Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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June 2008 June 21, 2008 Houdini Last night friends Andy and Debbie came round for a glass of wine, and for Andy to show us how to clip the chickens' wings. Our white bird, Holly, has started flying over the fence and we have had to keep retrieving her from the garden. We have been worried that she'll wander down the meadow and come to the same fate as her sister, Snowy (she was taken by the fox last month). Andy showed us how to trim the hens' wings using scissors. You have to avoid the area where the feather shaft thickens, as if you cut into this it can make them bleed - no more than 6cm of feather should be removed, and only the primary feathers (the very long ones) should be cut, as the other feathers provide insulation. Only one wing is cut - the idea is that it unbalances them when they try to fly, so they can't get any height. It was just like giving them a haircut, really - they were completely unperturbed by the experience. It was a lovely evening, so we went for a walk in the meadows. There is a large ash tree at the bottom of the second field and we wanted to see if it was a Great Tree of Derbyshire, so Rich and Andy got the tape measure out to measure around its trunk. It measured 4.7m, making it a veteran tree - our second at Hackney Leys. The four kids had a great time rolling around in the long grass and wild flowers. Then Debbie and I spotted some unusual plants growing in the bottom field. On closer inspection we discovered that they were dozens of wild raspberry plants, all in flower and soon to be in fruit. I was very pleased! We got back to the house at about half past nine - well past the chickens' bedtime. I went to let them into the hen house, which is in the field outside the orchard fence. Bramble and Rosie were still scratching about in the orchard, but Holly was nowhere to be seen. After a scout around the garden I eventually found her, asleep on her perch in the henhouse. She had obviously decided it was time for bed, and had somehow escaped from the orchard. So much for the wing-clipping! June 16, 2008 Spuds!
Dug up the first potatoes today. It was very exciting to find the spuds in the soil - a bit like digging for treasure. We ate them for lunch, drenched with butter and garnished with fresh mint from the garden - delicious! June 15, 2008 Veggies I'm a little obsessed with the veggie patch at the moment - hence the frequency of posts on the subject. I just can't get over the fact that, when things go right, it is actually producing food for the family. Things aren't always going right, though. The sweetcorn and courgettes that I planted out last week are looking extremely stressed and sad. I'll be surprised if they survive, but I'm keeping them watered just in case they recover, and yesterday the courgettes were given a dose of liquid tomato feed. Other stuff is looking good though: there are already tiny tomatoes growing on some of the tomato plants, and the Kestrel potatoes are flowering, which is a sure sign that they are ready for harvesting. In fact, I may well go out with a fork this afternoon, as I need potatoes for some soup - it seems a bit daft going to Sainsbury's when I can just get them out of the ground! June 9, 2008 Schools We have been busy today, visiting schools to discuss how Little Green Space can help to create different habitats in the schools' grounds, along with environmental education work. First we went to Wessington Primary, where there is already some fabulous environmental work going on. In fact, Wessington have won an award, the McGregor Award, for their outstanding contribution to environmental education. We were able to offer a few suggestions which should help improve the school's habitats even further, and will be going into school in July to do a session on mini-beasts, using the digital video cameras. In the afternoon we had a more hands-on experience at All Saint's Infants in Matlock. We are going to help them create several habitat areas including a butterfly garden. This involved a lot of digging, which in today's heat was hard work! Happily a band of parents were there to help out and we were rewarded with bottles of Evian and strawberry ice-creams. This will be a longer term project, but when it's finished the school's grounds should hold a rich variety of species-supporting habitats - and this will of course create some great educational opportunities for the children at the school. June 8, 2008 Progress The new chicken enclosure is completed, and the chooks seem pretty happy to scratch around in the orchard. I am still nervous about the fox getting them, even in their new, safer home - but luckily the orchard is visible from the house, so I can keep looking out the window to reassure myself! The vegetable garden is progressing nicely. I am harvesting salad leaves about three times a week - this is truly free food as the seeds came free with a magazine. The peas and runner beans are scrambling over the cane wigwams; the potatoes are shooting up; the leeks, onions, shallots and garlic are doing very nicely, as are the parsnips and carrots. In fact, it almost looks as though I know what I am doing. I will need to dig up the purple sprouting broccoli very soon, to make room for sweetcorn and courgettes, but at the moment it's still producing a few shoots, so I may need to wait a while. And I must plant out the pumpkins. Remember the pumpkin patch we dug back in March? That will be the pumpkins' new home. I am quite looking forward to being able to see my bedroom windowsill again. (Must get a greenhouse!) |
