My lovely new pets.................

I have got some new pets.  

No not this one - although he is a cutie and has just fed his leftover lunch to the chooks.

Of course being an old woman, I do need a hand now and again, and one little boy was just delighted to help me build a house.

Then add a block of coir which was soaked for a few hours before you put it in and fluff it all up.

Then you add some dendrobeana - wormery worms

O.K. - a few more then.

That should be enough!

Sprinkle on some worm food cereal to make them feel at home

They love to be kept in the dark and damp, so empty your paper shredder

Soak the paper so that it is nice and damp and spread it out.

Spread it out to cover the coir and food - the worms will eat it all up and make super compost.

There is even a tap so that you can bottle up your worm tea - it's a great liquid fertiliser

And there you have it - it's child's play.

So much so that I bought one for my grandson to take home to put in his garden too!

Well it's the least I could do after he showed me how to make mine.

If you don't have a little helper, you can watch the video and see all the details here

And the best bit is - they are made in Britain and give the best service ever!

Where or where has she gone?

Zola did a disappearing act again. It's not possible to keep your 'eye' on all eleven bantams all at once and they disappear in all directions around the garden,

First thing in the morning they all charge out - and last thing at night they all congregate ready for their evening meal - and we see them during the day too of course.

Zola stopped turning up in the evening for her night time meal - but would appear in the morning before we got up. The egg count went down - so it meant that she had 'gone native' again and was hiding someone laying her eggs and sitting on them.

I hunted in all the usual places but couldn't find her. Under the hedges, and pots, in sneaky hideaway places like behind the compost bins - without any luck.

Then yesterday, after spying on her having her breakfast - she sneakily looked around to see if anyone was looking, then jumped up on the wall and disappeared!

I kept meaning to clear out this corner - and now was the time to do it!

I pulled away all the compost sacks and weeding bags

Then I got down to the stacked garden tools (we are awaiting help to put up a shed). Nothing could possibly get into this corner - there's a tray and an empty cage.

Or could it?

She was hard to see with the naked eye - but by enlarging the photo I could just make her out underneathe the cage!

How she managed to get through all those bags and sacks and squeeze herself under there I do not know!

Once I had carefully removed gardening shears, spades, forks, brooms, bags, sacks, and finally the cage she was exposed - and not best pleased I can tell you. She pecked me like a demon - but as she is so little her pecks did not hurt in the slightest!

She was sitting on 9 eggs!

I did the float test - they all sank, so were all fresh - the result of going awol for ten days!

We had them for lunch with potato wedges - yes we are still eating the spuds I grew last year - and they were delicious!

I had a really good sort out under there and found another egg behind the big metal chest - it had been there for so long that is was as light as a feather! So it was composted.

Zola has decided not to bother going broody now that I have found her hiding place, bless her, and she is much happier for it too!

Oh, talking about composting, I must make the time to tell you about my new pets

Allotment Diary Me:15hrs He:15hrs

Today was a cold dull day - just perfect for working up the allotment

I went over this area that I have previously rotorvated, using my little Mantis Tiller

Then dug out trenches with my (Azada which you can see below)

Each trench was filled with a well rotted mix of pig and horse manure, and I planted my first early potatoes - Rocket, which were covered with yet more manure before being earthed up.

 Only one bag of these this year, as I am having to cut down on the workload, not got the power or energy of a  youngster any more!  Still there are 35 potatoes which will produce and very healthy plot and certainly feed us during the summer

Oh dear looking at the rows this way, they do look a  bit sinister don't they!

No sign of any broad beans on the left yet.

Still, again using my little Mantis to turn the soil into a nice tilth, I created some pathways between the blocks of broad bean rows.

Then I planted two blocks of onions - Stuttgart and Sturon

I might get some red onion sets too - lots of space to fill

Mr Lottie worked hard on sorting out where the winter bonfires have been

I just need to rake this all over, rotorvate it and get it ready for the rest of the potatoes

I think the only thing that gets him up the allotment is the thought of having a bonfire!

Confined to barracks!

