Just had a fabulous day at the Waveney Smallholders Festival at Blacksmith's Cottage Nursery, Langmere, near Diss, Norfolk.

      

It was the first year they had opened for such an event and are planning to expand next year. They are a plant nursery primarily, but are expanding into all things smallholding, including vegetable and fruit growing.

The owner Ben, is passionate about plants and poultry, this was self evident in his talks, his exuberance made his talks on his prized chickens, ducks and especially pigeons come alive.  It was wonderful to listen to his enthusiasm, made us all want to go out and buy the assorted breeds.

Ben holding a Frill Back Pigeon

                                                 Tom holding an Olde English Game Cockerel

Tom who runs the smallholding side of things, director of Black Duck Farm and an ex elephant keeper, (thankfully he hadn't brought any of them with him to Norfolk), is expert in all things alpaca's; their nature, characteristics, his obvious love of the animals shone through.  Relatively new to gardening, soaking up advice from any older gardeners he comes across, he has decided to concentrate on heritage varieties and can't wait for his apples to ripen.

Upcycling at its best - mattress bed springs for plants to climb up

It was great to listen to such enthusiasm for all things smallholding.  His Cayuga ducks were a delight, (see pic below); I am currently convincing Michael that we 'need' some!

Both Ben and Tom were disappointed in the lack of turnout of stallholders that had been invited.  Most sent produce to be sold in the shop - cards, local beers and apple juice, jewellery, books and mugs.  I don't think they should have been too down hearted, I thought they got the day just right, with guided talks on the all the various departments - poultry, gardens and plants; plus with them being so approachable, it was easy to ask many questions, I could have stayed an awful lot longer.

Cafe, Shop and Gallery

The one stallholder who did turn up, admittedly he only had to come from the next village was Angus Paterson.  He sells secondhand, quality garden and smallholder tools from his self-built shepherd's hut.

He let me have a wander around it (after he'd tidied up!), and it was a delight to behold, I never knew there was so much room in them.

I was stunned with the quality and vast array of livestock there was, the poultry especially, I had never seen so many breeds in one place; the crane's were magnificent, see pic below.

Bourbon Red Turkeys

Naked Neck Chicken (stood on one leg)

Thanks must go to all at Blacksmith's Cottage Nursery and Black Duck Farm, it was a great day out; the lemon cake was also a real treat.  Looking forward to next year already.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 13

Sales -
1/2 dozen eggs £0.90

Expenses -
Nil

How to make Pigeon scarers

We have dreadful trouble with pigeons here, and despite my husband's best efforts with his shotgun, we still get them eating our brassica's, in fact the air is often blue above our smallholding here!

I dreamt these up and, touch wood, they seem to work just fine, and cheap to make too.

You will need -
Canes
String/twine
Aluminium foil plates or pie dishes

I bought our foil dishes from the local £1 type shop, I think there was about ten in a pack.  I started off by cutting them in half - this cuts the cost down even further.  Then in the middle of one side I poked a small hole, just big enough to push a small piece of string.  Don't poke the hole too near the edge of the dish as the action of the wind, will rip the hole bigger and possibly tear the hole through.

The string I used was builder's line string (the only string I could find at the time), although this isn't the ideal as it twists and wraps itself around the cane.  I am in the process of transferring them over to baler twine, and will let you know if that is better.

The canes I used were 4ft long standard garden canes, pushed about 1ft into the soil.  I then tied the string tightly to the top of the canes.  They instantly began to flutter in the breeze and bash against the cane, giving off quite a loud noise.

The noise and the sun's reflection was enough to keep the pigeon's off for about a week, until one brave soul determined to get a meal, dared to get underneath them, but even he has now gone looking elsewhere.

It is a time consuming process, but the advantage of the the pie dishes is that they are cheap and do flutter in even the slightest of breezes.

I tried using the ring pull lids from tin cans, but they are a bit too heavy and therefore don't blow in the breeze.  And the pie dishes are better than CD's as they make a noise.

I'd be interested in what you do to keep off the birds and if you decide to try out my scarer's to know how you fared.

Mine in action!

From tomorrow I shall be away for the weekend, attending two re-unions!  So I won't be able to post - apologies.  Normal service will be resumed again from Monday.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your garden this weekend
Angela

Stats today -

Sales -
1/2 dozen eggs = £0.90

Expenses -
Nil