Gardening Explained: Learn the Lingo

Take control of your garden by getting to know the basics. Find out the way to support climbers and how to keep lawns weed-free.

Learn the lingo:
Many plants are able to scale the heights without support, but others will be crying out for help. There are two types of plants that need a helping hand: climbers and varieties with weak stems.

Trellis is one of the most attractive supports for climbers such as clematis and honeysuckle. Fix these lattice-work wood frames on to walls and fences or erect free standing panels.

To make more of a feature of your climbing plants, you could choose a permanent structure such as a pergola, arch, gazebo or pillar. The plants will probably need tying in to the structure at intervals, but they will have free range to spread at will.

Use bamboo canes for individual plants. Delphiniums will appreciate this sort of support. Tie in the stems with soft garden twine at intervals.

Removing lawn weeds:
Dig out persistent weeds before they make themselves at home in your lawn. No one minds the odd daisy, but it's best to root out the less attractive visitors once you spot them.

1) Use a hand trowel to dig out perennial weeds. Remove every bit of the root, especially the long tap root of dandelions.
2) You will have a hole in your lawn where the weed had settled. Level this by adding a little potting compost, which will also enrich the soil. Mix it in well.
3) Spinkle grass seed over the bare patch. Mix it into the soil surface to ensure it is evenly spaced and just covered with soil. Water with a fine hose.
4) To speed up germination and keep the birds off, spread a sheet of clear polythene over the patch and peg in place. Remove this once the seedlings start to emerge.

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Hot Summer Planting

Put the life back into your garden this summer by adding colour, are you bored with your borders? Add splashes of vivid colours to spice things up a little

Colour Matching
Avoid placing colours right next to each other that clash. You could be co-ordinated and stick to shades of one or two colours, like mauves, pinks and purples; or go trendy and plant red, yellow and orange. But don´t mix these two colour ranges or the result will be like an explosion in a paint shop!

It's a good idea to look at a colour wheel, as you will immediately be able to see which colours go together. As they say, opposites attract, and this works for some colours that are opposite to each other on the wheel - like green and red.

A good strategy is to match three colours that are spaced at equal distances around the wheel - purple, green and orange work well together.

Clematis: Make a superb display and are vigorous once planted. A good choice is Clematis viticella ´Purpurea Plena Elegans´ which flowers from late summer to autumn.

Roses: For a pale and pretty display, choose the white "iceberg" variety.

Herb Gardens: A Must Have!

Whether your garden is 10 acres in the country, or you have to make do with a window box in the city centre, herbs ought to be at the top of your plant wish list. Not only are they useful in the kitchen, but they are among the most decorative plants in the garden, and often the most fragrant!

A herb garden should be designed with as much thought as any other part of your garden. The foliage and flowers of herbs are beautiful and varied, and will provide lots of interest and colour right through the year. Even their seed heads are attractive to look at and fabulous in the frost.

If you have th space plant a separate herb garden, arrange the herbs in regular shaped beds, edged in the box with brick paths between. As the herbs grow, they will spill over the box, so that as you pass by you'll experience the fabulous aromas.

Herbs are also extremely easy to grow. There are annual varities, like coriander that need to be grown each year from seed. But the vast majority are perennials, which will come up year after year, without much interference from you, and supply you with years of culinary pleasure.

If you are short of time, or just can't wait to start your collection, pick up pots of herbs from the supermarket to plant out straightaway in sunny spots.

In hot weather, herbs will be particularly thirsty, so give them a good watering in the late afternoon as well as first thing in the morning.

Herb Growing Tips
If you start from seed on the windowsill, rotate the tray each morning, so they all get a fair share of light.

Water the compost and not the seedlings every morning to stop them rotting. Thin out the seedlings using tweezers if the tray gets overcrowded. Pot up in compost and don't press or firm it too much as you want air to reach the roots. Choose a shallow pot or the plant will concentrate on growing deep roots rather than a healthy plant.

Lettuce Leaf Basil
Annual
This Italian basil with its crinkly leaves is just the ticket for salads and making pesto sauce. Its easily grown from seed. Water in the mornings; it's not keen on a soaking throughout the day.

Garlic Chives
Perennial
Evergreen, not difficult to grow and looks stunning in pots. This chive has mild garlic onion flavoured leaves while the flowers taste of sweet garlic. Both are good in salads and make attractrive garnishes. These are easily grown from seed, but be sure to plant out in a sunny spot, in well drained soil.

