Adventures in the life of an English allotment
This morning I walked down to the allotment for my daily escape from the house, armed with two tins of paint and a brush. The sunshine was beautiful and I was certain that the paint would dry quickly without too much trouble. When I arrived, I sorted out the chickens food and water, letting Leia... Continue Reading →
Another glorious day today and I made the most of it by taking my laptop, a drink and a snack down the allotment. I set up the chair as a table and sat in the doorway of the shed on a cushion. The only issue I had was the sun was completely in my eyes... Continue Reading →
We all received an email from the Allotment Federation yesterday detailing all the necessary changes to ensure that allotment sites can remain open. The list is long but boils down to wash hands regularly with soap, communal gathering places to close and stay on your own plot. Reasonable precautions but it's still rather sad that... Continue Reading →
Today was the first day of lockdown due to coronavirus in the UK. No one is to go out except for specific reasons such as medical appointments and once a day for exercise. Fortunately, allotments look to be one of those reasons why you could be outside due to the need to feed chickens. Taking... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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