August Statistics

Well, August was a good month, takings were up on July, so am really pleased.

Here's the breakdown -

Sales -

22 dozen eggs £40.30
14 Cucumbers £8.40
8 Geranium plants £12.00
2 x Herb plants £1.00
3 bags Carrots £2.25
18 bags Tomatoes £16.50

Total £80.45

Expenses -

1 x Large Greenhouse £383.00

Still a long way to go to recoup the greenhouse money, but hey that was a long term investment, and it's now harvest time so fingers crossed we'll recoup in no time.

Today's stats -

Sales -

1 dozen eggs £1.80
1 x bag Bramley apples £1.00
1 x Tomatoes £1.00
1 x bag French beans £0.50

Expenses -

Nil

Fancy a holiday?

Fancy getting away from it all for a bit?  Need to attend to some family business? How on earth do you go about leaving the place, with all that needs looking after?

Well it can be done with a little prior planning and preparation.  Depending on how much needs attending to whilst you are away, will depend on who you can ask and how often they need to visit.

Friends and neighbours can be called upon to put chickens to bed and let out in the mornings, but their level of knowledge and confidence will depend on how much more they feel they can cope with; someone more professional with more experience may be needed, who will come and house-sit full-time.  The appointed person will come and ‘live-in’ for the duration of your holiday, giving you peace of mind whilst you are away with regards to security.  This works excellently if you have household pets, e.g. dogs and cats, as it means their routine is not disturbed.  All your required jobs will be fulfilled by the sitter, i.e. all animal feeding and watering, dog walking, polytunnels/greenhouse watered.

Finding a house sitter, can be a little problematic in itself.  Who is capable, knowledgeable and trustworthy?  Word of mouth is an excellent way, as you get an instant reference as a bonus.  Local smallholding societies who produce monthly magazines may advertise someone local, plus the internet is a good place to hunt too.   The person you choose ideally should be CRB checked, have full third party liability insurance and be able to provide references for you to follow up.

Before committing yourself, you should arrange for them to come for a pre-holiday visit, to view the property and you all get to meet in person.  This gives you an ideal opportunity to see if the person is suitable, if you like them, (they are staying in your house after all), and if they are willing to take the job.  Post visit you can, discuss payment, duties, start and finish dates.  Be prepared to pay a reasonable amount, labour is not cheap and they will be responsible for your property twenty four hours a day.

Whoever you choose, you need to make sure the appointed person understands exactly what needs doing.  Draw up a comprehensive list of duties, e.g.

·        

CChickens

AM – Feed and top up water.  Collect eggs

PM – Let out.  Collect eggs

EVE – Close up run and pop hatch.  Remove feed hopper to shed

·         Leave contact details for yourself and where you are staying, including any mobile numbers.

·         Leave details of where all feed and equipment is kept and where the keys are if any buildings are locked.

·         Notify Vets and the knacker man that you are away and who is staying in your place.  Also leave their contact details in the house for emergencies.

·         Let neighbours/close friends know who is staying, in case they pop in ‘on the off chance’.

·         Leave details of household necessities – bin collection days, stop taps, electricity meters.

·         Anything else you can think of – Central heating squeaks when first comes on, tap drips in kitchen, any vehicles being left at home, for security purposes.

Your expectations of the house sitter should be reasonable too.  Don’t expect them to take your dogs for a five mile walk if you don’t.  Make sure your feed and forage supply is adequate for the duration of their stay.  Also ensure your fencing is secure – enough said!  If it’s winter time, ensure a plentiful supply of heating fuel – oil, coal, logs, whatever it is you use.  The easier and more comfortable you make it for them, the more likely they are to want to come back.

The whole process may seem daunting at the outset, for both parties, but if the house-sitter is experienced in these matters, then all will be well, leaving you to relax and enjoy your time away in confidence.                       

Good old eBay!

Thanks to eBay and Rob from Tiptree in Essex, and to his wife for the coffee, drinks and chocolate biscuits (says Michael), I am now the proud owner of a fabulous new greenhouse and five cold frames.

Michael and Rob spent the afternoon dismantling the approx 6m x 2.4m aluminium greenhouse.  I've now got to decide what to grow for sale next year.

The deconstruction process -

Glass out from the sides

Roof off

Loaded and ready to come home

Michael would like to extend a huge thank you to Rob for helping him take it down, he was extremely helpful.

Can't wait for next year now, it's going to be a huge task to get it up, the base laid, staging in and the cold frames erected too, but it'll be well worth it.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 10

Sales -
1/2 dozen eggs £0.90
1 x 500g Carrots £0.75
1 x Cucumber £0.60

Expenses -
Greenhouse and cold frames £383.00 (that's an awful lot of eggs and veg to sell!)

Look what they've done now!

The little blighters, not content with decimating my winter cabbages they've been on my spring cabbages aswell.

That's two trays nearly all eaten.  It was only by chance that I noticed them.  I was watering them yesterday and wondered what was going on, happened to take a closer look and noticed what looked like caterpillar poo on the leaves, near where the leaves joined the stems on the upper surface, and didn't believe my eyes.

I swept my hand gently across the top of them and lo and behold did the little blighters fall off onto the compost in front of my eyes!  So I did it again until I found them all, and took great delight in squashing them. I'm hoping they aren't too far gone and will re-grow.  I had planned to plant two more trays, as we can sell them once pricked out and plant some here to for sale next year; looks like that job has just been added to my list for tomorrow.  Oh well that's gardening for you.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 11

Sales -
1 & 1/2 dozen eggs £2.50
1 x 500g Tomatoes £2.00
1 x 500g Carrots £0.75
2 x Geranium plants £3.00

Expenses -
Nil

Peppers V Peppers

The battle of the Peppers!

Now, I've always been told that you cannot grow Peppers and Chilli peppers in the same greenhouse / polytunnel at the same time, because they are too closely related and will not produce fruit if you do.

That sounded like a challenge to me, and always up for a challenge, I decided to see, more out of curiosity than anything, what would happen if you did plant the two plants side by side.

Sweet Peppers

Chilli Peppers

These two plants are less than half a metre away from each other and seem to be thriving, (that's the same yellow leaf of a cucumber plant in the photo's).

Having read several books on the subject of growing peppers and chillies, I find that nowhere in these books does it say that you cannot grow them together, in fact they are both in the same family as tomatoes, potatoes and aubergines and should be treated as such for rotation purposes.  Both are reasonably easy to grow, suffer from little problems - the usual slugs, aphids and red spider mite; the main problem being blossom end rot, ie. lack of sufficient water, but if you're seeing that on peppers then you'll be seeing it on your tomatoes too and bells should start ringing in your head to give them all more water.

So I shall continue to plant all my peppers and chillies together and not listen to other people's ideas until I have thoroughly checked them out.  To think I had been panicking about not getting any peppers or chillies - that'll learn me, as they say here in Norfolk!

Stats today - 

Eggs produced = 12

Sales -

1 dozen eggs £1.80

1 x 500g Carrots £0.75

1 x Oregano plant £0.50

Expenses -

Nil