Istanbul Weekend

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Istanbul to celebrate my birthday (if it is worth celebrating these days). We had a wonderful few days although sightseeing in 90 degrees of humid heat is a bit challenging to say the least. Will add more tomorrow but saw some fabulous mosaics and the Aya Sophia church. Highlights included sitting in the main square after midnight watching a fushion of traditional eastern and western music complete with a whirling dirvish.

Quick & Easy Jam (promise)

I never seem to have much luck with jam made the traditional way on the stove with a preserving pan, it always seems to end in tears and a blackened pot. I went on a foraging course at Ballymaloe with Darina Allen and she explained that making just one or two jars was much easier than trying to fill your pantry with rows of preserves for a long winter ahead. You can also take advantage of reduced fruit at the supermarket and just use a couple of punnets.

So for foolproof strawberry jam I use 800 g (two punnets) or strawberries which had been sitting in the fridge for too long and looked a bit manky and 800 g of jam sugar (with pectin). I use a large stoneware pudding basin which is microwave safe, you need plenty of room as the jam rises when it boils more than you would think.  So slice up the strawberries and cook on high for 7 minutes then mash up with a potato masher. Stir in the sugar until it disolves and then cook on high for 15 minutes. You can add a very small amount of butter with the sugar if you like to prevent the scum forming.  Then remove and pot.  The mixture needs to boil for at least 4 minutes to activate the pectin but these timings seem to work well - don't be tempted to peak or you will interrupt the boiling.  Also boiling sugar is VERY HOT. Make sure your bowl is big enough to avoid your microwave turning into a sticky mess as you don't want this boiling over.

I've now got 3 jars of strawberry and 8 of blackcurrant as well as some redcurrant jelly from a few potterings around the kitchen. I used Delia's recipe for redcurrant jelly which just involves the above recipe but you strain it all through a nylon sieve before potting up. If you are very patient and don't rub the fruit through the sieve the jelly is clearer but it does seem a waste not to extract every last drop.

For the blackcurrants I use half jam sugar and half plain granulated. Now roll on the plums and blackberries which are looking wonderful this year despite the wasps and hornets.

Dodo's are not Extinct

Hooray I've finally finished my Dodo mosaic. You know how it is, a couple of days of intensive mosaicing and then several months of deliberation on how the tackle the background. So when people say how long did that take you, the truthful answer is nearly a year although all in all about four days work. Very pleased with him and good to find a use for the terracotta feather tiles I made some years ago. I have just spent a couple of days down with Oliver Budd making a mad hare, here's hoping it doesn't take another year to finish!

He is quite large being 3 ft x 2 ft ish in size and I have used a mixture of Vitmos, Smalti and handmade tiles. He is sitting on a board of MDF and I'm having a wide black frame made for him. I was hoping he would look like an illustration from a book.

I will post a picture of the hare in progress, I've just worked out how to do some leaves I was dithering over so onwards and upwards.

Leeds Castle Homes & Gardens Fair

Sorry for radio silence, I have been busy getting ready for the Homes & Gardens fair at Leeds Castle this weekend and have been making candles and planting up tureens etc in readiness. The weather looks great and there will be loads of stall holders and plant nurseries there as well as yours truly.

We also have another project on the go in the kitchen garden, making some raised beds with crates used to import oranges from Uruguay. I thought I was buying old orchard crates but never mind. Will post some pics over the weekend.

Belmont Park - Kitchen Garden

day was the morning after the night before and have survived the Garden Soc. supper last night. Despite the grotty weather I met up with some friends at Belmont House & Gardens near Faversham today for their spring fair. They have the most amazing walled kitchen garden which was completely renovated a few years ago and gives me lots of inspiration. The gardens have far reaching views across the Kent countryside and you can see nothing but trees and fields which is quite something. I'm very jealous of the greenhouses which are huge. I bet they don't have a bindweed infestation either.

Kitchen Garden

Greenhouse Staging

       

Trained Vine in the Greenhouse                    Apple: Lord Lambourne

Garden Society Supper - Anyone for Fish Pie

Its the village garden society supper tomorrow night and I've been spending the day cooking up a storm. Fish pie for 20 anyone? I have also made chocolate mousse for 15 which I have put marinated strawberries in (used Pimms if you must know). My fish pie receipe is quite famous (modest moi?) so here it is.

