The Story So Far

I Moved in 2007 and grass seeded all the land around the house just to tidy things up.

What I didn't know at the time the soil is mostly clay!

So several ton's of top soil and horticultural sand have slowly been added to the top of the lawn for the rain to wash in and the worms to take down, its getting better but has a long way to go, chicken droppings have also helped a lot

Around my perimeter I planted a number of fruit trees with lots of organic matter. A few are doing well but some died. Regular mushing seems to be helping. But before adding more I'm really going to have to sort out the soil.

I love composting so two large bins were started straight away and more now need to be added.
I planted a large herb garden in a lovely sheltered spot next to a small patio behind the house and last year added pots of potatoes and cut n grow salad leaves in containers to that area with mixed success.

I returned to chicken keeping last year with 2 speckled Sussex bantam hens bought from a local breeder. The two girls kept going broody over there first summer so I used them to hatch out many fertile eggs bought via ebay. I started with Pekin Bantams in several colours, followed by cochins and some more speckled Sussex bantam's. I of course ended up with almost a 100 chickens between my broody girls and an incubator borrowed from my dad. While I had great success with hatching chickens, all attempts at hatching geese and turkeys in the incubator failed! All seemed well and then they died in the shell the last couple of days. The eggs were just too big for my little bantams to manage. So come spring I'm going to buy day olds and rear them.