing ive been frustrated about is the lack of flowers in the garden- and I mean specifically flowers that attract butterflies and bees. I was always torn when I started the garden between having a wildlife garden or a tropical garden as the 2 don't really go hand in hand- and as you may see my garden is tiny- I believe it is about 15ft by 30 ft with a side alley where I grow my ferns so it was hard to do both.

Unfortunately the tropicals won! But its time for some changes!

The tropical plants I grow are mainly large foliage plants like treeferns, bananas, palms and bamboos and the flowers (if any) are not good nectar providers. Ive tried growing Dahlias or annuals every now and then but they don't flower that well as they aren’t in the sun.

This year ive decided to remove some of the tropical plants that haven’t done so well after this winter on the right hand side of the garden which is in full sun most of the day. Im leaving the taller plants at the back like the Fig tree, the Trachycarpus fortuneii and the Robinia frisia to still give me the height and privacy from the neighbours. However I will probably remove a couple of Yucca which are growing at the front of the border.

This has given me a space about 8ft by 2ft in full sun- great! Now last year if I had this space it would have been filled with Cannas, Gingers, Dahlias and other exciting tropical species but this years im going for the best nectar providers I can find! Now these don't have to be natives- but simply good sources of food for butterflies and bees.

After a search on the internet I came up with this list as some of the star performers to look out for this spring when im at the garden centres- i wonder how many of these i can fit in the bed!

Verbena bonariensis
Agastache
Echinops ritro
Hyssop (H officianalis)
Marjoram/Oregano
Aster (Aster novae-anglicae)
Ox Eye daisy
Sedum spectabile
Coneflower (Echinacea)
Ironweed (Veronia)
Mint (Apple/Spear)
Thistles (Cirsium and Centaurea)
Monarda
Marigolds
Knautia arvenis (Field Scabious)
Hemp agrimony
Greater Knapweed

Carnivorous plants!

2009-03-04T20:20:00.009Z

The winter of 07/08 was a bad one for my Agave bed- it is the main bed in my garden and the one you first see when you come into the garden. In the autumn of 07 i'd dug in a lot of grit to improve the drainage, but this disturbance to the plants roots left them more exposed to the cold so a lot died that winter.

Being disheartened, but also excited by the prospect of trying something new- I decided to move away from the drought tolerant succulent plants in the main bed and grow something wanting completely the opposite- lush leaves and moisture lovers.

I decided to it would be a great place to plant out some of my Carnivorous plants- I love these plants and had been building up a small collection of them. Up till then they had their own bog barrel but this was looking a bit full now so a Carnivorous plant area in the new bed was just what I needed!

My old Carnivorous plant barrel:

Sarracenias have a few basic growing requirements in order to keep them happy:
1) Grown in full sun- bogs are generally devoid of tall vegetation so do not grow in shade.
2) Watered only with Rain water
3) The soil is devoid of nutrients- and prefer a 1:1 mix of Peat Moss:Play Sand

Making the bog garden:

The bed has grown really well this year (to be honest it was stuffed to capacity so it certainly filled out easily) however I found that even the small amount of shading the plants got from some gingers and a fern- caused them to loose a lot of the red colouration I was expecting to see on the leaves- so they just turned a plain green colour instead. I look forward to seeing if I can do better with them this year!

My favourite plant- Sarracenia purpurea purpurea- a beautiful plant and very hardy to the cold!

The frog song "Bom bom bom..."

2009-03-04T19:38:00.009Z

Last night we had some quite heavy rain- which is really relaxing when your trying to get to sleep- but above the rain I heard for the first time this year the frogs calling in the pond outside.

The pond is right by the bedroom window so its really quite easy to hear the frogs when they get going. Unfortunately they seem to prefer the Goldfishes pond over the 3 smaller wildlife ponds which I built specially for the frogs! So as a result we never get any surviving tadpoles.

Our wildlife ponds we have are below:

Last year I dug the newest wildlife pond which is only 3ft by 3ft which was a great hit with the damselflies but the frogs didn't move in- I think if we get any spawn in the goldfish pond I will transfer it over to the wildlife pond so increase the numbers of little frogs in the area.

Our tabby kitten India loves trying to catch the frogs unfortunately- and several times over the summer we have to rescue frogs which have found themselves out of the water and confronted with an over excited tabby kitten! This probably is the reason for the frogs reluctance to move away from the larger and deeper goldfish pond!

We have introduced other amphibians into the garden but it is are harder to see if they are still around. There should be Common Newts and Common Toads in the garden.

I think 4 ponds in a tiny urban garden is more than enough for most people but- i just love them and am wondering where to put number 5!

Meet the girls!

2009-03-04T19:17:00.005Z

Introducing the girls... :)

Suzy- a Light Sussex Bantam- she should lay creamy to light brown eggs.