Fish Pie
I wont give you amounts. I've just made one for 20 people but add and subtract depending on the size of your dish and hungry mouths to feed.

2.5kgs mixed fish - I used sea trout, cod, smoke haddock (undyed) and prawns. poach in full fat milk seasoned with a bouquet garni and some dill stalks. Strain the milk keeping for the sauce. For the sauce I melted 4oz butter and added flour to make a roux then made a thick sauce with the poaching milk. season to taste, add chopped dill, cream fraiche (I used 1pt) and mix with the fish. Half fill an oven proof dish. I use one of those lovely large IKEA metal roasting tins with handles. Make the topping with mashed potatoes mixed with leeks sweated in yet more butter. finish with a grating of parmesan. Phew, mashing 5kgs of potatoes take quite some doing.

Chocolate Mousse
Whats not to like. I put some diced strawberries in the base of terracotta pots (collected from the yummy raspberry creme brulees in Tescos) and added pimms and a little sugar. The chocolate (Menier 70% cheapest on offer I could find) all 600 grammes was melted in the microwave and 12 egg yolks wisked in (thanks to the girls). I then whisked in 1 pint of double cream and folded in the beaten egg whites before pouring over the strawberries using a jam funnel for neatness. Topped off with a whole strawberry

Few days away

Sorry for the radio silence, grabbed a few days away in Malta visiting family. Amazing how soothing it is to spend the evening sitting on a terrace over looking the Grand Harbour, getting aquainted with the local wines. Stayed at the Westin Dragonara in St Julians and yes it was warm enough to sit by the pool with a pina colada.

We finally managed to visit the Hypogeum which is the only prehistoric underground temple in the world, and a UNESCO world heritage site similar in age to Stonehenge! Came home to find winter had returned although the garden is in full Spring mode, the orchard is in blossom, I just hope it warms up a little so the bees can take advantage of it.

First Asparagus

Yummy look what I've just picked for supper. I only have about six plants which have been in for a couple of years now and the warm weather this week has really brought it on. Cheated and bought some hollandaise.

bon apetit

Busy Bees - On The Importance of Bee Suits

Plucked up courage and opened the beehive last night. I needed to add some more storage space before the blossom appears in the orchard and the honey flow starts in earnest. I have invested in a full bee suit this year having tried the slightly more glamorous jeans and jacket approach which led to multiple stings in sensitive places. I also made sure I was wearing a thick layer underneath! The smoker has new fuel this year as the dried grass and cardboard approach wasn't working well and you do tend to panic if you are surrounded by angry bees and the smoker has gone out whilst being stung.

The girls have glued the hive together with propolis and it took some prising to get the lid off. Propolis is derived from plant resins and sets hard, the bees use it like a glue to plug any gaps in their hive - its very effective. I had a quick look in the hive and all seems well with lots of bees and stores. The storage I have added is called a "super" - a shallow box full of frames of foundation wax from which I hope to harvest honey this year. 

Tulip Festival - Leeds Castle

Had great fun yesterday arranging Tulips at the castle. Here is the arrangement I put together in the Queen's Gallery - In my defence I would say that tulips continue growing after they have been picked and yesterday this looked completely different! Over 10,000 tulip bulbs have been planted and you can find further details here.  Many of the tulips have been grown in the gardens here and its been nail biting waiting for them to flower given the extremes of weather this year.

My favourite tulips are the Darwin Hybrids as they are almost unbelievably huge and this arrangement in the castle library features Pink Impression which is an enormous flower and I will have to order some bulbs for my garden. The bulbs were supplied by deJager bulbs.

Colourful Containers & Chooks

Ranunculus and Aubretia

I went plant hunting at my local Homebase and found some purple Aubretia and dark pink Ranunculus (both reduced). I have used them to replace the dead french lavender in a couple of containers. One by the gate to the Kitchen Garden is a lovely dark blue pot, and the colour combination is very rich. The second is the focal point at the end of the path sitting in front of a black elderflower (black beauty).  Last year this was planted with purple penstemmon and trailing geraniums, the penstemmon has not survived the winter either (fortunately the cuttings have). Also found in Homebase were some cottage garden perennials for the bee border and some bargain strips of veg plants (globe artichokes, mini sweetcorn, peas and leeks.

