Sallygardens Smallholding

She's Kidding

Spring is truly spring when the goats start kidding, even if it is snowing again. So far Esme has had a single billy kid. He's very friendly and tolerates plenty of kissing and cuddling from the children! I was unsure if she was going to kid because she showed no signs of pregnancy that I could detect, probably because it wasn't her normal set of twins, just the one. When there are twins packed in there it's easy to feel them moving around if you place your hand on the underbelly of the goat. At first it can be tricky to decipher between the wriggling of the foetus and the constant gurgling of the goats many stomachs, but a bit of practice helps.

I became suspicious that she might well be in kid after all when I noticed changes in her behaviour around the field .... sleeping in the sunshine, grazing a bit further away from the 'crowd' and spending some time in the goat house during the day resting while the others ventured out  ... sure enough after seeing this happen for about a week, along came Billy the Kid!

For more information on how to keep goats try the ebooklet available to buy from the Paypal store on the right hand column.

Grow Your Own Veg

It's the ideal time of year to start growing your own vegetables. If you've been thinking about starting off a vegetable bed now is the time to get going. If you are a total beginner to gardening start simple and try growing some mixed salad leaves, radishes, peas and broad beans. For inspiration head down to your local garden centre and browse the seed packets, but don't get carried away and buy too many .... which is bound to happen!

To get started you'll need to prepare a vegetable bed by digging over a small area of earth, even just a metre squared to begin with. If digging really isn't your thing or you don't have any land, you can still grow a good batch of salad in a grow bag or two.  Use a sharp knife to puncture plenty of drainage holes in one side of the grow bag and then cut away the top side of plastic for planting into.

I've been doing some weeding in the polytunnel and hope to get on top of it with some more helping hands this week. I hope to start planting into cell trays this week too and will probably keep those indoors until this new impending cold snap is over. I'm really looking forward to home grown salads every day and I'm yearning to be sick of courgettes again!

For some good gardening guidelines on starting to grow your own vegetables try my ebooklet which can be purchased via the Paypal store on the top right hand column. Happy gardening.