When I got back from work today, I sat down for half an hour and had a lovely hot cup of tea. The sun was shining outside and so before I needed to get dinner on the go I decided to pop out into my garden to get a few bits done.

My sprouting broccoli has finally finished, the last few bits have gone to seed, so it’s time to dig the plants up and make way for whatever is going in their place this year.

Every time I come home from work, I pop out into the garden to say “Hello my little babies! Have you had a good day? Would you like to come out and have a little play?” to the chickens. Yes I really do. They’re always very happy to see me. I usually put them in one of the brassica cages and they scratch around and have a dust bath, but today as I was digging up my brassica plants and weeding the area, I thought they may like to come and play with me instead.

They didn’t need asking twice, as soon as they saw the spade go in the soil they knew that some tasty worms were likely to appear, and they were right. So after I very carefully removed all the brassicas making sure the chickens didn’t loose any toes in the process, I got down on my hands and knees and using my trowel, removed any of the remaining weeds.

I love my girlies, but sometimes they really do get in the way. Which ever weed I decided I would dig up next, one of them decided they would stand right over it. Bless them.

Soon the area was clear, and because there was nothing left for them to eat they decided they would have a wander in the fruit patch instead. The fruit patch is coming along a treat, and it was rather comical to watch them work their way between the raspberries and strawberries.

Just before it was time for playtime to come to an end and they had to go back into their run, I had a quick look in the greenhouses and was thrilled to see that my beans have started to germinate. I think this year I’ll create a little archway for them to grow up, so when I walk to the end of the garden I’ll have to go under them. Hopefully it’ll work, but I need to get some more 8 foot canes first.