I want to break free!

| 14th August 2010

***STOP PRESS***

Ascot and Butternut are released!

Our two broodies celebrated their new-found freedom with a lovely bath… in the dust!

Check out previous blog posts to catch up, but it took a while for us to suss out the rules of the Naughty Cage…

In the end, it needed to be three days & three nights locked into a cage with a wire floor raised on bricks allowing a good airflow to their ‘under carriages’. We were concerned that leaving the cage out in the run would leave them vulnerable to foxes at night, so we ended up moving the cage (& bricks) into the shed – but once they’d done their time, all was sorted! They haven’t been back in the nesting box since, Butternut has started moulting (everywhere!) and we are expecting eggs from them both soon…

We’re breaking free!

Another scene of freedom at Hen Corner are the tomatoes in the cold frame – literally bursting out of their beds!

Since we’ve been using the  watering system, we’ve seen a response of abundance from all the plants. Very soon we’ll be enjoying the fruits, and vegetables, of our labour. In particular, we are looking forward to making batches of tomato & courgette pasta sauce… watch this space for the recipe!

A Pair and a Pear

Elsewhere in the garden we are patiently watching the orchard fruits forming.

To the left you can see a nice pair of eating apples, ready for crunching, juicing or cider. To the right you can see just a nice pear! We are really pleased to have fruit on the pear tree this year as it has previously suffered from Pear Leaf Rust, but we’ve treated all the orchard trees with both Nemasys Codling Moth Killer to reduce the ‘maggots’ and then Winter Tree Wash to sort out the rust and any other general problems. As you can see above – so far, so good!

And finally

We were very pleased last week to have been recognised as Omlet Course Host of the Month which generated a lot of interest all round and many visitors to our blog… we hope you like it and thanks for your support!

Jobs for next week:

Pruning back the spent soft fruit canes

Collecting the windfall apples and store for cider

Replacing the glass in the cold frames

Have a good week and don’t forget to water….

Corners are not just for squares!

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