Buckler Leaf Sorrel
Hardy perennial
The compact leavesof the sorrel have a sharp lemon flavour. This herb is a great addition to salad or use the older leaves to make a sauce for chicken or fish. This herb loves the great outdoors, so plant out as soon as it's established. It will lose its vigour and flavour on the windowsill. Grown easily from seed.

Broad Leaved Sage
Perennial
This evergeen and aromatic herb with grey-green leaves displays purple flowers in summer. It prefers a sunny spot. It has an affinity with meat, especially pork and poultry, but is just as divine with a tomato salad. You might get better results from this herb if you grow from cuttings

Small Gardens: Transformation Tips

The small garden problem:
How to turn a nightmare of a tiny overgrown garden, dominated by a shed over run with climbing plants and filled with junk, into a lush haven for you and your family?

Small garden solution: Determine exactly what you have to work with, design your layout, choose your plants and most importantly get the area cleared before!

Small is beautiful!
The best thing about small gardens is that they are often secluded or private, or can be made to be with climbing plants (my personal favourite). They probably won't have grass to cut or flower beds to weed. Most of the planting can be in pots which can be shifted around as you like.

Buried treasure:
Turning out your shed can produce a heap of 'junk' and assorted hoarded wood, ripe for imaginative recycling. An old wooden palette can be set down alongside the shed to make an instant deck area. Poles at each corner with cross bars fixed to them at the top, to create a pergola! If you have a scrambling bush or vine, untangle and tie to a frame for support, to eventually create a green canopy. If you really want to get sensual and relaxed you could introduce a mattress, bells and wind chimes for a calming effect - the perfect place to practice Yoga!

To distract attention from an ugly concrete floor, line the space with big pot plants, this will create a nice feeling in the space and take the eyes away from the floor, also a good talking point.

Do not barricade small areas by choosing upright plants vs spreading plants. You can always trim back your plants if they get a bit big for their roots ;)
Well worn garden tools and even an old barrow from the shed can be lined up in a proud row to create a gallery of garden antiques, put summer bedding plants in pots beneath the climbers and foliage plants.

Plant up containers with plae flowers such as Verbena and Cosmos which has a fluffy fern like foliage which can lighten dark areas.

If you want to create a harmonious contemporary look with your windows then introduce hanging baskets consisting of white and yellow flowers. For a full, soft focus, use Tolmiea, which is often called 'The Mother of Thousands', plant, and Plectranthus, both of which have attractive trailing variegated foliage. If you want some drama then add Ophiopogon negrescens.

Tip: Add water retaining crystals to the compost, they turn to a jelly which keeps the compost moist. Add pellets of plant food at the same time. They release their nutrients slowly into the compost over the growing period.

Weed Control: In a small garden you may be lucky and only have a few patches that need constant weed control but if you really do not want to deal with any weeds then to create a pathway, for example. Cover with special weed supressing membrane. It stops weeds from getting the light and water they need to thrive. A layer of gravel can then sit on top, if you want edging then add this higher than the gravel and stones will not be kicked into your planting areas.

The Edible Garden:

1. Strawberries: Put stones in the bottom of pots to improve drainage, add compost up to the first holes, wrap each strawberry plant in paper to protect it, thread them through the lower holes from the inside.
2. To ensure even watering, drill holes in a short length of plastic pipe, stand it in the pot and continue planting
3. Fill the pipe with gravel, set two or three more plants in the top of the pot. Cover the surface with gravel. Put in a sunny position and water thoroughly, via the gravel pipe
4. Water regularly, then enjoy the fruits of your labours - with cream!

My First Egg!

Oh my goodness Nigella, our Catalana hen has laid her first egg today and it is simply beautiful.

I caught her earlier behaving very strange, I walked down the garden and they didn´t come running to me as they usually do so. At first I thought they were all down the garden together, until I spotted the other 2 girls, Henny Penny and Dehlia beside the shed digging in the dirt and collecting grass!

I began to get worried and I was thinking all sorts, such as a dog had gotten them or they had managed to get out, I even thought they could be in Mark's van, who was here today helping us with our roof.

