Archive for May, 2011
Lush new grass...but for how long?
I don’t know where the time has gone. May is always a busy time in the garden, but it seems more so this year. I think the main reason is the amount of watering I’ve had to do. This dry weather couldn’t have come at a worse time for gardeners when lots of seeds are relying on damp soil to germinate. Our water butts (including our two 1000 litre tanks) had almost run dry, until a few days ago when we at last got a deluge of rain. However, even with a few hours of rain the soil was still pretty dry underneath. It looks like the dry spell is coming to an end (at least in this part of the country) and we’ve had a few days of rain. Read the rest of this entry »
Time to relax in the (mud) bath
These last few weeks of warm dry weather have been lovely for relaxing in the garden. Even the chickens and pigs love to have a good sunbathe and feel the warmth of the sun on their backs. However, the pig’s skin has been suffering a bit, so we decided this weekend to take some action and build them a wallow. Coincidentally a report was recently published highlighting the need for pigs to be able to wallow. The report suggests it’s not only a way for them to cool down (they don’t have any sweat glands), but that they just enjoy it, and it is hard-wired into them. Read the rest of this entry »