Unsecure chicken perches

[Donna C]

Hi all, Am thinking about adding a small veggie patch next year and thought i'd ask all knowing omlet people any tips advice Was thinking pots, carrots, onions as have grown them before and what we use most. Also any ideas for keeping chickens off it

[C&T]

Not sure how big yours will be, but I try and stick to stuff that nicest picked fresh and give me good crops, and are compact. So many salad type things - lettuce,tomatoes, spring onions. Plus a shrub courgette plant - produced lots and quite compact compared to other varieties! Green beans are good too - and go up a fence just as easily as up canes if space is a premium.

 

You could try some soft fruit as well? Gooseberry bushes can be really productive, and not take up much room, same as Blueberry bushes.

 

Carrots - I have terrible experiences with (no idea why) and onions are cheap enough anyway in the shops. I did try potatoes this year - but grew them in sacks instead of "wasting" the small veg patch.

 

Lots of netting to keep chooks out! I use the Omlet netting - not too many disasters yet!

[SJChick]

Hi

 

I think sweetcorn are great, tall and slim and you can plant them in a small block formation. We do ours in a polytunnel because we're cooler here but if you are further south they might grow outside (not sure where you are), also the corns are further up the stalk so chickens can't get them We also grow strawberries (in pots and planters so you can move them out the way of beaks!), raspberries and blackcurrants are also quite tall. I agree with C&T netting is good.

 

Another thought - lettuce - plant them and cover each plant with a plastic coke bottle or similar cut in half so the lettuce grows straight up inside the bottle and air and water can get in the top of the bottle.

[Valkyrie]

Carrots don't do well here either, although parsnips (if they germinate) do brilliantly. We do like to grow our own onions, but leeks are really easy and I always have some of them on the go. Other things we like are runner beans, French beans (preferably climbing to get more in a small space). Occasionally do spuds - the leeks go in when they are dug up. Tomatoes, celeriac, chard, pak choi, peas, sweetcorn, calabrese and sprouts. One year I underplanted with clover - that was a really good year and when the produce had been harvested, the clover was dug in as a green manure. Carrots we either get from Waitrose or a local organic farm - it's better not to waste time and effort on those any more. We also have a few fruit bushes - blackcurrants, raspberries, redcurrants and in pots we have blueberries (because they like acidic soil). I've probably forgotten something but never mind. Oh yes, as a summer screen for the cube and run we have Jerusalem artichokes. In the greenhouse we have more toms, peppers and aubergines.

This year was a bad year for germination and I have put it down to the compost we were using - sadly it was New Horizons Organic - and my FIL has had similar problems - it seems to have toadstools and coral spot growing from the bags (now I know some white threaded fungi is good and natural in compost, but not these particular varieties which then spread over the garden) and some sort of shredded woody stuff that hasn't rotted down properly. Last year it was full of large bits of bark that once removed left probably three quarters of a bag that could be used. The search is now on for more reliable organic compost.

[Daphne]

This year was a bad year for germination and I have put it down to the compost we were using - sadly it was New Horizons Organic - and my FIL has had similar problems - it seems to have toadstools and coral spot growing from the bags (now I know some white threaded fungi is good and natural in compost, but not these particular varieties which then spread over the garden) and some sort of shredded woody stuff that hasn't rotted down properly. Last year it was full of large bits of bark that once removed left probably three quarters of a bag that could be used. The search is now on for more reliable organic compost.

 

Thats interesting - either 2 or 3 years ago I was given a freebie small bag to try (I think it was their launch). I was hugely unimpressed because of the woody stuff in it (like an unravelled shredded wheat!) so its interesting to hear it still has problems. Last year 2 neighbours had mega problems with free local horse-poo type compost. The consensus was it must have had weedkiller spray float onto it. Nothing grew, complete disaster.

[Valkyrie]

It's quite demoralising when that happens isn't it.

[sjp]

This year was a bad year for germination and I have put it down to the compost we were using - sadly it was New Horizons Organic - and my FIL has had similar problems - it seems to have toadstools and coral spot growing from the bags (now I know some white threaded fungi is good and natural in compost, but not these particular varieties which then spread over the garden) and some sort of shredded woody stuff that hasn't rotted down properly. Last year it was full of large bits of bark that once removed left probably three quarters of a bag that could be used. The search is now on for more reliable organic compost.

 

Thats interesting - either 2 or 3 years ago I was given a freebie small bag to try (I think it was their launch). I was hugely unimpressed because of the woody stuff in it (like an unravelled shredded wheat!) so its interesting to hear it still has problems. Last year 2 neighbours had mega problems with free local horse-poo type compost. The consensus was it must have had weedkiller spray float onto it. Nothing grew, complete disaster.

 

there's some links here that might help reguards the horse manure it was weedkiller but it was in the grass/feed or bedding that the horses ate we had a bit on one of our plots but the black horse site had at least half the site affected one birmingham site was more or less totaly affected should add that the muck that was contaminated on our site still had it in this year luckerly the plot holder had'nt use the muck on his plot but had let us put some of the show spuds in the muck bin partly to test it safe

http://www.sandwellallotments.btck.co.uk/Information/ContaminatedManure