M6JDB Garden Diary

It has been long while

2011-01-23T18:50:00.000Z

Hi everyone, sorry it has been such a long while but i think i might finally be back on track !

New house in a rural location, new baby and maybe even regular work ? WOW !

Any how with a view to minimising costs in mind i need to set up my new garden.

I need a good size vegetable plot, some room for my hens and also a few outdoor buildings including a wood store a large shed as well as plenty of cold frames for the early salad crops.

There will be plenty of photographs and laughs along the way as well as detailed costings and building instructions. I may even make a few videos for you tube.

hold tight then and we will try and get things rolling by the end of the week

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

2010-06-20T22:29:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't been around for a while but I have had to move house ! All my efforts in the garden flattened and returned to lawn. All my radio masts, aerials and wires taken down and stored. Had to eat loads of take aways because we hadn't got a cooker.

I am now completely skint from all the moving costs and other associated troubles.

On the upside I am now living a more rural life in a small South Shropshire village

Here's to the good times that will follow and to all the new challenges that come my way.

Give me a few weeks and I will be posting on a regular basis again. We only had the internet connected yesterday.

Thanks to everyone for the e-mails of concern and I will be replying in due course.

Let's have another happy day tomorrow,

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

Still Raining but Making Money

2010-04-05T14:43:00.002+01:00

Well the weather is atrocious and I can't get much done outside. However instead of spending endless hours just surfing the net with nothing particular to do I have been filling out online surveys on SYNOVATE . Not only do you get paid for completing online surveys but you can voice your opinions on subjects that matter to you !
That has got to be better than watching the rain run down the windows !

Just CLICK HERE to join, it is completely free and there is no obligation. I have over £10 this weekend and have also applied to test a few new products and then get paid for the reviews and keep the products !

Good luck everyone and if you find a good paying survey then email me james@m6jdb.co.uk and I will get it filled in.

Thanks in advance for your help.

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

Spring is on HOLD

2010-03-31T22:29:00.003+01:00

I can't believe I planted those seeds 6 weeks ago and they still can't go out. The cabbages are 2 inches high and have true leaves already.
They are all stuck shivering in a very cold, cold frame !
I will take some photographs tomorrow and you will see, I am off to tie everything down before it all gets blown away.

Fingers Crossed for some warmer weather !

If you are worried about the wild birds out in the cold you can always join the RSPB.
Just click on the banner below or down the side. They will thank you for your support.

James Broadhouse ( M6JDB )

First Seed Sowing of the Year

2010-02-20T22:03:00.000Z

I have finally got round to sowing some seeds. It was a bright and sunny day today which brought my mind towards a sharp focus on the summer. I decided it was about time I was getting ready for the new gardening year.

I have already bought some seeds this year and began sorting them out into a time line to see which ones I would plant first.

Some of the Seeds for Planting

I did an entire tray of leeks (24) An entire tray of Carrots ( 24 ) and then some mixed trays.

I also added a few more seeds to the list so at the moment I have currently sown

Leeks, Carrots, Cabbage, Broccoli, Sprouts, Parsnips and Butterhead Lettuce

Some More Seeds to be Sown

I will sow the tomatoes and aubergines tomorrow when I have picked up some more trays with lids on and I can keep them a bit warmer. Aubergines and tomatoes can be a little tricky sometimes and even though they germinate and produce a nice and healthy plant. If they haven't had the best start then they don't always produce much fruit. That is definitely something to be wary of if buying plants in !

Trays of Seeds Waiting to Germinate

I have bagged a couple of the trays and left a couple open. The will be kept in the kitchen which is pretty much the warmest and lightest room in our house.

Lets hope I can get some more seeds in very soon and fingers crossed that these germinate.

Garden Trashed !

2010-01-24T20:26:00.001Z

Well the snow is gone and so are the vegetables, the garden looks in a very sorry state. The season is well and truly over !
However, the hens winter run is now at full size and they are very happy, they have got fresh grass and 5 raised beds full of plant roots and slugs and other lovely things for them to unearth. They have also got the last few stalks of sprouts and some curly kale to be getting on with. The sprouts had gone mushy and we were just plain fed up of the kale ! The girls will make good use of it and the winter greens really do give the egg yolks a fantastic colour.

The Hens Winter Run.