Spice the poorly hen has recovered from her eye injury, though sadly has lost the use of the damaged eye. She has decided that my job is to provide her with lots of lovely slugs and snails and now follows me around the garden hoping for a handout. She comes and hides behind my legs in the hen run as a couple of the other girls are picking on her (hopefully this will sort itself out as she becomes more confident).

Today in the Kitchen Garden

Oh dear, the North wind doth blow, and blow. Its cold still despite some lovely sunny days, the wind is whipping across the Downs and keeping us chilly. Things are stirring in the kitchen garden, although slowly and evey day something new is appearing. Looks like there might have been some losses, the myrtle bush is looking very dead, although I haven't given up hope as it is always slow to come into leaf. I have also lost several potted french lavenders and the Rosemary bushes have taken a beating and are not covered in masses of flowers this year. No signs of life from the Olive trees either but the small cutting in the greenhouse is beginning grow away.

Positive notes are the greens under the cold frame are looking very well, here is an updated photo. The Hispi cabbage are beginning to form hearts and the radishes are well on their way. I have just pricked out another tray of cabbages in the greenhouse to provide a succession.

I also have seedling little gem lettuces waiting to be planted out, won't be too soon as they are attracting greenfly in the greenhouse.

Lady birds have been appearing with the sunny days and I have transferred a few into the greenhouse salads! The grapevine which I put in the greenhouse last year is now coming into leaf and is covered in flower buds. Last year when I planted it, this vine was just 12 inches high, I am training it across the greenhouse roof to provide summer shading and hopefully, some grapes. 

I have bought the strawberry tower into the greenhouse and its starting to grow away. It has a mix of varieties including Florence, Hapil and Cambridge Favourite. I am planning on digging up the strawberry beds in the fruit cage and making a strawberry table instead using the folding staging and a couple of grow bags. Last year the strawberries growing in containers produced much better fruit and it would help my back to raise them off the ground. I could put brassicas in the strawberry beds for the autumn and they would be kept free from the dreaded cabbage white butterflies which can sniff out the cabbage family wherever I hide them!

Broadbeans are starting to develop flower buds and the crimson flowered broad beans have just starting appearing in the greenhouse. I think its still to cold to start off the tender summer veg such as courgettes and squashes but I have started tomatoes to give them a long growing season and some have started germinating.

Flower Arrangements in Vintage Containers

I often use antique china for table decorations in the house. My latest find has been a vintage bentwood sieve which would have been used originally in the kitchen for flour. I have waxed the wood and lined it with plastic then filled it with potting compost. So far I have planted it with narcissus and hazel twigs and plugged the gaps with moss I dug out of the meadow. These were followed with coloured primroses. I have now acquired a few in different sizes and am planning to fill them with roses and marguerite daisies in the summer - when it finally arrives. 

I have a collection of tureens which I have acquired over the years since student days trawling junk shops in Southampton. It doesn't matter if they are in vintage - ie damaged - condition as long as they don't leak! Here, I have used a pretty turquoise and white footed tureen which has certainly seen better days being stuck together with glue in several places. However, planted up with pink daisies it looks lovely. Put some gravel in the base of the container to help drainage and don't overwater.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb Everywhere

I have Timperley Early in the garden (and also in old dolly tubs) which I have started picking for stewing and crumbles. Mind you, "stewed rhubarb" sounds very institutional - how about "rhubarb compote" instead! I blast it in the microwave for a couple of minutes until it has collapsed and add brown sugar to taste. You can also make a very posh rhubarb & custard flan by baking a rich egg & cream mixture flavoured with marmalade in a short pastry case, on top of which you have artfully arranged rhubarb pieces. If you really want to impress, when cooked, you can brulee the top of the tart with brown sugar and a blow torch (beware: I have discovered to my cost that the blowtorch in Himself's toobox is much fiercer than the kitchen variety!).

My neighbour is the jam & chutney company Sugar & Spice, and they use any rhubarb I can't cope with. The recipe below is yummy, one of my favourites, and something to keep the rhubarb mountain at bay when its no longer a novelty. I'm afraid I use this in cheese sandwiches too as a chutney alternative - sweet tooth - moi?

