Gardening with Rosie

So the wet weather is back again. So far it has made the peas and sweet peas fail miserably. They are covered in mould and aphids. Thankfully, the nasturtiums have thrived. I'm going to try putting some in salad and see what the reaction is.














The garden is a bit of a mess with dog stuff everywhere but I have finally got around to doing a bit of weeding.















The dog decided to help. Here she is looking a bit sheepish as she has dug up more plants and decided to sit on them so there was no incriminating evidence.

Rosie has kindly shown me the correct way to scrape clean a plant pot


Thankfully, despite having eaten a chicken diet she will still come back to us for cooked chicken. Here she is enjoying a walk at the lake, rather a quick snack break on the way. I can't believe it, she's managed to gain a whole kilo in a week, despite not being well. That's chicken power! Now if only she could eat eggs...

Trouble for Rosie

Poor Rosie has been feeling a bit rough for a couple of days. She was prescribed a diet of chicken and rice by the vet and, not surprisingly, loved it.

I think the chickens knew something was up because they refused to lay eggs for a day.

 Here you can see Rosie is sitting nicely for a small chicken treat.

Here she is back on her four paws again. Has she learnt not to drink pond water, eat flowers from the garden, dig up and eat the chew toys from the soil? What do you think? I'm sure dog food is not one of the purposes of the multi-purpose compost.

Pond life

 Finally the sun has been shining in our garden, and the sunflowers in the vegetable patch are stunning.









The wild flower bed is inundated with colour, its full of cornflowers and poppies









Surprisingly, there are some flowers that the dog hasn't eaten.

Rosie met Chip and was very interested in his bone. No chance, Rosie! The two of them managed to dig a large hole in Chip's garden. Chip has a very patient owner...

The pond is also full of life, although it is still green, it doesn't seem to put the dragon flies, water boatmen and pondskaters off. There is also a frog or two who  I see late at night when I shut up the chickens.








There is also a more common spotted Spaniel who thinks no one will know where she's been. It's a good thing you can't smell her.

She still likes the chickens although she barks at them a lot because Big Bird pecked at her (it was well deserved).

To be continued....

When Bailey met Rosie...

A dog's garden

 The garden has had to take a back seat. In fact we're lucky if we get a chance to weed it with magic paws here. She loves to dig..
















...nearly as much as she loves to chew. Here she's in the process of stealing a padded envelope. Her list of favourite things to chew are post it notes, smelly trainers, dirty tea towels, anything that's been worn for sport, not to mention wellie boots and toes!

 Rosie loves to follow me everywhere and that includes to inspect the chickens. This is her cute look, but I'm not giving in because I don't like to think what Rosie would do to them.

More to the point, I don't know what the chickens would do to Rosie, since they are considerably larger than she is!

Rosie's other favourite thing is to run from one end of the garden to the other shredding flowers and then eating any that take her fancy.

So Rosie has turned our lives upside down in only 10 days but we love it. Those sad eyes and floppy ears combined with a little tilt of her head and I'd forgive her everything.

Green stuff and monkey business

In the last few days there has been damage to the vegetables. Here the spinach is looking more stalky than leafy. I thought it was the local fat pigeon population but then during dinner we noticed that the Mother was out and about munching away.

Then again the next day she was at it again. This called for drastic reinforcements. Here she is pecking away in feigned innocence.





Meanwhile, I attempted to increase the height of the fence by a few inches.

I was feeling less than exuberant about them when I shut their coop for the night and then I saw that I'd forgotten to open the door to their sleeping quarters after I'd cleaned it. The poor hens were roosting on the ramp and there were only three of them! Where was the Mother!!!!

It was dark and quiet, as we listened out for any sounds from the birds but nothing...The led wind-up torch was a bit of a let down as it didnt' have a wide beam but eventually we found her asleep in a hollow she'd dug earlier in her enclosure. I realised that she couldn't help herself, I mean spinach is always greener on the other size of the fence.

Come to think of it, egg production has increased recently, I wonder if some of the eggs will be green...


Today, a friend has kindly helped to clip the hens feathers. Hopefully they are too lopsided to make it onto the compost bin now because otherwise they may prefer the neighbours' flowers on the other side of their fence.


If that doesn't work, we have another method of bird control...our new puppy. She is our first puppy in the family so again everything is new. She is adorable and well loved already. Welcome Rosie!

How green does my garden...and pond grow?

 The pond water after all this time is still very green. It's been filled with rain water but it is too rich in nutrients so the algae are flourishing. I had hoped that the plants in the water would help to oxygenate it but with little effect. The other day I saved a frog and put it into the pond but I have no way of knowing if it is still there.

 I heard that barley straw is good to get rid of algae so I've tried a DIY bag made from an orange bag and some straw left over from the strawberries. After a few days I got impatient and resorted to more serious methods:

a solar powered pump oxygenator. I was very cynical about whether it would work.










I need to weigh down the air stones so the tubes are hidden but they are definitely aerating the water. The only drawback is if the clouds come out or you stand in front of the solar panel then it will stop. Fingers crossed that there will be some improvement in the water.








Meanwhile, thanks to all this rain, colour is returning to the garden. It's hard to believe that there is a drought and hose pipe ban on.








These are one of my daughter's sweet peas that survived the warm winter.

I was given these Anenomes by a friend as they share my name.

The neighbours' fence was a great spot for this opportunistic climber. It appeared last year for the first time through all the tarram, whackered down type 2 stone and then gravel so I thought it deserved a sporting chance. I think it may be a clematis, but I will have to wait and see.

Things are improved in the front garden as the horse manure is finally all on the flowerbeds and the wood chips is down around the veggies, so there are no huge bulk bags taking up the front garden.

 Thankfully, the hardy Geraniums Johnson's Blue have survived the winter and are looking great.

But also their larger cousins, the Buxton's Blue are spreading too. I hope that between them they can cover the whole flower bed and hide the straggly leaves of the Alliums and the nearly rotted tulips.

I'll keep dreaming but meanwhile, the weeds wait for no man, or woman. Eek! The ground elder is back!