The renovation/rediscovery of the vegetable garden at The Farm continued today. Slasher is on holiday, so that left me and White Spot the chicken to dig over the plot and try to extract some of the unwanted inhabitants. The area being reclaimed is a hotchpotch of excitement. If you happen to be a glutton for punishment, that is! The central area had been a bonfire site for many years so was full of 4 inch nails, barbed wire, half burnt wood, polythene, plastic of various shapes and sizes and a lot of charcoal. Girdling this area is lush turf, 3 inches below this turf is carpet. This carpet must have been laid as a weed suppressant many years ago, it is obvious who won that battle! Linking these disparate areas is a tangle of thick nettle roots and dock weed. It was challenging, to say the least, and I have got about half way through this monumental task. White Spot really didn’t contribute much to this exercise in extreme clearance, except to keep me company and eat a few worms. I did appreciate the little she did and I have found her to be an excellent listener. It would be preferable if she cut down on the worm eating, and concentrated on the bad guys such as mollusc eggs and other root munching larvae. The plan for next week is to finish the digging and improve the soil with some of the spent mushroom compost that was delivered a couple of weeks ago. It the wind stays fair, we are on schedule for tatties by mid summer!
I would love to have chickens. For the company, as you say. Cathartic, talking to a bird.
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Just the odd gentle cluck in return, the perfect partner!
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That sounds a mammoth task, but sounds as if you are getting through it well. Mushroom compost is wonderful stuff, isn’t it. We used to be able to get it here from a local mushroom farm, but sadly not any more as the farm closed down. The added bonus was the occasional mushroom that came up in the garden.
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It is wonderful stuff, sorry that you lost your supply. Did you ever try the mushrooms? I have been tempted, but never have.
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No – I was never quite brave enough either.
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An old friend who was an experienced mushroom hunter, refused to eat mushrooms that anyone else gave her for fear they weren’t as good at choosing.
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You always hear such horror stories, I wouldn’t eat anything I found out and about.
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Horrible way to go, death by mushroom poisoning.
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When we lived in Yorkshire the mushroom compost I used to collect from the farm had just finished its commercial cropping and we got pounds and pounds of lovely mushrooms. Soup, fried, risottos, we were mushroomed-out by the time I went off for the next car load.
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Perhaps I will be braver with this lot! You got to spreading time yet?
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The stuff I got recently has been stacked for a while and is well-rotted, so I might be a bit cautious regarding any mushrooms that cropped up in case some different spores had descended. About two thirds of the good stuff on the garden so far.
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The worms must be tastier than the other stuff (to a chicken, anyway). There are always a lot of worms on our concrete patio after a rain, and they die and dry up when the sun comes out. We wonder why they do this.
Go carefully, and keep your gloves on!
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