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

Ingredients
1kg trimmed rhubarb, chopped , 1kg granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons, 25g root ginger, roughly chopped
100g crystallised ginger, finely chopped or experiment with preserved ginger

Instructions
Layer the rhubarb and sugar alternately in a large bowl, adding a sprinkling of lemon juice to each layer. Cover and leave overnight for the sugar to draw out the juices of the rhubarb. Put the rhubarb and sugar in a preserving pan. Tie up the root ginger in a piece of muslin and add to the pan. Bring the mix to the boil, skim off any scum, then boil rapidly for 15 minutes. Remove the muslin, add the crystallised ginger and boil for 5 minutes more or until setting point is reached (to test for this, drop a blob of jam on to a cold saucer, push it with your finger and it should wrinkle). Pour into sterilised jars and seal with jam pot covers or screw lids.

UFO found in Kitchen Garden

Whilst keeping an eye out for bees in the garden over the weekend, I happened across this rather peculiar flying beastie. Furry like a bumblebee but with long spindly legs and with slightly sinister looking bat like markings on the wings. Having a lance like proboscis and drinking nectar like a hoverfly or hawkwing moth. Initially I thought this was a hoverfly but further investigations via the trusty Interweb has identified this UFO as a Greater Beefly (Bombylius major).

Rather alarmingly they are parasitic on solitary bees which we have plenty of in the garden. I hope they don't have a negative effect on the rather healthy population of bumblebees in the garden.

Found Objects - glass insulators

I am always on the look out for quirky objects, either for the home or garden I recently found these glass insulators in Lenham and they I believe they are from USA. They are a lovely rich turquoise blue and I can see them topping hazel or copper poles in the kitchen garden perhaps so the light can shine through them. I have a few other decorative items in the garden and I'll write about them soon.

NEW - Book of the Month

Carol Klein - Grow Your Own Vegetables

I have just added a "Book of the Month" to the blog. Not necessarily newly published books, but ones I have been reading or referring to in my quest for knowledge and self improvement - or else just ones with yummy pictures!

As I mentioned previously, my friend Sian designed the book and it has scrummy photography and is really inspiring. She used to work for Gardens Illustrated, so you can imagine how wonderful the book looks. I caught some of the series on telly last year and tt has fired up my enthusiasm for propagation. It turns out not nearly as complicated as you might think, especially following Carol's step by step instructions (and all those free plants - so satisfying).

These are some other books by Carol following the grow your own theme which I have and would recommend. I don't know if the following links will be of use as I can't seem to get this to work on the UK site of Amazon - however the link in the RH column will take you to the right page for the book in my Amazon shop along with a few other suggestions.

More from the Kitchen Garden

I managed to charge up my phone and take some pictures around the kitchen garden today. First project was to plant a perennial sweet pea - a pink one and construct a hazel peastick wigwam as a support. The chickens were happy to help! I have chosen the middle of the comfrey bed for the sweet peas. 

I planted up this bed several years ago when I was short of ideas and now the comfrey is here to stay - it is remarkably vigorous and has even regenerated from cut leaves used as mulch on a potato bed. It puts down very deep, fibrous roots which are very challenging to dig out of clay soil. Still, it is another plant which is full of bees when in flower and can be cut several times a year. It is high in nitrogen and makes a great addition to the compost heap. I keep meaning to make compost tea with it but am too cowardly as it is supposed to stink - perhaps this year.

In the background are some of the galvanised dolly tubs I use as planters. last year they had potatoes in them followed by courgettes.  The bottoms have rusted through but that doesn't matter. I have one still intact which I use for Horseradish as it likes wet conditions. Rhubarb and mytle are both planted in barrels.

I potted up some dog's tooth violet bulbs at christmas and they are nearing flowering now and are in a coldframe waiting to be planted out. Also with them is a frame full of cowslips which I bought cheaply from B&Q (3 plants) and divided up to make 12 plants. Beyond the cowslips are some 5 inch pots of sweet peas. 

