Pip's World - Late Spring As we approach summer my hardy veg are doing well. Potatoes, onions, shallots, and runner beans are all looking good. But the continuing cold snaps have held back my courgette and spinach plants. I’m still working on the salad boxes but it’s a bit early to see any results yet. I have got some radishes up and just for fun I’ve planted some carrots in boxes. Sadly I lost 6 of my chickens to Mr Fox, when on the fateful night I went to bed early and someone forgot to close the chicken run. (Not me) but the less said about that the better. We have purchased two Bluebell hens from a very nice and reputable lady in Patching and within two weeks one of the hens we hatched last year went broody and we now have two baby chicks, one being a bluebell. It is sad that we lost most of our chickens particularly the ones we hatched last year but they did have a good free-range life and died in a way conducive to nature. Their legacy is that we have seen no slugs or snails so far this year and the only damage to our plants is the nibbling of some of the potatoes leaves by the new chickens. My Cockerel Charlie has a cold. Yes believe it or not he is sneezing and has lost his crow. We have moved him into a warm box in the shed. My partner Linda, has been giving him special attention with cat food and rice (his favourites) But it seems the general advice we have been given is that cockerels have no value and we should dispatch him and get a new on. Well that went down like a lead balloon with the other half so we will continue to nurse Charlie as best we can and hope for a full recovery soon. Read more...

Pip Frederick - One man's journey toward self sufficiency. I guess I should start by introducing myself. Currently I’m Pip Frederick Farmer’s Market Coordinator for Chichester, Midhurst & Petworth, a job I came to at the age of 50. Before that I had several business and occupations ranging from motor repairs to owning a Circus, and as Forest Gump would say, “ That’s all I have to say about that“.              Since running the Farmer’s Market, I have developed a great interest in local and homegrown food and in a very rustic way have turned my bric a brac filled garden into a chicken run, vegetable patch, log store, and compost area. This year I will also be using a small alley at the side of my house to grow salad. In amongst all this I have several experimental projects in mind, Wind and Solar power, paper log making, and with the help of my partner Linda, I will be making chutneys, pickled eggs, apple juice, and perhaps cider.                I would like to start my contribution by introducing you to my 7 bantam hens and Charley the cockerel. I’ve had them about two years now and after having been sold 5 hens which turned out to be cockerels, from a less than reputable dealer in 2007, I have gone through a steep learning curve and now think our chickens have a 5 star free range life. In return (with a bit of access management) they give me between 2 & 5 eggs a day, whilst keeping my garden slug & bug free, and helping with the weeding.              You don’t need a lot of space to keep a couple of chickens and you can make a DIY chicken coop very cheaply. The food for my 8 chickens costs about £5 a month. My cat Sophie loves them and I’ve even found her asleep with a small bantam perched on top. If you want to know more just surf the net and you will find an almost unlimited supply of information, stories, and forums about poultry. You can send me an e mail or ask me a question via the Smart Sussex forum and I will do my best to answer your questions.  Salad Growing in a confined space I’ve decided this year to grow my own salad in a space alongside my house, which is about 15 metres by 2. Having made a make shift stand from some old market stall metal, I have constructed 2 old bread baskets lined with blanket off cuts and filled with some gravel for drainage and my own compost. 2 more polystyrene boxes from Ron the Fish, who has a stall on my market, have, after putting some holes in the bottom had the same filling.                    My experiment is to see if the polystyrene boxes grow salads faster or for a longer period of the year, as the soil in them should be a degree or two warmer than that in my bread baskets. In all truth it doesn’t make a lot of difference both containers were free and are being re cycled by growing salad in them.                    I’m growing cut and come again lettuce, radishes, Chillies, and a few outdoor tomatoes. The whole lot is covered with some old plastic I found and hopefully in the same area I will grow chard, courgette, cabbage, and other vegetable plants from seed.   The cost?  Just the seeds which I purchased in Lidl at 39p per pkt, total £3.12 .Not bad for an expected years salad & vegetables.                   Believe it or not from my slap dash un-coordinated gardening last year I filled a freezer with courgettes, runner beans, chard, apples and pears. We are still using them now in February. I know the freezer uses electric but I’m looking at a small wind turbine or Photo Voltaic charger to run them from inverted battery power in the near future.