The Sprouts are on for Christmas!

Well maybe not on, but certainly in! About an hour after my last rather brief post on Friday, the rainclouds cleared and for the first time in a week the sun came out. 

I waited until after lunch because the weather lady on the BBC was certain that we were in for another drenching. Nothing happened, and as the garden began to glow in the sunshine it was time to get outside and get the seedlings, that were desperate for a bit more space, into the beds. 

My brussel sprouts were suffering from serious overcrowding so they were first. I was never a great fan of the over boiled pulp that was traditionally, the way to serve sprouts .I think generations of women were taught in domestic science, that if you couldn't suck them up a straw, they weren't cooked! 

Luckily as I taught myself to cook, I became a disciple of Delia Smith. If Delia didn't make it we didn't eat it! once I had found her recipe for Sauteed Brussel Sprouts with Chestnuts  we never looked back. 

So it was with pleasure that I planted my two rows of sprout seedlings.

I have no idea how many sprouts we will get from each plant, but as I have 24 plants in I don't think we will go short! 

Another row of broccoli joined the sprouts, and I managed to finally work out what was a weed and what was a parsnip, so they got weeded as well. 

Last week I planted my first three tomato plants in a grow bag. Well now all three are flowering. 

Not too long now and we will have tomatoes. 

It was only an afternoons respite, overnight friday the rain returned and its still here now. 

The poor chickens have been trying to stay dry but even their house has started leaking. The wind has been blowing against the nesting box at such an odd angle that somehow the water was getting in. Two of the three boxes have been soaked overnight for the past few days and I have managed to get through a lot of straw. 

Jim, ever inventive, made use of a piece of left over roofing felt from the shed, A few quick tacks and once again the chickens are dry.

It does the job nicely and when this awful rain has passed we can easily take it off again. The chickens looked very comfortable this morning when I went down to check on them, dry as a bone!

And talking bones! the puppy. He has been growing at an amazing rate all week. For him today though it has all got a bit much. He really didn't fancy his walk this morning, after seeing Jim take 5 minutes to get dressed for the outside. He rather fancied another sleep, so thats what he did!

Happy Sunday, don't get wet!

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.