Two of the pots are dwarf sweet peas sown from seed I saved from last years plants and three pots have overwintered from seedlings which potted up in the autumn. By the way, these lovely victorian style cloches were presents. The latest one was a Christmas present and came from Crocus - I love browsing the Crocus website see http://www.crocus.co.uk/

I also put some hazel twigs around the broad beans which I planted out last week. I have now sown in the greenhouse (in loo roll tubes) some seeds of the Crimson broad bean to provide a succession. I first came across this variety from the Heritage Seed Library as they were donated to the library by a lady living in Kent, just down the road from here. They have proven so popular they are now available from several seed companies.

I have just harvested some carrots for dinner. I planted these last august in a barrel with some old growbag compost. I like using multicoloured carrots - have a look at the picture of the ones I pulled up today. I just broadcast the seed on the surface of the compost and lightly covered with vermiculite. The carrots then grow to fill the available space - they vary in size but you do get a whole barrel of them and best of all - no carrot fly. The carrot fly flies close to the ground and up in the barrel the plants are out of reach. You do tend to pull more carrots than you need as its a bit like playing lucky dip! 

I have finally given in and bought some organic slug pellets. The slugs have a particular fancy for my pansies and violas and some have found their way into the greenhouse and are having a go at some emerging shoots.

April in the Kitchen Garden

Hooray some sunshine this afternoon and I spent some time in the garden. I lured the hens into the fruit cage where they happily spent a couple of hours turning over the ground and hopefully finding some slugs. I spent some time weeding raised beds and transplanting seedlings into the new bee plant area as well as scattering seeds on bare patches. I put down some crimson clover and tufted vetch seeds in the meadow. I bought some mixed viola plants during the week and have edged the beds with them and also used them to plant up a lovely purple glass container for the house.

The bees were out in force and finding red dead nettle in flower as well as a speedwell and lesser celandine. I walked around the meadow and the violets are out and some self heal. Cuckoo flower and cowslips are on their way. Suddenly all the fruit trees are in bud and the hawthorne is showing green. I saw a couple of ladybirds (of the English variety), the continental ones are still crawling around the window cills in the house.

I planted out little gem lettuces which have been growing on the greenhouse. I have a raised bed (6ft x 4ft) with an integral cold frame made to the Geoff Hamilton plans (gardeners world).  Follow this link to the HDRA Garden Organic website for instructions on how to make one using timber, water pipe and plastic sheeting  click here  Under here from left to right, I have mixed leaves, radiccio, little gem, hispi cabbages and radishes . There are also lots of corncockles appearing under here which I will move. I planted a couple of roses, a Charles de Mills and a David Austin lucky dip from the bargain bin at Notcutts - it didn't have a label so I have no idea of the variety.

My friend Sian has designed Carol Klein's new book - Grow Your Own Garden and it has inspired me to divide perennials and take cuttings for the first time. I potted up a whole tray of hardy geraniums divided up from a small clump and also taken softwood cuttings of sage and garden pinks. Last autumns penstemon cuttings survived the winter - unlike the ones planted in the garden - and are now growing away happily.

I have separated the poorly hen from the flock and she is now in an ark by herself. She has damaged an eye and is not coping well with only one eye working. Today she looked a bit brighter, I am dosing her with Baytril and bathing the eye with aloe vera so fingers crossed.

Here is a picture of the potted up geraniums in the greenhouse. Behind them are lavender Hidcote plugs which I am growing on. They arrived as mini plugs a couple of weeks ago from Thompson & Morgan (84 in total).

More tomorrow as I plan to spend Easter Sunday in the garden if the weather is not too bad.

Growing Plants for Honey Bees

I thought you might like to know about the easy plants you can grow to encourage bees in your garden. Since putting my hive in last year, I have been sowing hardy annuals and perennials to provide them with a rich source of nectar and pollen. As a rule, simple flowers are easier for the bees to access the nectar although early compositae such as dandelions are in important early food source - so leave them to flower if you can.

I am raising crimson clover and sainfoin in modules to plant out and have also been scattering seed on bare soil on an area we have recently cleared by moving the compost heaps. I read in the British Beekeeping magazine that bees are highly attracted to these plants so am trying them. They germinated really easily and are often used as a green manure so the seeds are readily available. visit the bbka website to find out more. http://www.britishbee.org.uk/

Phacelia is an old fashioned garden plant which seeds itself easily and flowers for ages. I have sown lots of seed using last years flower heads and have also transplanted seedings appearing in the vegetable beds. This plant can also be used as a green manure and dug in before flowering - which seems a shame. Borage is also self sown. If you are growing comfrey for making compost or plant food, these flowers are also very attracting to bees. I also have corncockle which seeds itself freely around so have added this to the mix. A traditional wildflower of the cornfields, its is a highly decorative plant, 2-3 foot high with magenta flowers.

