Adventures in the life of an English allotment
This morning, the sunshine continued from yesterday with a little more warmth to it. We both headed down keen to finish off the digging and to sort out a few other jobs. As we arrived, I spotted Sarah, Liz and Andy busy on their greenhouse and bumped into Geoff in his coop. It's my favourite... Continue Reading →
Finally, after weeks and months of relentless rain, we have had a couple of dry days back to back. The wind has helped dry the soil surface and the lack of rain has also meant the pools of water have drained away. Upon my arrival, I was fairly certain it would still be way too... Continue Reading →
At work we have been keeping 9 fertile eggs in an incubator - yesterday in the midst of the chaos of coronavirus, we welcomed the arrival of nine wonderfully gorgeous fluffy chicks! When I arrived this morning, there were seven little faces looking at me from the incubator. The first two chicks arrived yesterday to... Continue Reading →
With some hope of a dry few hours, I popped to the allotment this morning to try and clean out the chickens. It's been a job that I have intended to do for the last 4 weeks however, the weather has had other ideas. I arrived on site to find the usual selection of faces... Continue Reading →
As Britain is hit by yet another storm, the allotment lies half flooded with the other half saturated. Any additional rainfall will surely put our plot entirely under water yet again. Forecast is for a month's worth of rain over the next few days - I am seriously considering opening my plot as a boating... Continue Reading →
I dashed down to the allotment this morning to find a miraculous event had occured. Leia laid her first egg. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that she would never lay, only strut around looking pretty. I did spend several minutes considering whether Rey had chosen to lay a different coloured egg... Continue Reading →
We arrived down on site today armed with two enormous bags of chicken food (layers pellets and mixed corn) and a gigantic bag of sawdust. My initial plan was to clean out the chickens today but with a storm looming, I put it off. All the girls were happy to see us and we're clearly... Continue Reading →
Today I dashed down to the allotment in my oldest clothes, ready to tackle the mammoth task of digging out the main coop. Over the last few days, Cliff has been busy spraying the coop with diluted jeyes fluid to kill off any bugs or disease in the coop. This was a temporary fix before... Continue Reading →
And just like that, it begins again! The Allotment Federation's annual seed sale always marks the beginning of the new season - a time to plan in earnest, finish off digging the plot (assuming it isn't flooded) and clear out the shed/greenhouse/coop (delete as appropriate). I love the sale because it's one of the few... Continue Reading →
I received a call from Cliff this afternoon saying that Fizz was looking a bit ropey. She hasn't been herself over the last couple of days but my husband picked her up this morning and she was pottering around the coop when he left. Cliff found her huddled up and put her in the nest... Continue Reading →
Last week I finally got around to sorting out Georgie. She is one of our rescue ex-commercial layers who has developed a weird growth on the sides of her beak. Cliff had a good look and recognised it as an overgrowth. Apparently it can happen quite often but I haven't had any chickens with it... Continue Reading →
Aside from the cold weather, the sun has appeared the last few days, allowing the plot to start to drain. I spent a good deal of time on site today chatting with some of our new plot holders, Tracy and Andy. Everyone was in the clubhouse as I arrived and I even managed a cuddle... Continue Reading →
The last few days have been relatively dry and although there are still puddles, the rest of the plot is drying out. Or so I thought. Avoiding the puddles, I walked across the plot to grab the spade. Much to my horror, two steps in I lost my shoe and had to drag myself out... Continue Reading →
This morning I walked down to the allotment hoping that Holly would be back to her usual self. Unfortunately, she still looked very ropey. Cliff came to lend a hand with giving her a dose of cinder vinegar. As he opened up her beak I spotted some yellowish lumps at the side of her throat.... Continue Reading →
Work has been crazy the last few weeks and I have barely made it down to the allotment, let alone had time to post an update. Now however, this shall be rectified! Over the past few weeks the weather has been horrendous, repeated deluges, high winds and cold snaps so it has been difficult to... Continue Reading →
Over the last couple of weeks the deluge has continued. I have given up hoping the plot will be dry enough to dig over before Christmas. I suspect I will now have to wait until the spring as the next torrent of water is due to arrive shortly. Today we bought six bags of landscaping... Continue Reading →
This week we have been experiencing a deluge. Most of the plots have had puddles, lakes or oceans on them. As usual, our plot was pretty much entirely flooded although Keith's was definitely worse! The water did drain off but it took a few days and just as it was getting dry, we had the... Continue Reading →
The weather has definitely taken a wintery turn over the last few weeks. The leaves have turned yellow and orange and begun to fall. The temperature has dropped significantly and the dark nights have drawn in. Today I went down the allotment with Fiona. We spent several hours cleaning out the coops which were long... Continue Reading →
Sad news when I got down to the allotment this morning - Emily has died. She was a cracking chicken and an incredibly successful broody. The coop won't be the same without her. Geoff has done a stirling job of looking after her since she left her chicks. By my reckoning she must have been... Continue Reading →
This morning, free from the shackles of work, I walked happily down to the allotment. There were several people down at the clubhouse already so I joined Cliff, Coco, Steve, Chris and Mick the Greek for a while. I topped up Leia and Rey's food and water before hitting on a temporary solution to the... Continue Reading →
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