  

Mr Lottie was playing golf a couple of mornings last week, so I took the opportunity to do a spot of garden maintenance

 

The woodland borders needed weeding, and plants needed thinning

 

And there was a lot of cutting back of dead foliage and collection of leaves to be done.

 

As usual the chooks were great company, getting under my feet - and almost under the fork.

There is a least one chook in every photo, but they camouflage so easily it's hard to spot them.

 

As fast as I was digging over the beds etc, and sweeping up the debris off the grass, the lovely little tinkers were going crazy at the abundance of disturbed insects etc and in their manic scratching of the damp soil they were throwing it back onto the lawn

 

So as a temporary measure, I put down the thick 'lumps' of wood - ex dismantled pergola to keep the soil where it should be. 

Bluebell and Daisy are doing their innocent 'not me' act!

 They are such wonderful company 'talking' away to each other and to me when I talk to them!

Mind you, it does delay me, as I just have to stop to look.

I am working my way around the garden - next job the salad bed needs seeing too.

The chickens are confined to barracks now - only three more days to go - it's just whilst they are  on their worming medicated meals - a precautionary measure when you keep chickens - to ensure that they stay happy and healthy and haven't picked up any parasites from wild birds.  They are so used to freeranging from morning until dusk, they do complain bitterly if they happen to see us!  They have a big roomy run, so are not deprived - but try telling them that!

Allotment Diary Me:11.5hrs He:11.5hrs

Well it looks like it's going to be another weekend like last - bright and sunny today and rain forecast for tomorrow.

For those new to my blog, these posts are just really for my own reference so that I can keep a record on how many hours I work up the allotment each year, where I plant the different crops, and just to see it evolving really.

So we made the most of today........

I spent all my time up the allotment putting wire through the top of chicken wire fencing to make it tight across the top and adding a few more posts.

I rotovated this bed, and raked off the stones and any grass or weeds I pulled up.

A back breaking task.

Mr Lottie helped me lay the rubber paths - it makes it easier to manage the plot and deters the rabbits from digging under.

I'll be making a gate for this too and getting rid of the temporary metal one.

It also gives me an easy and moveable path in the other bed too  - and less weeding!

In the fruit cage it was lovely to see that the leaves are opening on the  bushes

The sure sign of a healthy gooseberry bush is the lichen growing on the stems.

No sign of the broad beans  yet.  The next job I want to do up here is to take down the fence that separates this plot from the new one I have fenced off, and remove the makeshift 'gate'

We laid a rubber path all the way along this side of the plot right down past the fruit cage to our gate into our huge allotment area.

My lucky neighbour on the left get's his son, who works on a farm to come and plough up his plot every year.  In one fell swoop, all the weeds, and rubbish disappear - magic!

Mr Lottie filled up two trugs and half filled 6 sacks of well rotted horse manure for me to bring home -it's brilliant for potting up, and saves me a fortune.

I get by with a little help from my friends

It's nice to have some help in the garden with the weeding isn't it

Yes Dolly - I said it's nice to have some help in the garden - stop watchine what I am doing and get on with it!

That's it girls, get all those sprouting seedlings, after all they are the bits of corn you missed in your run!

Thanks for keeping an eye on them Snowy

They'll have it finished in no time!

Next we'll tackle a bit more of the garden

Didn't we have a luverly time the day we went to Cromer!

Well the sun was out on Sunday and as we had worked so hard up the allotment on Friday and Saturday, we decided to treat our old  bones to a rest and spend time at Cromer.

An hour after leaving home, it decided to rain!

Still, it didn't stop us walking along the sea front, getting windswept and soaking wet; it certainly blew the cobwebs away!

I love to see the waves crashing on the shore and all the different colour shades of a wild sea.

A lot of the properties are being renovated along the higher promenade, and are looking really nice  - what wonderful views they have!

Rather windswept and damp  - I was asking my husband to get a photo of a boat out at sea! 

As you can see, he took a rather unflattering photo of me!  It was a waste of time blow-drying my hair before we set out wasn't it - it didn't take long for it to be flat and plastered to my head!

We were walking off a rather large lunch of fabulous fish and chips at our favourite fish restaurant, and the high promenade offered protection from the worst of the rain belatedly