Later on in the season, alliums are also popular bee plants and I leave some of last years onions and leeks in the beds to provide some useful food sources. I have included a picture of a bumble bee on a garlic flower taken in the kitchen garden in July. I also have californian poppy seeding around and young echinops everywhere which are popular with the bees.

Even in the smallest of gardens you can dedicate a corner to growing flowers to help the bees.

Some of my Mosaics

I have been making mosaics for quite a few years now. I went on a course with Martin Cheek in Broadstairs many years ago and really caught the bug. Since then, I have made and sold many mosaics all based on natural themes. When solitary mosaicing becomes too lonely, I visit Oliver Budd in his studio near Bodium Castle for a couple of days company. Olly's classes are always inspiring and its great to use the wide variety of materials to be found in his workshops.

I am very fond of this beetroot which I made at Olivers studio. The leaves are broken tile which helps gives texture to the leaves, the ribs and body are a mixture of Smalti and glass tile. The background spirals rounds from the shadow with the tiles graduating out in size from the centre.

This running hare was commissioned by a friend as a present for her husband. the materials used are vitreous glass and ceramic tiles. The ceramic gives a flatter colour giving a contrast in texture as well as colour. They are also less likely to shatter when cutting small strips of tile - have a look at the hare's furry chest and tummy. The ivy was included to introduce some movement as a counterpoint to the direction the hare is running.

The larger you make your mosaic, the easier it is to get fine detail using a general tile size of 1cms square. The hare is about 35 cms square and it was easy to get a good flow to the lines.

Here is an angel fish which I made as I had some sea glass I wanted to incorporate in the watery background. Found on the beach on the north Kent coast its a lovely material, I wish I could find more of it. Mirror tiles also work well as in water. The materials used are mostly glass tiles, with the yellow and orange fins in smalti and the outer edges of the background in seaglass.

I find the easiest way to make the mosaics is on an mdf board which is sealed with watered down pva glue. The finished pictures are easy to handle and can be hung on the wall with mirror plates or just propped up on a mantlepiece. Tiles are stuck down with pva and when completely dry, grouted. Don't use ready mixed grout unless the surface of your mosaic is very flat as it is quite gloopy and difficult to get into crevices. Grey or sandy coloured grout gives a much more pleasing finish especially when using natural subjects.

I am currently working on a large Dodo which has turned out pleasingly quirky. I have incorporated some ceramic tiles I made to resemble feathers using terracotta and tin glaze stamped with an old printing block - I'll put up some photos soon.

Warning: making mosaics is a seriously addictive past-time.

Meet the Girls

I have kept a few hens in the garden for over 10 years now. Sadly due to visits by the fox and despite my best efforts to keep him out, none of the current girls are more than 3 years old. Jemima (because she survived the last fox visit) is a white leghorn hybrid who is definitely the boss. She is a small, very upright hen with a large red comb and is very partial to fingers so you have to take when feeding her. She will also pick slugs off the bottom of plant pots with a little encouragement - a very handy skill! She loves sitting up high in the run and looking down on everyone. She lays an enormous cream coloured egg.

The other hens are all less than six months old and just in lay for the first time. I have three cream legbars - Milly, Molly and Mabel. They are very pretty hens with brown and gold plumage, Milly & Molly have black tails and Mabel's is grey. These hens lay the holy grail of hen keeping - blue/green eggs - colours you can on the F&B paint chart! Each lays a different coloured egg from the palest blue to olive green. Henrietta and Nora are black & white speckled hens - Nora has feathered legs and both lay a small dark brown egg. The final two are Ambers called Sugar and Spice both are creamy coloured and Spice has brown speckles, they are very friendly.

Their home is a 30x20 foot run under the shelter of a large pine tree which gives some protection from the rain. I have netted the roof to keep the collar doves out. I lock the hen house at night as I have discovered the hard way that foxes can climb vertical fences.

