Spring in the Garden

Spring in the Garden

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Every Cloud


I was looking forward to eating our cabbages when we came back from holiday in the middle of July.  We'd had a good crop last year and I thought I'd grown these in exactly the same way.  However, last year the cabbages had good hearts before they got too big for the cloche I'd grown them in to protect them from cabbage white butterflies and their ravenous offspring.

The one thing we did do differently was to plant the cabbages several weeks later due to the prolonged cold start to the year. We also went on holiday a couple of weeks earlier.

For whatever reason, this year's cabbages were a big disappointment as their hearts had been eaten away by the cabbage white caterpillars, so instead of us eating them we have fed them to the chickens, who have very much enjoyed them as you will see from the clip below when I threw them our very  last cabbage.  That was until I tried to get close to them.

When we put them back in the hen-house we threw the cabbage in with them and it's now not much more than a skeleton.




We still have the Brussels sprouts, though.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Karin
    Chickens are looking v. happy and making happy clucks I think! Ben and L. lost one of theirs last week! Not sure why it just died during the day after looking a bit quiet in the morning! See you soon

    Sue A.

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  2. Hi Sue,

    I took those noises to be happy clucks, too. One day I'll have to record the sound they make when there are no more grapes or something they love - not so happy. I suspect they are telling me off.

    That's a shame about Ben and L's chicken. Their chickens are still young, aren't they? We seem to have been lucky so far.

    See you next week.

    Karin

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  3. Hi Karin!
    I love your new layout and the photo at the top is just beautiful! Shame about your cabbages but at least they were not a complete waste...the hens look like they are enjoying them ;) Your hens are looking great!

    Thanks so much for your lovely comments to my blog while I have been 'away' and since my return, always lovely to find them. Have a great weekend xx

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  4. Thank you, Karen. The photo is of our veg patch about mid August this year. Hope you have a good weekend yourself. K

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  5. Caterpillars are definitely the down-side to butterflies!

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I look forward to reading your comments, it's always good to hear encouraging words or relevant hints and tips.