Aliens in the garden?

The mutant eggs continue to appear. Now, as well as the super huge double yolkers which I get every other day, one of the chickens is laying soft shelled eggs. 

The first time I saw one, was three days ago laying in the straw in the run. It had burst and was laying like a sad, end of party balloon or one of these squiggly children's balls with a little alien inside, in one of the three nesting boxes. The lovely yellow yolk was glistening in the sun as I opened up for the day. 

I didn't worry about it and thought it was a one off, until yesterday evening. I went out at dusk to close up the house and could see something laying on the ground in the run. I reached in to pick it up (With bare hand) and just as my hand made contact I realised it was another burst egg. The yolk was enormous and burst straight away. So there I was standing in the allotment with egg yolk running down my arm. Yuk!

Ok so now it was time to fire up the internet and see what was going on. A google search gave lots of results, but all seemed to think it wasn't a problem and would stop in a few days. The cause was also widely discussed on various sites, but most thought that it could be caused by a chicken having a shock. 

Gibson, the very bouncy puppy has been chasing the chickens every day since he moved in, so he obviously wasn't the cause of the problem. Then I remembered the day before the alien eggs started, we had the most spectacular thunder and lightening. That must be it. 

This morning there was another alien, but also another double yolker! I have made sure they have lots of calcium in the form of oyster shell grit and now I just have to wait for the soft eggs to stop. Lets hope there are no more storms. 

The impressive amounts of rain we have had over the last couple of days have brought the garden to life. I finally have Parsnip seedlings growing. 

These were the very first things I planted in my garden and I subsequently discovered that Parsnips are quite difficult to grow. I waited in vain day after day, as everything else was growing around them. I had given up and was just about to dig the ground over and plant something else when these little beauties appeared. There are lots of gaps in the rows but hopefully over the next few days they will all appear. 


The carrot seeds I planted have come up in a nice thick row, It seems a shame thin them but I know I have to or else they will al be weedy specimens. 

And today I really must earth up my Duke of York potatoes. I have been putting it off because as with all these things, I have never grown them before and so not really sure what to do. I have just found a very useful video at VideoJug. This site has loads of very good little clips showing how to do various garden jobs.  No putting it off any longer. 


I have also discovered completely by accident that I have some edible wild plants growing all over the garden. This week is Food Festival Week at Milford on Sea. I went along with my neighbour to a cookery demonstration given by a chef from a restaurant we would both like to visit. 


He was making something with scallops and started talking about a plant called a Three Cornered Leek. He described the plant and my ears pricked up. I thought that I had wild garlic growing by the gate into the allotment. Every time I passed it I got  an oniony garlic whiff. Now I wasn't so sure. After the chef had finished I went and had a chat and was then convinced that I had the leeks. Once home I found a picture on the internet and recognised them straight away. Here they are growing by my gate.

You can use them in salads and to make a pesto that you can mix with anything, so looking forward to using them over the summer, and best of all, they grew all by themselves!


Finally Gibson news. He is growing at an amazing rate now. we won't be able to call him a puppy much longer. So far no damage and he is very well behaved. He is also becoming a bit of a poser. We have taken so many pictures of him, every time he sees a camera now he stops and presents his best side!

The sun is shining, its a beautiful day so we are off for a long walk on the beach and then an afternoon in the garden for me. Enjoy your Sunday.

Spring has Sprung - Well this week anyway!

Its been glorious this week, more like the Riviera or the Costa's than Hampshire, and the garden has responded beautifully. 


The strawberry plants which were in the greenhouse and had flowers, were just crying out to be planted outside. Problem is this is the UK and frost is always just around the corner. Lucky for me then that a couple of weeks ago Lidl had a gardening week.


Some of you will be unfamiliar with Lidl. It is a German cut price supermarket company and there is one within walking distance of here. They sell lots of strange, but very delicious continental things and its very cheap. I was always a Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer shopper but now I can be found in Lidl. The other good thing is on Mondays and Thursday they change their non food stock and it always has a theme. So it was with some delight I noted that the gardening week was selling poly tunnels at £5.99 each. 


We got there early as these deals are not restocked. They were going fast but we managed to get four of these little beauties. 

So the strawberries were far to big for the pots now, so time to go outside. I have only ever had a couple of plants in a  pot so this time I bought 12 plants of four different varieties, so that we have fruits though out the summer. I bought  them as a collection from Thompson and Morgan  and am very pleased with how they have progressed.

I decided to use weed suppressing fabric under the plants. Not because I don't want to weed but I thought that as the plants will through off runners, this would stop them rooting and overcrowding the space. I can also then put some straw on top of it when the berries grow to stop them laying on the ground. 

Once the fabric was on I laid out the plants to make sure there was enough room and then planted them.

The final part of the job was to cover it over with the plastic protection sheet. Luckily I have always been good at wrapping parcels and presents so this posed no problem. 

Lots of other things have suddenly started appearing in the last few days. I now have seedlings in the greenhouse for Brussel Sprouts, Spinach, Broccoli, Peppers, Chilli,s and Three different sorts of tomato. Still waiting for the Peas to put in an appearance. 


Outside my first crop of potatoes came up for air this morning.

I have also noticed a couple of very tiny leek plants 

and during the day today my carrots have also popped up. There was no sign of them at 8am but by 5.30pm I could see hundreds of tiny seedlings. I am going to have to thin them out when they are a bit bigger. 


On to the chickens. I no longer feel like a prison warder, checking for escapes every 5 minutes. The Ebay delivery arrived 3 days ago and now the ladies are nicely contained in an escape proof run and they seem perfectly content. The run itself wasn't as big as we imagined so when we set it up we attached the puppy run to the side of it to make it bigger. This had an open top though, so a tarpaulin to provide shade and a bit of fruit netting have sealed the top nicely.

So in went the Chickens and out we went for a stroll with the puppy. Upon our return I walked into the garden and I couldn't believe it, there  was Geri happily ripping up daffodils again. "What the @@"& how did she get out?" An inspection of the run revealed it was secure. I put her back in and got on with jobs on the allotment, About 10 minutes later I look up the garden and she was out again! OK this was getting beyond a joke, has Harry Houdini been reborn as one of my back garden chickens? Another quick capture and return to the run, but this time I set up a surveillance operation, determined to know how she was doing it.


About 10 minutes later my patience was rewarded, although  I did nearly miss it as I was taking the opportunity of enforced rest for a bit of a doze. On the side of the run is a small hatch with a sliding door which goes up and down. I have been using it to put the drinking and food containers in the run. Geri got her head between the bars and then lifted it. This allowed her to put her foot in the gap created and force the door up. She then squeezed out and the door shut behind her. 


I was momentarily pretty impressed, who would have thought a chicken had the intelligence to work that out. So third catch of the day and then a strategically placed piece of string sealed her route to freedom for good. 


Since then there have been no escapes,and no more damage to the garden.  Although I must admit I have enjoyed the challenge of beating my chickens attempts to escape, I am happy they are over, for now anyway, but I am sure they are plotting further attempts!. 


And to finish off more Gibson news. He is growing rapidly now. I can't sit him on my lap anymore, he just hangs off either side. He is now enjoying his trips into the outside world, although it takes ages to get anywhere as everyone we meet wants to play with him.


He goes to the beach everyday and we are getting him used to going in the sea. Jim took some wonderful pictures last week so here are a couple including the last one which I think is the best picture we have of him.