As I was slowly starting to panic, Gordon Ramsay stuck his head out of the chicken house - I was then even more confused as this is the most unusual place for them to be inside their house at that time of day, which I think was around 4.30pm.

I went around the back of the house and lifted out one of the wooden doors, for easy access to the eggs - hahhaha harrrrr - now, before we get excited she had not laid her egg at this point but while I was being nosey I spotted she was nest making and then felt awful I had disturbed her so I carefully put the door back on and snuck away back to the house. I half expected Nigella to follow me as she always does when I am outside - thinking I have sweetcorn, in fact she probably looks at me and sees sweetcorn!

An hour later I went back down for a wander to find the chickens and again I could not find them. Fortunately they were further down the garden, where we have been showing them to go so I quickly looked in the house and there it was - THE GOLDEN EGG hehehe. I am so chuffed as the chickens have been with us 12 days - whoop whoop!

I started shouting for Chris and squealing with delight but as Chris was working he didn´t see me, only heard me so he jumped up because he thought I had fallen over or something! But there I was, grinning from ear to ear outside the front door with a warm egg in my hands - pure joy!

We look forward to more egg laying from here on in and I hope you enjoy the images :)

What Do Chickens Eat?

Well I think it is probably easier to tell you what chickens don’t eat. They should not have green potato peelings, banana skins, mouldy bread, citrus fruits, coffee filter waste or grass from the lawn mower. As you will see that means the list of what they do eat is quite extensive and believe me after 2 weeks of having chickens you will never look at left over food again in the same light.

At the end of every meal I now carefully divide the left-overs between the guinea pigs and the chickens. Left over cereal from breakfast, into the chicken food tupperware box, half eaten cookie that fell on the floor, into the chicken box, all vegetables, salad, bread, sauces, rice, cheese, fruit, cakes and their very favourite sweet corn ! I do not think twice now about getting on my hands and knees to pick up 3 grains of fallen sweet-corn from under the table instead of reaching for Mr Dyson the hoover as I see how much joy one single grain of corn can bring the chickens. When we go out to restaurants and cafes Keiana is never a big eater and now (much to the embarrassment of my husband I might add) I take a little bag with me and when she is full she declares’ the rest is for Maisy and her friends mummy’. When I look around at the left over food on other peoples’ plates I just pray that all restaurants have a flock of chickens outside as it breaks my heart to see so much food wasted.

As well as the fresh food they get access to grain each day, are allowed to eat the shrubs, insects, worms and grass in their run and also I give them the left over egg shells which they adore and are apparently are good to help them form harder shells on their own eggs. We place all this food on an extra large plate (actually the lid off our water collector) as it is best not to put it directly on the ground but believe me your children will not learn wonderful table manners by watching chickens eat.

They are straight away in there with there feet, clawing backwards and sifting through to find what they like best. We have since adopted another family of three chickens, this time white Chinese Silkies and little Snowy had a bright orange Mohican for 2 days after she dived right under my box when I was emptying some left over baked beans on to their plate– it did not seem to bother her, rather – good I’ll save that bit for later!
 
Author: Shelley O´Brien who lives in Belgium and has just joined our gardening forum for some great advice on chickens, pointer dogs and guinea pigs, she has kindly donated us some great content for the blog to help others with their wildlife :) Thanks Shelley, we appreciate your wonderful words of Chicken wisdom!

The Chickens Arrive in Monda!

We have been living in Monda now since 2007 and ever since we moved in we have both wanted chickens but you know what it is like when you move house, cash is tight, problems arise that must be fixed, mortgage has to be paid, business has to continue and the list keeps getting larger! Chickens just had to wait so we could afford the cash to have the coop build along with their house and me being me I wanted a nice house, not some crappy expensive box you buy in the shop, so we had our friend, who is an expert carpenter, build the coop and the house.

The whole project has taken 2 weeks, however, this is not all day, every day, but they do take some planning. We have had a lot of rain during these weeks so we have also had many "rain days" which stops work outside.

Needless to say the result is perfect, just what we wanted and also great for me. I have Scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine. I had surgery 21 years ago but I still have problems with my lumbar spine so bending down to get into a chicken coop was always going to present me with issues, this is the reason we needed a coop so large to accommodate the height I needed it to be so I didn´t have to bend down to enter the chicken's coop. The house itself was also bespokely designed by my friend, Mark Murray, who took into consideration my Scoliosis, which is why the back of the chicken house is easily accessible for me. There are 3 back panels which easily come out so I can reach inside to clean the house and collect eggs - ingenious!

