So far so good...

[Hillbilly]

Well, its now June and things are growing fast here in NE Scotland. First serious attempt at Organic gardening and despite a population of slugs to rival Mexico City, we apepar to be winning

Anyway in a moment of supreme chest puffing pride (and Cairn o'mhor Elderberry wine) we took these pics. Hope you like them. I know its not a hugely impressive set up but we're sooooo proud.



The garden today... top to bottom main bed - tatties, onions, neeps, broccoli, parsnips, carrots, more onions, beetroot, even more tatties, lettuce (bioni, lollo rosso) and finally growing up the sitka hag are more peas. In front of that is more tatties, chives and some calendula and the bed in foreground is broccoli.

In the greenhouse - peppers, tomato's , more lettuce seedlings and pea/dwarf beans seedlings and the walking stick kale plant I got from Ina.

Down the left hand side is the raised bed (dwarf runners), rhubarb and baby comfrey (out of sight is also some recovering wild garlic and a bucket of comfrey/nettle brew which stinks..)



Dwarf beans...



another view...



Big Mama and the 5 roast dinners (to be..)

[Hillbilly]

My front door...clematis and finally, the view from that door.....

[Shirley]

Looks even BETTER in real life... and you've put lots of hard work into it so you deserve to feel proud.

Oooh.. was going to post this in another section but our chicks are hatching... 4 out of 10 so far... 2 light sussex, a cream legbar and a dorking... just got to work out how to sex them now.

[Hillbilly]

Oh my god congratulation!!!!!!!!!! piccies?!?!?!?!?

Easy way to sex them is observe them over the next few weeks. if they spend an inordinately long time in front of the telly watching people kick a little white ball around on the grass, you can be pretty sure they're blokes 8)

[Lou8]

Jo - I think it all looks amazingly impressive. You are an inspiration to me to keep going.

[Wombat]

MMMMMMMMM........Niiiiiice!

Well done Jo!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

OK first of all, what is a sitka hag?

2nd of all - WOW! Wow to the well organised lovely garden and WOW to the view!!

[Hillbilly]

Thanks all really means a lot coming from far-more-experienced-ssf'ers-than-I!

MMM - Sitka hag - Branches from the felled Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) - a non native (to Scotland) spruce tree - it originated in Alaska but is now one of the UK's most prevelant consituent commerical wood crop. Its a complete nightmare to cut down and even worse to plant. Unfortunately during my time as a Forester I must have had to plant well over a million of these things, maybe more as they are fast growing and in great demand. There has been a move in the last few years to introduce, reintroduce more native species but they just aren't as commercially viable as they bend, twist and warp easier. Still I managed to get probably 500,000 Scots Pine and the same again in Larch and Birch in the ground. You can just see my old work hut in the 'view' piccie (back left - little wooden hut) - thats how far I had to travel to work in the morning LOL!

[Shirley]

Oh my god congratulation!!!!!!!!!! piccies?!?!?!?!?

Easy way to sex them is observe them over the next few weeks. if they spend an inordinately long time in front of the telly watching people kick a little white ball around on the grass, you can be pretty sure they're blokes 8)

HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA - no chance of the footie being on the telly in this house.

The light sussex biggest chick is a huge bully - I reckon he's a boy.

the dorking.. got to double check but I think you can sex them at a day old but can't remember which one has the stripe.

Cream legbar.. no idea...

we've now got five out and a couple of eggs rolling around in the incubator.

Just got to keep the cat off them... and the dog.. who is acting all maternal... was sooooooooo funny this morning when the goose was pecking the dogs tail while she was watching over the chicks.

Anyway - I'm way off topic... will go and find out about sex... well sexing chooks anyway.

[ina]

You lot are just making me ashamed of how little I've managed to do...

Right, I'd better get on doing the work I'm being paid for, so I can get out there and start on my garden!

Oh, forgot to say - it really looks impressive. And I'm glad about Shirley's little ones - maybe they are companions to gos-gos? (That's the gosling, for the uninitiated.)

[glenniedragon]

Looks fantastic! you have every right to be chuffed and enjoy that elderberry wine...all the piccies taken in beautiful sunshine too!
Congrats to both of you (Jo&Shirlz) on your new hatchings, on sexing chicks- one of our poultry friends reckons you can tell the sex from the wing feathers something to do with the length of the primaries and coverlets at a day old...

kind thoughts
Deb

[Martin]

absolutely superb! - well done! - your love for it shows

[Boots]

Wow Jo! Bit late finding this, but it is GREAT!

Ah, sooo GREEEEN there!

Well done mate.

[Millie]

Looks great hun!!! Well done!

[Hillbilly]

Awww thank you very much - I have to say a huge sincere thanks to everyone on this site though. Without the SSF articles and pinching you guy's tips we wouldn't have had half as much fun nor been half as successful

We do love it very, very much. Now if we could just secure this land and get some bigger animals on the go....