SUMMER GARDEN PRODUCE

The Hen Eggs

Raspberries

Strawberries

Broad Beans

Potatos and Veg

Now busy reaping a few rewards from the garden & allotment. Last weekend I dug up the rest of the Potatos from the allotment, where we had 6 rows. I washed them and bagged them up to dry. They finished rather earlier this year, but look good though with hardly any slug damage at all. I'm still picking Broad Beans and these will be in the freezer as I pick and pod them all. The runner beans are only jut starting now , but should last into early October I reckon. In the greenhouse the Cucumbers are maturing and the Tomatos still green, but need more sunshine than they have had so far. Not a great year for Tomatos though. But at least most things seem to be doing very well so not a bad year as yet for produce.                                    

SUMMER FINALLY HERE

Arbour Cottage Garden

Clematis on Palm trunk

Surfina Petunia

Rescued Rabbits

Parsley

Patio area

Guinea Pigs & Rabbits

Front Garden Border

Ducks

Front Garden

Front Garden View

Well Summer finally turned up after a very unsettled and miserable spell from March to July 2012.

Though at the time of writing the weather again is still not wall to wall sunshine...it only seems to come in short bursts! then return to rain once again. At least it has benefitted my allotment though, with the Broad Beans and Strawberries in particular doing very well indeed. Though the Fruit Trees are not producing much this year, other than the Apple Trees. No sign of Damsons or Plums as such, which is a shame. Maybe next year they might be hopefully "loaded" with Fruit. On the Pet front , the Ducks have been wading through a lot of mud this year,which suits them i suppose. But it has not been any fun feeding & cleaning them during the rain spells. They are still laying eggs on a daily basis , as are the 4 remaining Hens we have. Eventually we will get a few more rescue Hens from the centre at Coventry. This week i dug up the first two rows of Potatoes on the allotment, which look very good and no slug damage. They finished earlier this year, but again I think the rain was a cause of this. At least the Potatoes are a decent size though. The front garden suffered a bit with the excess rain , but still looks nice I think (photo above) with the pink begonias doing best.  Also the lavenders have been very good and we plan having more of those next year. So all in all, not a bad year on the garden so far, despite extreme bad weather. Just hoping the Winter will not be too severe too.  But first I hope the Autumn will be sunnier than the Summer has been so far!.                                     

Our Home Animal Sanctuary

This is a video of our animals at home, except our Cat "Parsley" who was not around at the time.

All the animals are "rescue" animals, the Hens being from the Hen Trust Rescue centre at Coventry and are ex-battery hens,  The Ducks aquired recently, are from Evesham in the Cotswolds from an animal sanctuary that had to close, due to the land being bought by a property developer, so sadly all their animals had to be found new homes. We also bought 4 Rabbits and 3 Guinea pigs from the same place. We'd already got 2 Rabbits from last year, from the local RSPCA .  Our Cat was also from the RSPCA. So now we have quite a collection of pets. As i write this we have 12 Ducks, including 2 drakes which are a bit rough towards the female ducks.  We get plenty of eggs from the Hens & Ducks of course. There are no plans to add to our  animal population at this point in time!                                                                                                       

Of course having the Ducks meant altering the garden a bit, so the large pond had to go and the surrounding planted areas. But the pond had not much life in it, the frogs had nearly all dissapeared too, though i found a home for the remaining ones. But I still have enough planted area in the garden now, plus the front garden for the bedding plants.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The Allotment in 2011

This was our allotment in 2011 , where we grew so many of our own vegetables.

We took over a larger plot, as the previous one was only half that size before. So we could grow so many more varieties which were stored or frozen here to last the wintertime. The Beetroot was also made into Beetroot wine, which was very nice indeed. It was a very dry summer, so we did have to go often to water everything, otherwise everything would have suffered.

On the allotments are water facilities, so you can attach a hose to a tap, which is obviously very handy indeed. This year we will again be growing as much as we can there.

The Rabbits At Home - February 2012

This is a Video of our Rabbits "Apricot" & Cherry", which were both from the RSPCA in the Summer of 2011. They usually are outdoors in a Hutch, but during the Winter here in the coldest weather, they live indoors in a cage, then allowed in the Lounge (Under supervision!) in the evenings. That way they get enough exercise and seem to enjoy themselves too. Cherry is the White Rabbit. We also have a Cat called "Parsley" who was also from the RSPCA and gets along well with the Rabbits.