We have no idea what to do with chickens but we are slowly learning, and as each day goes by we will learn more. We did little research into which chickens we should buy and what their requirements are, we are looking forward to learning from our mistakes (providing they are not bad ones!), the house is secure and safe, we know what we should not feed them and also what treats they like.

We believe our chickens to be Catalana Hens and a Booted Bantam, but we may be informed otherwise in the not too distant future by a Spanish neighbour! LOL

Join our Gardening Forum and discuss your chickens with us and offer any tips you might have

I will now explain what we did, step by step to achieve our work of art for a chicken coop :)

Chicken Coop Building and Carpentry

Step 1

Design Your Layout: Where is the house going to go, what materials it is going to be made from, how big do you require it, do you need to stand in it like me or would it be OK lower and how much this is going to cost, remember you have to allow for labour costs, either hour or day rates. We chose a piece of land next to our shed so we could butt the chicken coop up to one side of the shed. This was for 3 reasons, the main one being shelter for the chickens, less wood to buy as we could use the shed wall as part of the coop and the third reason was to use a piece of land that was never going to be garden and put it to some good use!

Step 2
Preparation: Prepare the land where your chicken coop is going to be built, you will need to do some digging at this stage and lay out where the wood is going to go. We decided to include an Olive tree inside the coop, for no other reason than to make it look nice, so we had to do some contemplating on how that was going to work. We also wanted to provide a sheltered area for the winter months and of course shade for the hot months too. We had some old corrugated roof laying around the land so that was a good way to recycle that.

Step 3
Framework: Dig holes for your framework posts to nestle in to and then build your framework and the door.







Step 4
Chick House Construction: The house was a surprise, our carpenter made the house at home and then brought it round here in sections. I was told to stay in the shed while he put all the sections together to complete the house. I have been so excited about the chicken coop for a long time that I burst into tears when I saw it, the house is exactly as we wanted it and how I had imagined it was going to look.


Step 5
Wood Staining: Ensure you have at least 3 pots of stain, we used pine but you can choose whatever you like. We did not stain the inside of the chicken house for fear of them not liking the smell and then not laying eggs! We used 2 pots of stain on the chicken house. I say 3 because we are also planning on staining the framework itself, especially the door ends (as per instruction from our carpenter).


Step 6
Chicken Wire: Now the framework is built and the roof is on the section that you wish to keep dry, get the chicken wire on the go and start making it rat and fox proof! Wrap the chicken wire around your wooden posts carefully, we used U nails for fixing the chicken wire to our posts - fiddly little buggers that they are!



Step 7

Buying Chickens: The real exciting bit comes now but be prepared for the experience in Spain as you get your chickens in a bag, all in together! Being an animal lover I hated that, I know it is OK and they were and are fine but I would have preferred them in a cat box so if I go again I will take my own with me.



What You Will Need
Wood
Chicken Wire
Wood Stain
Corrugated Iron
Bitchumen
U Nails
Nails
ScrewsStraw
Feeders for water and food
Latches and hinges

Wood
10 of 240x4.5x4.5
2 of Plywood
20 of 2.50x4.5
Total: €196.00

Wood Stain
3 Tins of Stain (Pine)
Total: €40.80

Chicken Wire
2 metres of chicken wire
Total: €37.50

Latches, Hinges, Screws  €20 depending on what you choose of course

Chickens and Feeders
1 Booted Bantam
3 Catalana Hens
1 Feeder
1 Water Feeder
Chicken Food 40KG
Bail of shavings
Total: €83.50

Chickens also require perches for sleeping at night inside their houses so we used bits of wood that we have kicking around the land. We made one for their house and one for their coop as some fun for them. We are also planning on hanging CDs off this perch along with some balls for entertainment but we will share that when we have done it!

I have placed some images below of the chickens and other images I wanted to share

 Booted Bantam - Gordon Ramsay

Booted Bantam - Gordon Ramsay again, close up of his colours

Catalana Hens - this is Nigella

Our beautiful chicken house, where they sleep at night

The chicken coop itself so they have a run also

I have a photo album on Facebook if you want to see further photos Chicken Coop Building