Much room for mushrooms?

I asked Small Boy what he wanted to grow, and without any hesitation he said 'mushrooms'.
Now, he doesn't like mush rooms and won't so much as look at one, so I think he said it because he thought it would be a challenge for me, much in the same way as if he had asked me to grow the moon or a cow. However, I like to be challenged and said 'ok then' which is not what his 4 year old mind was expecting.

So, we have mushroom spawn, and we are just preparing our compost. this entails a big tray piled with straw and chicken dung, watered, turned and left to get hot. When it eventually goes all composty, I will spread it in some deep plastic drawers, propagate the spawn, wait to see it on the surface, case it, and wait for button mushrooms. or, something like that.

I have grown them once before from a kit, and they were lovely. I am, however, deeply phobic of polystyrene, so couldn't manage that this time.

We will see. Something new to try, and if they are as nice as last time then it will be worth it.

2 beds down, 3 to go...

In the middle of my cold riddled delirium 2 weeks ago, I went to aldi and bought up their specialbuys.

Last year, we resisted the urge to put raised beds in- Hubby thought it would be good to use more temporary 'raised bed bags' (haxnicks?) for a season and grow a tiny amount to see what grew and what the light was like. Turns out, our choice of location for these (the edge of lawn 1) was great- full sunshine all day plus very close to the outside tap. Brassicas did especially well, but basically everything we put in did something.

So... I had been waiting for aldi specialbuy gardening Thursday to be announced to see what this years offerings would be. My main purchase ended up being 5 raised beds (1mx1m) at £6.99 each and a steel obelisk for growing peas and beans.

I have already bought peas, courgettes and 3 types of potato to go in- I plan to buy small plants including broccoli, cabbage, globe artichoke, squashes.

Will add a picture of my hard work tomorrow.

Hello Horton!

A new chicken has come to stay- Horton.

After picking Horton up from a lovely family in a cold, windy, slightly windy car park, we got home. After quite a bit of deliberation, we decided the she would be best off living with the Famous 5- Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy.
After a cuddle (she is possibly the nicest natured chicken I have ever held!) she has gone into their run to make friends.

 

ETA: All was well over night, I went down to see them in the dark and they were all snuggled together in the nest box, Horton with her wing over them. I think she thinks she is their mummy!

The first veggies... digging a trench

Now, Small Boy was 4 last week, and Small girl is now 3 and 2 months.
Both go out to their respective preschools in the morning, and then come home, and this, on days that I am not at work, is now farming time.
Earlier this week we went and bought our first 'plants' of the year- some asparagus crowns, 2 rhubarb crowns and some onion sets. Potatoes are chitting away nicely elsewhere.
The other day, I was picking up Small Girl, and told her that we needed to get home to dig a trench. So, now, her favourite word is 'trench'. she tells everyone that she spends her afternoons digging trenches for Mummy. Which isn't how it really happens- usually it is Mummy digging whist SB and SG run around doing fun, child things.
Anyway, I have now cleared the ground for the asparagus trench. Now to dig the trench, fill with organic materials, and plant the crowns.
I am going to clear another area for the rhubarb and finish the strawberry and raspberry beds- I will have a better growing season this year.

Flying bees!

The bees have made it this far! I am seeing lots flying every day at the moment which is great.

I have kit coming in the post... I have 6 supers, 100 top bars, some wireless foundation, narrow spacers, 2 porter bee escapes, some plastic excluders and 200 wooden lolly sticks on their way.

I am hoping to give the bees some top bars to play with, with wooden guides and wax starter. I have intentions of going completely top bar and convert the nationals to a sort of topsy turvy Warre hive system.

We will see.

Hopefully this year I won't make the bees quite as angry as I did in October. I have to admit, I am a bit scared now of getting horribly stung.

Random Tiny Trees pic spam

 

Just some random pic spam.

 

The first picture is the house from the first portion of lawn (there are 2 more sections beyond this plus some trees/thicket at the end

 

Second is the big hens house

 

Third- where the bees now are at the top edge of section 3

 

Forth- Betty the bantam pre-moult.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring plans

I always have lots of ideas, which turn into fewer plans, which eventually become very little action. However, since we moved into Tiny Trees last year, I haven't done half of what I wanted to.
We have a fixed chicken run, and netting for a movable one, and we installed bug hotels, but not a lot else.

Plan for this year, therefore, is to clear a whole load of earth to become veg beds, create another strawberry bed, dig an asparagus bed, put in a couple of rhubarb crowns, finally site the tiny fruit  trees.

At the top of the garden, I want to build a den of some sort- possibly a mini earthship if I can work out how to do it.

Summer project is a large wormery- a larger scale model of the ikea hack stack. If anyone is interested in a tutorial then please get in touch or comment and I will make sure I do a proper step by step.

Would love to hear other peoples plans/ideas/potential actions too- maybe that is what I need to get motivated!