Under The Pear Tree

Like A Tractor

Its been so cold at lotty lately that in the mornings we've had to smash the ice out of the chickens bowls and then smash the ice on the top of the water butts to fill them back up. Invariably they are frozen over again by the time we arrive in the afternoon so were having to remember to check the water in the coop before we put the girls to bed for the night.

We decided to take a stroll to lotty yesterday afternoon and the first thing I did as it was the first of the month was to have a look trough our seeds and see if there were any due to be planted. To my surprise there were six lots of tomatoes which could all be potted up. We have a bale of straw in the greenhouse at the moment and it was lovely and warm to sit on whilst I was in there. With all the strawberry plants we picked up from the school in there, greenhouse one is looking lovely and full like it had been in the summer. All of the new plantings have gone down to greenhouse two and although were hard pressed to find more space in there we still have alot more to go in as the next few weeks go by.

Whilst I was planting John dug over some more of our empty patches and spread a bit of blood fish and bone over them. When id finished I went to see if I could help John, as by this point he'd started to pick up the twigs from his pruning and rake up the leaves from under the pear tree. Together we raked the leaves up to the compost heap, it doesnt sound like too hard a job but its a big tree. I offered to help chicken John with his digging the other day and he pretty much laughed so John told him I was like a tractor. After watching me raking for a minute the subject of me being like a tractor came up again. Not that I mind, though I could do with a real tractor some days.

Seed Shopping

We went for a little drive to Trowell this afternoon as we'd been told there was a garden centre there that was already selling seed potatoes. We picked up two bags and had a look at the other ranges of seeds which compared to anywhere else we've been lately was massive. With all the shelves of seeds it took a while to find any shallots, but we managed to buy a few other seeds on our hunt for them. The only thing that was missing were garlic sets.

Seed potatoes are not really meant to be planted at this time of year, but as were doing this first lot in bags they'll be fine. Using some old chicken food and compost bags as containers, John filled the bags with soil from the ground and I popped the potatoes in. We put all of the bags into greenhouse one and then thought the best idea would be to stand them on the bale of straw for some extra warmth. John then filled a bucket with water and tomato feed and sloshed a bit into each bag.

The chickens have been enjoying having the straw in the greenhouse and have taken to scratching at it, which amused John when one of the girls seemed to throw straw at Rita. The robins have been popping in regularly and the last two days we've been able to watch them taking food from the bird table. Im glad we built the bird table as otherwise we may not have seen the robins so much as they are chased away by the chickens.

After finishing our planting John set about adding ash from our fire and some water from the big tank behind the hut which we hope is full of goodness for our plants. At the moment there is nothing we can plant outside but we are putting alot into the preparation of the soil. I hope what we've done over the last few days will really benefit everything in the summer, especially the strawberries. John mentioned strawberry jam this afternoon and I can wait until we have enough to make some. Although we've got plenty of jars from everything we made last year I think we'll be needing quite a few more as we all love strawberry jam. It will be great if we get a few more gooseberries this year too as id like to try a few recipes with them.

After our night time walk id like say thank you to John for the special few minutes we spent together there.