They are particularly fond of cauliflowers and cabbages which disappear in seconds under a scrum of greedy chickens. I have banned them from the kitchen garden now as seedlings are beginning to appear and the girls are very effective rotovators in their efforts to find worms. They escaped at the weekend and it took me ages to round them up. Friendly and biddable when they are in their run, once out they turned into fully fledged members of the escape committee and couldn't be tempted back by anything. Needless to say the grass always looks greener.

The chooks are fed organic Layers Pellets which they find less exciting than kitchen scraps and left over pasta, they are also very fond of fish and chips. The also get a handful of mixed corn. Because they are in a restricted run I also give them oyster shell and grit to keep their gizzards healthy and calcium levels up. The run has a good covering of wood chips which keeps the mud down and gives them a good layer to have a scratch through. Last year we had some tre work done and consequently have a large pile of coarse woodchips - perfect. I have also been using them to mulch around newly planted trees and shrubs over ground cover fabric to help keep the roots moist.

Today I collected half a dozen eggs. Hen House Poulty in Teston, Maidstone is a good source of all things poulty and supplies all you need to keep your own hens. I got my cream legbars from Dudley at Highdown Poultry near Tenterden.

A Novice Beekeeper - March Diary

I am a relatively new beekeeper. I took the introduction to beekeeping course last year with the mid-Kent beekeepers, and I took delivery of my first bees in July which is quite late in the year. I keep the bees at the bottom of the garden in an old fashioned beehive known as a WBC Hive - this is the pagoda style, painted white with a metal covered roof. Yes it would be lovely to have some honey this year, but my main aim is keep a healthy colony of bees.


I fed the bees lots of sugar syrup in the autumn to make sure the colony grew large enough to survive the winter with plenty of food stores. I also treated them against disease - The winter bee lives much longer than her hard working cousin the summer bee, six months as compared to just six weeks and parasites have much more time to take hold in the hive. Also the colony needs to maintain its warmth in colder months and needs to be large enough to generate this heat by clustering together.

I am pleased to say that now we finally have some warmer weather, I have seen bees flying around the garden and a few joined me in the greenhouse today. Rosemary is beginning to flower and is very popular with the bees, although the plants have taken a beating in the winter cold. I have planted spring bedding and bulbs in the kitchen garden to help provide some early nectar for them.


I am hoping not to have to open them up too often and leave them as much alone as possible (yes I did get stung last year)! The main task is to provide the bees with the room they need - by adding extra layers to the hive - and to prevent them from swarming - although I now have a second hive, which is empty so an early swarm wouldn't be too bad (as long as they didn't disappear completely). Some beekeepers keep an empty hive to tempt a swarm to settle. Bees are in short supply this year due to the increase in new beekeepers looking to establish their colonies and last year hive equipment was in short supply.

The queen should be laying eggs and raising young to replace the workers which have overwintered and who will now be nearing the end of their lives.

You might not know that all the worker bees are female and yes - are responsible for all the food gathering and young rearing in the hive. The Drones - males - are produced in small numbers and their only job is to mate with a new queen. They are usually kicked out of the hive in the autumn by the workers to die in the winter cold.

welcome to my blog

Well this is the brave new world - first Twitter and now my very own blog, welcome one and all. Spent the day in the greenhouse pricking out crimson clover and Sanfoin grown for the bees. The chickens escaped from the run and ran amock in the kitchen garden, mad for the new grass and then discovered the joys of digging for worms in the raised beds. I must be more careful with the gate! I have been creating a new flowering area principally to grow nectar rich flowers for my bees to enjoy. I broadcast seeds last autumn grown elsewhere in the garden and now have corncockle, crimson clover, sanfoin, phacelia, borage, mullein and teasel all coming through. I have emptied packets of poppy seeds in the area too so have my fingers crossed for a good crop.

The new willow "fedge" is coming to life. This is a simple cross weave made with prunings from the willow tunnel and planted through weed surpressing fabric and mulched with bark. The idea is to hide the compost bins, although when the hazel platt grows this should help to. Thanks to the squirrels raiding last years nut crop, there were lots of young hazel trees springing up in the vegetable beds.