Hermione- is a Blue Laced Wyandotte Bantam (the brown hen in the photo)- she should lay light to rich brown eggs.

Priscilla (Cilla to her friends)- she is a Barred Plymouth Rock Bantam- she should lay light (or pinkish) to medium brown eggs.

and Flo- she is a White Silkie Bantam- she should lay light coloured eggs.

Now we got Flo the day after the other girls but has settled in easily- we were a bit concerned as introducing new hens to a group is normally tricky but as this was only the day after we got the others it was very easily done with no real squabbling.

I blame Jamie Oliver

2009-03-04T18:09:00.004Z

Its Valentines day and we have just been to Essex to pick up a chicken coop in preparation for getting our chickens next weekend!

Chickens?? I hear you cry!!- where did that crazy idea come from? Its like the Leopard geckos all over again! (remind me to tell you about the geckos another time!)

I know.... it seems like a random thing to do- especially for someone in their mid twenties who lives in suburban London- however its been an idea in the back of our minds for about a year now.

I blame our next door neighbour, Jamie Oliver, and my mum for putting the idea into our heads in the first place.

Our next door neighbour (who keeps bees, and has the allotment) randomly one day said he thought it would be a cool idea if we kept chickens in our garden- we laughed about it at the time - but the idea must have stuck somewhere.

Then Jamie Oliver did his program last summer about battery farmed chickens which from that day I stopped buying cheap chicken, and it made me wonder about chickens welfare.

Then lastly on a visit to my mum and dads down in dorset I was given some freshly laid eggs from her neighbours chickens. I decided to try to incubate these eggs as they were fertile instead of eating them- (they didn't hatch) and it completely started the ball rolling down the chicken route.

So doing some research on what makes a good chicken house- the Eglus or Cubes from Omlet look amazing! However our budget did not stretch that far! So we decided on a wooden house, with fox proof wire, the house off the ground to deter rats, and a covered run would keep the girls dry in wet weather.

Ebay seemed the best place to get a good deal so early Valentines morning saw us driving to Ongar in Essex to pick up our house. It cost us £170.

Putting it together was easy- we have decided to keep the hens on the concrete near the house to prevent any foxes from digging into the run. Also being nearer the house means added safety and ease of access to let them out, feed and close up in the evening.

Now all we need are some chickens!

Choosing the chickens!

2009-03-03T20:30:00.012Z

After a great deal of research on what types of chickens to get- we decided to go to a chicken show to buy our Bantam hens.

Luckily for us the Reading Bantam Chicken Show was being held the week after we had put up our house so we went along to see what we could learn and hopefully buy our hens there as they have a sales area at the show.

We were looking for some specific breeds of Bantam chickens - these are chickens that are normally about 1/3 of the size of a normal chicken- abit like you can get miniature dog. We felt these would be better suited to a smaller urban garden.

The breeds we decided on were chosen for their friendliness and their quietness! Both essential attributes for hens in a suburban garden! Oh and egg laying was a good quality we looked for too!

We were looking for a Light Sussex, a Blue Laced Wyandotte and a Barred Plymouth Rock- however there was no guarantee that any of these breeds would be for sale at the show.

Wow it was an experience- it was very exciting and people took it very seriously! In the sales area to our luck we found one of each type of the hens that we were looking for! However unfortunately these girls were only for sale as a pair (as in you had to buy a Cockeral too!). We definately would not be able to keep a male chicken in our urban garden let alone 3!

We were very dissapointed we could not find single hens for sale- and almost decided not to buy any that day- and look elsewhere, as the sales staff were not very keen to sell the hens separately as can be expected as they would be left with them-so the only other option was to buy both the birds and try to find new homes for the boys! Not an easy task!

Extremely luckily for us I had met a lovely lady at the show earlier who after we explained the situation agreed to take the boys for us and keep them on her farm- where she had loads of chickens- so it worked out perfectly for us. Probelm solved!

These arent the best photos i know sorry! But they were the only ones I took of the girls in their sales pens with their 'boyfriends' that we had to buy but then went to live on a farm! Im sure the boys are having a great time there!

And the lovely lady who took the boys to live with her!

So we have got our chickens! :)

The most satisfying dinner ive had in a long time!

2009-03-03T19:47:00.008Z

We had only had the girls for 1 day and Hermione (the Blue Laced Wyandotte Bantam) laid us our first egg!

We kept it a few days to see if a second followed but when none did we decided it was high time to eat it!

We decided to have Egg on toast and shared it between the two of us- and really enjoyed it! :)

(I just dont want to think how much that egg cost in total!)

First post on the blog

2009-03-03T19:21:00.000Z

Hi there,

This is my first posting on this blog- just wanted to see what my words look like up on the screen! :)

Dont expect too much too soon as im still learning how to use this- but it looked like fun so thought id give it a go!

Thanks!