Broody at Last????

We may finally have a goose going broody on us but the question marks in my subject title are because she (Black Feather) does not seem at all convinced that she should sit there all day. She announced this possible intention by not coming out of the goose house this morning at 8-ish when I let George the Gander and our other female (Smudge) out and went to shepherd them across to the orchard. She has done this before, mind; she often seems to lay her every-other-night egg very late so you have to leave her sit till she's quite finished and then shepherd her across the 'gap' to find her chums.

'Spare' eggs. Black Feather only needs 12 to sit on.

But today she sat and sat (and also seems to have pulled some of her belly feathers out to line the nest, which is another sign). We wondered if we were on, Day 1 of 31 (-ish). We know that geese, even when in the 'heat' of incubation will leave the nest and go for a wander and a wash for up to 30 minutes so, the way we are currently laid out, we have to leave the goose house door open for her and just keep an eye, as she'd then be completely free range, the big pond, veg growing areas, flower beds etc. All being well she'd only be out for the 30 minutes, so wouldn't be able to do too much damage.

First rose of 2014, a 'Dublin Bay'.

Well, she came off after lunch but then seemed to stay off. I wondered if she was trying to 'talk' to her chums, so at one stage I opened the orchard gate and let them all 'commune' but , no, they all three just wandered about eating the nicer grass outside the orchard and bathing in the big pond. At least I had a chance to nip in and steal the 'spare eggs' again - we have being following Anne's instruction to date mark the eggs and then steal the oldest each day, leaving the nest with only 12. Eventually I got bored with watching them stroll about and shepherded all 3 geese 'home' thinking that Black Feather, on being led in there might see the nest and 'remember' her responsibilities. She did. She went to sit and the other 2 wandered back to the orchard. We saw her off the eggs again later in the afternoon too, so I am worried that she is not yet 100% convinced as a broody. Watch this space, I guess.

Keyhole bed fortified with chicken wire.

At this time of year that all our perennials and the tulips start to emerge from the soil with plenty of young, tender, green shoots, very attractive to chickens. They growing tips are turgid with April rain and quite brittle, so that a chicken pushing through the clump, even if she is hunting grubs rather than greenery, will snap off all your tulips and trample down the new green stuff. We go into defensive mode, and can hear Anne telling us when we first met, that there is a big difference between fencing chickens into an area, and trying to fence them out! My ring of sheep fence round the keyhole bed which worked 100% last year was perceived with scorn this year by the new ladies and I had to add 4 feet of chicken wire on top. It's not beautiful but the galvanised mesh is old and dull and if you squint you can ignore it and see the lovely safe tulips coming into unbroken bud inside.

Liz in a cage. I let her out when she's done enough weeding.

We also decided this year to encircle the entire new raised bed with 40 metres of (4 foot high, 2 inch mesh) chicken wire, in this case supported on canes, just because it was going to be a temporary structure. However, Liz so enjoyed weeding without assistance of the chooks and found some more chicken-damage which we had not spotted, that this encirclement may become permanent. If so, we will probably make it more beautiful, all this fencing is starting to look like Guantanamo Bay. The official story for this picture is that Liz has shut herself in. Some might suspect that I lock her in this cage till she's done enough weeding and then let her out!

Flowering currant (Ribes)

There is not a great deal else going on. Broody Betty shows no sign yet of following Black Feather down the 'broody' road. We chug on with our Bee School - Lesson 5 was last Monday. I have 'Piggy School' on Saturday, my training course for Pig Rearing down in Tipperary. I think I will just leave you with some nice 'macro' pics of garden flowers which are currently doing the honours. Enjoy them.

Vital bee food in April - the humble dandelion. 

A new one on us. Coltsfoot (Tussilago)

Pulmonaria (Lungwort)

Doing very well here in 2014. Primroses.

Keyhole Bed

One man's pile of rubble is another man's perma-culture, as they (may) say. Mainly for the fun of it, Dad is trying out a gardening method we were introduced to by new friends Anne and Simon, namely 'Keyhole Beds'. These are basically circular raised beds with a short path coming to the middle from the outside. They are beloved of the 'Perma-Culture eco warriors and of Aid organisations, for example to Africa where they are used in "help them to help themselves" style programmes. "Send-a-Cow" use them widely. (http://permaculturenews.org/2011/04/07/building-a-raised-bed-keyhole-garden/) In the middle of the circular bed you have a basket into which the whole village is encouraged to throw their compostible kitchen waste, peelings etc. The beds, being circular take up little space and the short path minimizes the non-worked area. You can also grow things via the nooks and crannies in the sides, for example trailing tomatoes or strawberries.

You can get to both sides of the bed to weed (inside and outside), the design is very water efficient and the fertility comes from the rotting compost at the centre which leaches its nutrients straight into the soil around. Obviously in Roscommon we are short of neither space nor water but it IS a good way of using up any spare flattish masonry, rubble and concrete blocks. Generally the local stone comes in 'head-shaped' boulders and is a devil to stack anyhow, but I guess if you lived in an area with flat local stone you could use that. Roscommon has none, so we do not have 'dry stone walls' in this county. Our 'stone' walls are actually made from concrete poured into a wooden shuttering sandwich with the rocks which are available tossed in to save on concrete and give strength.

Anne and Simon have found that theirs, though still only in its first full season is brilliant at not becoming waterlogged and warms up very quickly in Spring giving them a very early season start to anything they plant. It is currently carrying a veritable forest of squashes, an unusual long-red-stemmed trailing form of perpetual spinach (a new one on Dad) and salad crops. Dad's 'basket', he made out of the timbers stripped from Sparks's attic as it was being converted, so even more 'reduce, re-use, recycle'

Now it just remains to fill it with soil round the outside, and regular readers will know that we are about to dig a pond, so soil should not be a problem!

We will then probably plant it with something autumnal just to try it out. It is also a nice short walk with the compost bucket being a few yards from the kitchen door. Weeding should be easy as it is all at thigh height. Watch this space to see how we get on. Nice job Dad.

Deefs