How to Rear Your Own Turkeys

How to Rear Your Own Turkeys By Martina Mercer A month ago we invested in lavender ducks and chickens for our small holding as although we’d kept hundreds of birds before, we’d had a break of a few years and so wanted to start again small. Instead of the incredible layers of Aylesbury ducks or the […]

How to Encourage Children into the Garden

Encourage Children to Step Outside In this day and age with electricity taken for granted many children choose media as a form of entertainment; whether it’s YouTube, Facebook or gaming online it all burns energy while frazzling brain cells too. Here are some ideas for how to encourage children into the garden and away from […]

Lavender Animals Add Colour to the Garden!

It’s been a busy month at the North Yorkshire Manor House, as we made the decision to stay. Suddenly as the sun came out we were overwhelmed with the beauty of our home and the extortionate outgoings seemed to be worth living in this Moors retreat. Once we made up our mind it was all […]

The Sun has Got his Easter Bonnet On

The Sun has got His Easter Bonnet on! As everyone tucks into their chocolate eggs, and proud children display their handmade bonnets, we’ve realised that a chicken is afforded with a sense of fame at this time of the year. The tiny fluffy craft chicks that adorn each Easter cake litter supermarket shelves making us […]

Home Made Composts for Your Garden (Warning- it’s a bit yucky!)

By Martina Mercer There are many different forms of homemade compost out there, and many ways in which you can take unwanted rubbish and turn it into a fertilizer or compost for your plants. However, which does what, and what compost and fertilizer is best for your plot? Whether you garden on a balcony from a […]

A Realist’s Look at Keeping Livestock

For the majority of us that regularly tend to our vegetable patch or spend our spare minutes in the garden there comes a time when we decide we want to share it with something else. It seems that no sooner have we perfected the lawn and trimmed planted the borders that we feel the need […]

The Secrets of the Silkie Bantam

The Secrets of the Silkie Bantam! A noble bantam the Silkie is a fantastic addition to any brood of chickens. In a variety of colours, the Silkie will strut proudly across any paddock giving a fabulous display of their fashionable feathers. With fluffy feet and tiny beak the Silkie Bantam could be mistaken for being […]

Give Your Bantams a New Year Makeover with Wiggly Wigglers

Give Your Bantams a New Year Makeover with Diatoms! Our Bantams are having a lovely winter, with mild conditions affording them a cosy home and even some time on the paddocks. However the mild conditions as every poultry owner and gardener know bring other concerns that have to be considered. Mild but Menacing! Although we’re […]