Getting Started In Container Gardening

Getting Started in Container Gardening

One of my great pastimes here on the smallholding is Container Gardening.
I love to grow both flowers, fruit & vegetables in containers so heres some
information for those that might want to give it a go.

Sometimes, the urge to garden might be stomped out by other circumstances,
such as living arrangements or space constrictions. If you live in an
apartment, you can’t really operate a full garden, just because you don’t
really have a yard! I think that one of the best solutions for this
problem is to grow plants in containers. You can hang these, or just
arrange them on your patio, window sill or balcony. Just a few baskets or
pots, and your whole living area will look much classier and nicer.
A benefit of growing in small containers is the fact that you can move
them around to suit your needs. If you rearrange your furniture and you
think that it would look nicer if it was in the other area, it’s no
trouble at all to scoot it over. As long as the lighting is about the
same, your plant shouldn’t mind the transition at all. Another benefit of
the containers’ versatility is the fact that you can adapt it to simulate
any environment depending on the type of soil you fill it with and where
you place it.

If you are trying to make an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of
containers and plants, you can adjust the containers to be at different
heights by hanging them from the ceiling or placing them on supports.
Hanging them will allow you to make the most of the space you have. This
is called “vertical gardening”. If you pull it off right, you can make a
very pleasing arrangement of plants while conserving your valuable space.
If you live in an apartment, you know how important it is to conserve
space! One method of vertical gardening is the use of a wooden step
ladder. If painted correctly, you can arrange all the plants on it in a
beautiful, stylish cascade of color.

The maintenance of container plants takes slightly more time, since you
have to water more often and go around to each individual container.
However, the square footage for container plants is much less than that of
an actual garden, so the time spent on maintenance and watering is more
balanced. It is important that you don’t over-water your container plants,
as this can be just as fatal to their health as under-watering.

When choosing containers for your plants, you’ll want to buy them all at
once along with some extras in case they break or you add more plants
later. You don’t want them to be all the same shape and size, but
definitely the same style so that the compliment each other. Plastic
containers are the best and require the least amount of watering, but if
you want to stick with clay or earthen pots then you should line the
inside with plastic. This helps it retain water more, as the clay will
soak up water.

Another thing to remember when buying pots is the fact that the size of
the pot will ultimately constrict the size of the plant. Make a careful
choice of pots according to what you wish to grow in each one. If you
search for the plant you chose on the internet, you should be able to find
specifications as to how much root space it should be given. This can even
be an advantage for you if you choose a plant that can grow very large. If
you only have a limited amount of space for it, you can constrict it by
choosing a pot that isn’t large enough to support huge amounts of growth.
If the benefits of container gardening sound appealing to you, then you
should start planning out your container garden today. If you write a list
of all the plants you desire to have, you can do the necessary research to
find out what size and shape of pots you should get. After that, it’s just
a matter of arranging them in a way that makes your home look the nicest.

My Mico Pigs

Marks Micro Pigs

This is a short video i did earlier this year of my 2 pet micro pigs, actually we still have them but they are not so micro anymore they are now about the size of a Kune Kune Pig.

Hope you enjoy the video I will try and do another one at the weekend so you can see what they are like now.

Why Would Chickens Make Good Pets This Christmas

Why Chickens Would Make good Pets This Christmas

Looking to give your kids something fun but educational for Christmas? Mark Burrow’s aka the ‘Chicken King’ discusses how chickens would make a great unusual and family pet.

Although not always an obvious choice, chickens make great pets – they are friendly, fun and educational and are a great idea for an unusual Christmas gift this year. Keeping chickens as pets has become very popular over the last couple of years and more and more people are taking to having a few chickens in their back garden – here at our farm where we run Chickens For Sale we have already had several orders for chickens as Christmas presents. .

When considering a choice of pet for Christmas Mums and Dads are beginning to realise what great pets chickens make. They are inexpensive to keep and one of the few pets that give you something in return – a good supply of fresh eggs.  In addition to giving children an understanding where their food comes from (not from just a supermarket shelf!) you can be safe in the knowledge that eggs from your garden will be good healthy and nutritious as you have controlled what your chickens are fed on and know exactly what goes into each egg. Their poo is also great for the compost heap – a bonus if you are growing vegetables at home too!

Chickens by nature are very affectionate creatures and become a real part of the family it is often great to sit and watch them and their antics as they scratch around looking for grubs and worms. Each chicken has its own personality and will come to greet you when you enter their pen so a relationship can be formed but are less time consuming – they don’t need taking for a walk twice a day.

In a recent survey it has been shown that they can be of great benefit to people with disabilities and also children with behaviour problems – as they give children a great sense of responsibility.

Here at the farm it’s great to watch children’s’ faces when they arrive with their mum and dad to buy some chickens. Getting a chicken causes a great sense of excitement and it becomes a great experience to watch them choose which ones they want – many children have already picked out the names of the chickens beforehand.

Giving your child chickens for pets this Christmas will add to the magic. However, as with keeping any pet you need to be sure that you have done your homework first and you are fully prepared with what equipment is required and you or the person or child that they are for has some understanding of what is entailed to look after them properly. As the old saying goes “chickens are for life not just for Christmas”.

For more information on how to keep chickens Mark Burrows  Amazon No1 best selling book called So You Want to Start keeping Chickens/  gives you all the information you need in a simple, no-nonsense way and makes a great gift if considering chickens as pets this Christmas. It is also available for instant download straight to your Amazon Kindle .

Our New Barnevelder Hens

Barnevelder hens lay lovely dark brown eggs and are also on the register of The Rare Breeds Survival Trust, so when we got the chance to buy these 3 hens we jumped at it.

They are still in quarentine at the moment but are doing very nicely and are in lovely condition.

She Who Must is going to start breeding Barnevelders next year and when we go to the national poultry show in a few weeks time we will be picking up a cockeral from the secretary of The Barnevelder Club so hopefully we should get some good hens next year.