Over the last month, as you know, I’ve been starting to sow my seeds.
I went down to water them today and not only did I have cayenne chillies and aubergines sprouting which I knew about
….I have a Roma tomato
and a birds eye chilli as well!
I just love it when everything starts growing 🙂
What a beautiful day! 🙂
The chickens have been out in the garden since the avian flew restrictions have been lifted, but now it’s produce growing season they have to stay in doors! That means it’s time to cut the windows out of the new chicken house.
It looked quite drastic to begin with.
But with the help of some very sticky greenhouse tape, some cable ties and a length of chicken wire, we have managed to make some neat and tidy windows for our chickens to get some light and fresh air but not get soggy when it rains!
They do seem quite happy in their lovely new home! 🙂
This poly-tunnel was bought second hand with a view to making a practical chicken enclosure. The aim was to protect them from the worst of the weather in the winter and there being no where for bugs like spider mite to hide away.
To start off the new year of my Simple Life Blog, I’m excited to show you our new chicken house. Considering a chicken house the size we needed would have cost around £900 without nesting boxes etc, we decided to be creative and find an alternative solution.
This second hand polytunnel we found was the right size and only cost us £80!!!!
All that was needed was to secure the sides with chicken wire so they can’t dig their way out.
We have a shut down for chickens here in the UK at the moment because of bird flu, but as soon as that is past we are going to cut out a large window along the the front and fill with chicken wire.
So here they are, all secure and safe with lots of room. The nesting boxes you can see in the front corners are made from insulated dog beds which are easy to clean and only cost £35 each!
The result, happy chickens and happy Debbie! 🙂
How do you see success in your garden? Are you like me expecting that you can achieve what you might consider great things as well as working and looking after you family and your house?! I continually have to put this success into perspective. There is only so much time you can put into growing things unless you are putting all of your time into being self sufficient (so my husband keeps telling me)!
I’ve just been out to explore the garden that gets attended way less than I’d like, to pick some things for lunch and this is some of what I saw.
I have pumpkins,
beetroot,
chillies,
peppers
and tomatoes
and my husband says I should call this success! 🙂
Things have definitely warmed up around here and the temperature in the green house is above 30 degrees. If you’re not used to British weather, that is exciting for this time of year!
I’m so pleased with how the things are growing. I have several varieties of tomatoes, red peppers, three varieties of chilli peppers, cucumbers, rocket and radish.
Some will be transplanted outside and some in the poly tunnel and some will stay in the green house. I’m especially pleased as I didn’t do very well with these last year! 🙂
It’s time to start getting the garden ready for this years growing, so I bought myself a magazine for a bit of encouragement. Free seeds are always good, if you get what you like, especially if your spare seeds got nibbled up by vermin last year! I was very lucky with my free seeds, they were the sort of varieties I might have bought myself and there are plenty of hints and tips as well.
I’m hoping it will help me have a spring in my step for going out to prepare for spring in the February garden 🙂
A nice sunny day at last, so we decided to harvest our onions. They are a good size this year, just one advantage of all the rain!
Here they are, all 66 onions laying out to dry before bringing them in doors.
I’m really pleased with this years harvest! 🙂
It might be a bit late in the season to be sharing this for those of you who grow their own cucumbers, but your own chutney and relish is always better than store bought.
The skins can be tough on home grown cucumbers but the flesh is so much more juicy than shop bought. This recipe requires them to be peeled anyway.
Cucumber, onion and celery is laid out and sprinkled with salt to draw out the excess water.
It smells great when it’s cooking.
It makes less than you think it should but I’m sure it will taste great. One of these is the next to be opened!
Here’s the recipe for you to try. perhaps look out for reduced cucumbers etc in the shops or market. 🙂
I want to thank God for our harvest! 
In some cases not what I wanted, but others, way more than I expected! 🙂
An Artist's House 