Preparing for Chickens

When we bought our house there was a large chicken coop in the garden. We plan to get chickens as pets to that we can have fresh eggs. Before the chickens arrive we had to prepare the coop for them. For this we had two jobs to do. Firstly, some of the wood in the corner of the chicken house had become rotten because it had got really wet. When wood rots you need to remove it or the rot will spread through all the wood and the structure will become unstable. So we cut away the rotten wood and replaced it with some special treated wood that should rot slower.

We also had to build some nesting boxes to give the chickens somewhere comfortable and safe to lay their eggs. We made them out of an old bookcase and an off cut of laminate flooring.

Seedlings

Some of the seeds I planted have started to grow! I now have garlic, spinach and cauliflower seedlings.

Unfortunately, no red onions have appeared where I planted seeds. This probably means they are not going to grow. One of the frustrating aspects to growing your own vegetables is when things don't grow and you can't see if anything is happening until they appear above the soil. This gave me an idea for another x-ray experiment. Can we watch an onion growing beneath the soil? I'm going to plant a seed in a pot so it can be x-rayed as it grows.

Planting potatoes

I am growing potatoes in bags in my garden. This is to save space in my garden for other plants. I am using black garden bags, which are a bit thicker than your normal bin bag. I put some holes in the bottom so that water can drain out. I buried 4 to 5 seed potatoes in each bag and watered them. Now I have to wait for them to grow.

Mini Greenhouse

This weekend I built myself a mini greenhouse. I took some plastic shelves and wrapped a clear (apart from some goldfish!) shower curtain around them. This will keep the plants warm and protect the seedlings from insects. I placed the mini greenhouse next to the wall of the house. The bricks will be heated by the sun and hopefully some of this heat will be reflected into the greenhouse keeping it warmer at night.