salad crops
On the warm days it seems as if I’ll never be ready for spring and on the cold days it seems as if spring will never be here. I’ve started sowing seeds outside – probably still a bit early for some things but with a few warm days they will be away. I found a hen scratching in the vegetable garden today which is always a problem with free-ranging chooks. She knew where the best worms would be found of course.
If you fancy raising some chicks to decimate your own garden, I’ll have some fertile eggs for sale ($3 each) at the Ohariu rural living day. It’s on this Saturday (27th September 2008) at 583 Ohariu Valley Road from 10am to 3pm. There will be a draw for a box of spring produce from the kitchen garden – the only way to get some before the season starts in December. I’ll have with me Henry the rooster and some of his wives.
The kitchen garden will be open as part of the Ohariu Valley Country Garden tour on Sunday 9th November 2008.
Tomato, eggplant, capsicum and chilli pepper plants will soon be available (six plants for $25). This year’s varieties are slightly different to last. Please email me if you would like plants or if you’ve got any comments on what went well or badly with your plants last year. Or you can post feedback at the end of this post.
Here are some tips for sowing seeds outside. Or you can keep sowing seeds indoors in pots for a few more weeks. The peas sown in guttering worked very well – 100% germination and they are now planted outdoors under a cloche. You’ll get plenty more help with seed sowing from the fresh food garden course.
There’s something quite amazing about the process of an egg becoming a chick. Raising your own chooks from eggs gives you a wider choice of the breeds you keep, as you can get fertile eggs sent to you more easily than live birds. If you want to experience the miracle in your own back garden, you’ll need some fertile chicken eggs and a broody chook or incubator.
I think it’s easier to use a hen to hatch eggs. The chicks also turn out healthier when they are looked after by mum (or a surrogate mum), but you can get good results if you’re diligent checking even a basic incubator. Bantam hens are meant to make the best mothers. Older hens tend to be better than those less than a year old. From time to time you’ll see hens for sale on Trade Me, although they can be scarce in Wellington.
Just make sure if you decide you want to keep chooks that you actually like them. You’ll be seeing them at least once a day for the next few years so you’ve got like spending time with them about. I sell fertile rhode island red eggs from about September to March for $15 for a half dozen so email me if you are interested in buying some. I don’t have chicks or pullets for sale.
