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the good life ain't easy

Allotment life @thegoodlifeainteasy and chicken-keeping

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October 24, 2017August 14, 2018

I’m Rachel. I grow vegetables and love chickens.

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After Arlo came along, I made it my mission to slowly add more perennial vegetables to the allotment. Tonight we’re eating the nine-star and I’m hoping it’s delicious because it’s been prolific! 🥳 We have quite a few big heads ➡️ (it’s a cauliflower that thinks it’s a broccoli) and lots of smaller shoots like PSB. As long as I don’t let it run to seed, it should produce the goods for the next three-five years at which point I’ll take cuttings and plant more. (Productivity slows down after three years). I have three plants and they’re not small - taking up a sizeable frame to stop the pigeons eating them at this time of year. However, it’s been as easy (and slow) as PSB, so let’s see what tastes better...! Ps arch and greenhouse still standing in the background 🤪

Because you have to talk about the good and the bad 🤪. Last night’s 45mph winds were not kind to my exposed plot 🙈. Photo one is as I left this evening - largely put back together. Photo two is what I arrived to. No greenhouse, arch throwing out some angles not seen since the great storm of 2017 and the less said about the mange tout structure the better! (I feel the video captures that best 😂). Remarkably the greenhouse is fine - it had just gone on an adventure to another part of the hedge. But the duct tape kept it together (thank you @rachels.allotment for sharing!) and it’s now got compost bags all along the frame for the evening. Arch has been sorted but will need reinforcing with stakes and mesh - HO that’s a job for you 😉. And I’ll build another mange tout structure. A few other things need some love too, and one beloved electric light cover is no more. But I guess on reflection it’s not as bad as I first thought (when I was very proud of myself for not crying on walking up to the plot 😂). How is everyone else doing?! 🙈😬

The purples and pinks are on their way. 💕 For me one of the joys of container planting is choosing varieties to prolong a display. A mixture of early and late flowering tulips, combined with daffodils moved across the garden.

We have been busy bees, making an area for the bees! 🐝 As ever, there are a few different projects on the go. First one is to make the wildlife area beautiful and insect friendly, as well as leaving in some nettles and long grass at the back. The area around the front of the pond has been tidied and covered with homemade compost, then scattered with flower seeds. HO is then using the leftover broomsticks (waste nothing) to make a little fence which will go all the way around to make the area safer for a certain toddler. Work in progress, will share more in due course - it needs enclosing and another horizontal line attached. We’re also going to make a screen to stop the raspberries from spilling into the pallet furniture area. For ages I’ve wanted to properly get on top of this space, so it feels great to finally do so 🥳

Well this is very exciting 🥳. We had a couple of hours at the allotment this afternoon (thorougly enjoying annual leave) and got the pop-up greenhouse assembled for some extra protection for tomatoes. ➡️ to get a sense of scale. It’s not huge, but it’s the first time I’ve had a bit of protection at the plot other than brassica cages. It won’t be up all year - we’ll stick to the greenhouse at home for winter growing. Mainly because as much as we’ve tried to ensure it’s secure, our plot is very exposed and I don’t want that stress over winter 🤪. So it will get moved back home, and in the case of another chicken lockdown no doubt get utilised in other ways 😂

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