I returned the wood and chicken wire fence panels to their original positions and used some orange plastic fencing and metal road pins to section off the pond and the patio. I used one of my raised bed frames on its end as a make shift gate and so far it all works well. The hens are in front of their summer run for the next 3 months or there abouts depending on the progress of spring. This rests the summer run to stop a build up of parasites and also clears and fertilises the raised beds ready for planting in spring. Everyone is a winner ! A bit untidy but you have to put up with this in a working garden, especially if you want to reap the rewards of sack fulls of fresh vegetables in the summer.

The trashed garden.

I have already started on the spring improvements by replacing 3 fence panels on the left hand side of the garden with trellis. This should allow some extra light into the garden and at the same time increase the air flow around the plants to try and prevent mildew forming on the courgettes etc. I am going to build one long raised bed against the trellis and use it as a support for my peas next year. In turn I can then add another long and wide raised bed to be used for salads. This will give me an extra 32 square feet of growing space over last year so I think it will be well worth the effort.

I am glad I have got the photographs showing last years bounty of crops or I would certainly lose heart looking at the flooded muddy mess every time I walk out of the back door !

The hens in their winter quarters

2010-01-14T19:13:00.003Z

Well another cold and snowy day. The girls are shown in their winter run which incorporates next springs raised beds. They will manure and dig over the beds before being moved over to the winter beds for a few months.

This rotational pattern rests the ground on a regular basis and also fertilises the raised beds for the following season. The hens seem to love it and they live really well on it too. Fresh grass, leftover vegetables, plenty of roots, bugs and slugs to pick up too ! This and their organic layers pellets and even in sub zero temperatures I still get 4 eggs a day ( 6 this morning ).

They will be on the move in a couple of weeks when I have had the last of the sprouts, leeks and curly kale out of the ground. I will then dig over the raised beds they have been living on and top them up with the soil out of last seasons grow bags. The next step is to warm up the raised beds by covering them over with frames that I made out of wood and thick translucent plastic sheeting. This enables me to get at least 2 weeks head start with my transplanted vegetable plants and I often leave the frames in place for a few weeks after to protect the young plants from frost. You can see more photographs of this process on my website and online photograph album www.m6jdb.co.uk .

Better times

2010-01-13T20:26:00.004Z

Well the snow is deep on the ground and the earth is frozen solid. I am sitting down watching the FA Cup match between Liverpool and Reading and thinking about summer in the garden when I found this photograph !
That is me (M6JDB) standing next to my collection of prize winning vegetables at the Codsall Wood Show. What a great day out that was, warm, sunny and 4 prizes to boot !
I grow my vegetables to eat not to show so they were all dug up on the morning of the Codsall Wood Show, washed off with the hose pipe and put on display. Within the next few days everything I had shown, even the prize winners were eaten ! If they had a category for taste I would have won hands down. All my vegetables are grown from seed and fully organic. No pesticides or herbicides and the only fertiliser I use is spent hops from my friends brewery or the finest chicken muck from my organically reared poultry.

Now that is an achievement !

Talking of poultry, the girls are coping very well with the cold snap. I had 7 eggs yesterday and 4 today which is amazing considering the lack of sunlight and sub zero temperatures. I must be out there a dozen times a day when I am not at work making sure they are ok and their water isn't frozen. Anyway their organic layers pellets are getting low as I keep using them to make a warm porridge every morning. They absolutely love it and seem to be doing well enough.
I am trying to hold of seed sowing for as long as possible because once I start I wont stop again until October ! Well that will be a story for another day. The second half is about to start and then I am off to bed.

Goodnight all,

James (M6JDB)

Snow melting

2010-01-12T22:15:00.004Z

Well the snow is melting but the garden is still pretty much covered. The hens have been having their usual daily rations of organic layers pellets supplemented with plenty of boiled vegetable peelings served warm with ground oyster shell. They are still laying around 4 or 5 eggs a day and today I got 7 which is a real triumph with so little sun and very cold temperatures.
Hopefully I will get to spend a couple of hours out there tomorrow and also take some photographs.

Snowy weather continues !

