Small scale gardening - Part 2

It has been confirmed just this morning! The Great White (one of our new chickens) is indeed a cockerel. Last week it made a few pathetic attempts at crowing (not so much cock-a-doodle-do, more cock-a-doodle-don’t!), and tried again earlier this week, without much success. But the sound it made this morning leaves us in no doubt - it is definitely a cockerel!

He probably surprised himself with the racket he made, not to mention the other 4 hens!

The slight problem we have, though, is we keep chickens for their eggs and (last time I checked) a cockerel cannot lay eggs! Besides, our neighbours are not too keen on being rudely woken up early by him either. So, the question is: What do we do now?

He is very timid by nature - nowhere near the top of the pecking order! He is white with a few yellow feathers thrown in. So... if you’re interested in adopting him, just let me know!

We are still well and truly in the midst of winter, with the snow starting to melt just today. We’ve had about

7 - 8 inches the last few days, which makes the garden look like a picture postcard. But of course, there is no gardening just yet, apart from trying to get the last remaining leeks out of the still frozen ground. And planning ahead of course!

So, here is part two of small scale gardening for beginners:

In the last newsletter I set up a growing plan for 1m2 growing, but don’t despair, if you haven’t got a garden or are unable to plant things where you live, because you can also grow a few vegetables in growing bags, pots or even on your window sill!

Vegetables ideal for deep bags (available from garden centres and Poundstretcher) include potatoes, Jerusalem Artichokes, scorzonera, peas, dwarf French beans and lettuces.

You can plant dwarf variety fruit trees in large pots, but make sure you ask the garden centre to confirm it really is a dwarf variety, or you could end up with a fruit tree bursting out of its pot!

What works really well on a window sill is cut-and-come-again salad leaves. Basically this means that a few weeks after you sow it, you cut off what you need and it should grow back again ready to harvest in another few weeks. This way of growing salad leaves is also good for your pocket, because salad bags are really quite expensive in the supermarket and you can buy seeds for around £1. There are also lots of options: like spicy salad leaves, mild, oriental, single varieties etc.

You don’t even have to spend lots of money on pots, you can make them yourself from newspaper (just check online), or use old yogurt pots - in fact any old plastic pot will do as long as you can cut holes in the bottom to let excess water out.

If you are using methods like pots and window sill, compost is a must Try and get peat free compost, which is much better for the environment. Or better still (and it’s free!) is compost from the council, which you can uplift from most recycling centres, just bring along your own bag to put it in.

The only thing you have to spend money on is seeds, but maybe you can swap seeds with other growers or pop in to the shop, I normally have some spare seeds behind the counter. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee these will still work.

I hope I have inspired some of you to grow your own produce, it truly is a rewarding hobby. It keeps you fit, provides some much needed vitamin D (in the form of sun light) and gives you healthy, fresh vegetables to enjoy at the end of it!