2010-01-09T22:58:00.004Z

Well we had some more snow today and the temperature never got above freezing again !
The hens don't seem to mind too much. My wife gave them there usual rations of organic layers pellets this morning and fresh water as always.
I collected 5 eggs from them today which continues to amaze me in these sub zero conditions ! Their little bodies must be working so hard to maintain body temperature and still produce eggs at an average rate of one every other day !
All the greens ( curly kale, sprouts and leeks ) in the garden are frozen solid so the birds had some bread and corn later on in the afternoon.
It looks like it will be a while before I can start to implement my new plans outside but fingers crossed i can get on with sowing some seeds indoors.
I will have a look through my seed box tomorrow and see if i can start a few things off !

Armchair gardening

2010-01-08T18:47:00.003Z

Well everywhere is frozen solid and not much can be done outside.
The girls are coping well with the snow and are happy scratching round for corn and other tasty treats in the drifts.
They have had their usual rations of organic layers pellets and some boiled organic vegetable peelings and fresh water twice today !

This weather is great for making plans for next year, I have decided to move a couple of my raised beds around and incorporate an 8ft x 8ft greenhouse. I think this will be a great addition to the garden and really help me achieve better results in by extending my growing season and enabling me to grow a wider variety of fruit and vegetables.
I also think I will try the old Victorian hot bed method down one side of the greenhouse and traditional staging down the other. The hot beds should enable me to start a month early with the salad leaves and maybe even the tomatoes and cucumbers.
The traditional staging will give me 16ft of shelves to fill with seedlings and the like and therefore I will be able to crack the elusive continuity aspect of vegetable gardening.
I have already replaced some fence panels with heavy duty trellis panels which will allow a bit more light and air into the garden and at the same time provide an excellent support for my raspberry canes. I might even try and cover a couple of the panels with heavy duty netting and try the peas up it. Well I am going to sit back and relax with my book. Pippa greenwood's Gardening year, have a mug of tea and plan a few more changes.

Hope you are all planning for the new season too.

Good luck,

James (M6JDB)

What a result, grow your own revolution printed in the Guardian

2010-01-07T11:29:00.001Z

I saw this today and it is the same sort of thing I am trying to set up right here in WOLVERHAMPTON !

The government plans to launch a "grow your own" revolution by encouraging people to set up temporary allotments or community gardens on land awaiting development or other permanent use.

It aims to develop a "meanwhile" lease to formalise such arrangements between landowners and voluntary groups and is considering establishing a "land bank" to broker better links and ensure plots are not left idle.

Ministers believe the move could foster community spirit and skills as well as improve physical and mental health.

Hilary Benn, the environment and food secretary, will announce the plans tomorrow as a part of a long-awaited and much-trailed package to ensure Britain grows more food, wastes less, reduces its dependence on imports, and leads the way in reforming the EU's common agricultural and fishing policies.

About one in three people in the UK grows fruit and vegetables, according to a survey commissioned by Benn's department. Ministers hope the voluntary sector can help build on examples such as that set by the National Trust, which hopes to have established 1,000 allotment plots on restored kitchen gardens, agricultural land and vacant spaces, in its varied property portfolio by 2012.

The cross-departmental policy report, Food 2030, will also support further farmers' and community markets to boost consumption of local produce.

But, compared with the government's own sustainable development commission, the report appears more cautious about changing agriculture, by, for instance, encouraging less reliance on intensive meat and dairy production.

The Food 2030 report will acknowledge that livestock production is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions but say that the evidence that would allow consumers to decide whether or not to cut the environmental footprint of their diet, is still unclear. "Not all types of meat have the same impacts, neither do all systems of production," it will state, while adding that livestock farming could be the only economically productive activity possible in some hilly areas.

In a forward to the report Gordon Brown speaks of the need to ensure the £80bn-a-year food industry thrives, but adds: "We can't carry on just as we are. We need to produce more food without damaging the natural resources – air, soil, water and marine resources, biodiversity and climate – that we all depend on. We need to feed more people globally, many of whom want, or need to eat, a better diet."

Emma Hockridge, policy manager of the Soil Association, said: " Consumers are feeling increasingly confused by the proliferation of diet-related advice doled out by government departments. The debate about meat encapsulates this. Whilst it is right that we need to eat less meat overall to achieve sustainable food production, red meat, as long as it is from grass-fed livestock, has a critical role to play in minimising carbon emissions from farming. This is because grasslands for grazing represent vitally important carbon stores.

"The government makes an excellent suggestion that publicly owned land should be converted to growing spaces. The Soil Association-led Food for Life Partnership (FFLP) is already leading the way by encouraging schools to grow their own food. FFLP gives communities access to seasonal, local and organic food, and to the skills they need to cook and grow fresh food for themselves. This also encourages people to make the link between their food choices and the impact on their health and that of the planet."

The campaign group Sustain said the report recommended only "soft" measures, such as wasting less food, and avoided tough issues, such as reducing children's consumption of junk food by, for example, properly protecting youngsters from marketing.

Jeanette Longfield, co-ordinator of Sustain, said: "The government's food vision is hardly worthy of the name. The document proposes a series of minor tweaks to our fundamentally unsustainable food system and ignores obvious ideas to help British farmers, like improving the food that government itself buys.

"What we need is an ambitious programme of investment in British farming so that it can produce healthy and sustainable food. If the government is serious about making our food system sustainable, it must put its money where its mouth is and only spend taxpayers' money on good-quality and sustainable food. What we have got is more of the same policies that have caused the food system's current problems."

Got something done at last !

2010-01-06T15:12:00.008Z

The garden looks great !

Well I still feel really rough and didn't sleep very well last night and didn't even get up until 11 this morning !

Anyway, I made some vegetable soup for lunch, had a couple of bowls with some crusty bread and went out to the garden.

I think the garden looks great in the snow, its like a great big blanket hiding everyhing away underneath it ! My wife went out this morning and washed and replenished the feeder and drinker. I boiled up the peelings from the vegetables and they wolfed those down !

I cleaned the house out, a really good deep clean and dis infeccted all the surfaces and filled it back up with fresh wood shavings and clean sterilised straw in the nest boxes.

I feel a lot better after a couple of hours outside, cold and wet but its nice to get some fresh air in my lungs and i also feel some satisfaction of a job well done.

lots of snow !

2010-01-05T20:11:00.002Z

Well we had plenty of snow today and the girls loved it !
They had there usual organic layers pellets and some corn and fresh water. As an extra treat though they also had some boiled up carrots and parsnipis.
They absolutely loved them !
4 eggs today too !

Not very well

2010-01-04T19:49:00.001Z

Not very well again today so only really fed the girls their organic layers pellets and a couple of hand fulls of corn. They had fresh water and grit as usual and rewarded me with 6 good sized eggs again !
That organic feed must be doing the business because they don't have any artificial light or heat and still lay eggs even when its below freezing for days on end !

Thats a picture of rusty lee !

Not much done.

2010-01-03T20:49:00.001Z

The girls had there usual organic layers pellets, a couple of cups of corn to eat and fresh straw in the next box. Fresh water too.
I had a quick check on the sprouts and that was it really.
Got a stinker of a cold so hopefully do some work out there when it has passed.
At least I can read some of the new gardening books I got for Christmas.

On the plus side we had 6 good sized eggs again today !

Quiet day.

2010-01-02T23:44:00.001Z

Quiet day in the garden. Fed the grls there usual diet of organic layers pellets and green vegatables. They had fresh water and a hand full of organic corn.
6 eggs today though which is very good !

Today i ................

2010-01-01T17:18:00.000Z

Fed the 8 hens there organic layers pellets and a hand full of organic corn mix. They also had half a raw savoy cabbage left over from yesterday.
There water was frozen solid so i cleaned both the feeder and the drinker before feeding putting them back out.
I have hung the feeder and drinker up off the floor so that they don't get so muddy.
Got six eggs today so i am very pleased with that being as it has been so cold and dull lately.
Still got 6 stalks of sprouts left and some curly kale and about 5 leeks.

Day one !

2010-01-01T14:45:00.000Z

Happy new year and welcome to my online garden diary.

I aim to update this on a daily basis and report all the jobs i do in my garden. The everyday boring and mundane things from feeding the chickens and checking on the sprouts to the exciting things like building a new raised bed or harvesting the first salad leaves of the year.
I hope this will be of interest to other gardeners and poultry keepers alike and i will try and include some pictures where possible.
Have a look at the pictures i have already posted at www.m6jdb.co.uk.
I also have a couple of other blogs running, my online food diary and my online amateur radio diary.
Please have a look and feel free to leave comments.

Thanks

James