Our hibiscus is looking amazing at the moment but it has grown enormous.
Hibiscus
It’s got huge
It towers over the chicken run
We lopped it last year but it has grown back bigger than ever.
The hollyhocks have finally started to flower
Our holly hocks seem to be flowering long behind the ones we have seen in other gardens and on the verges.
Hanging basket of cherry tomatoes
This was my birthday present from my youngest son and his wife along with some garden centre vouchers. The tomatoes have just started ripening.
Slow worm on the patio
And finally a small slow worm. Over the last few months we have spotted tiny, baby, slow worms, medium sized slow worms and huge, adult, sized slow worms. We have a healthy breeding population in our garden and see different sized ones every year during the summer.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Beautiful garden!
In my old house we used to have a lot of slow-worms and my cat used to bring them into the house but she never harmed them thank goodness. I also used to find shed skins at times – most disconcerting!!! :-0
P.S. Jasmine has laid AGAIN today!!
xx
Amazing that your cat didn’t harm the slow worms. I have never seen a shed skin. Go Jasmine! xx
Your Hibiscus is amazing,we bought one last year, so is very small at the moment.
Ours is rather too big now. We will chop it again after it has flowered. They do thrive on neglect and we have never had to water it whatever the weather. They come in loads of colours, what colour is yours?
Ours is the same blue, like yours. They are so pretty.
The blue one is my favourite one which is lucky as it was one of the few things that was already in this garden when we moved in.
I love the idea of cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket! We don’t do that here in Alabama. I need to start that trend ASAP. Can you answer a question for me? How old are your girls when they pass away?? Mine are a little over 3 years old. I have lost 4 of my 8 in the last 6 months. Two to illnesses, not sure what since we have no vets that see chickens. Just wondering if 3 is old for a chicken? They are part of the family and that’s too short to live!
I think chicken keeping is a lot harder than people realise. You get lulled into reading that some girls live from 8 -10 years but in truth none of the chicken keepers I have known have found this to be the case.
I lost Treacle, my first loss at a year old. My oldest girl is Speckles, an ancona, who is 6-7 years. I can’t be exact because she was moulting when I got her so was at least a second year old girl. The same goes for my game girls who I lost around 6 years old. I would say that these girls had, and in Speckles case is having, a good run.
Smaller girls are a lot shorter lived. Amber my bantam vorwerk was about 3 years old. I have lost quite a few of my seramas at little over a year old which is heartbreaking. This has been different reasons. One dead under her perch one morning, a few had prolapse, one had heart failure and Jasmine has heart murmur so I never know how long we will have her.
Cinnamon is my oldest yet serama at nearly three years. Other chicken keepers and on the forums have had said that 4 years is good for a serama but occasionally you hear of one reaching 8 years.
I have also had myco in my flock and lost some seramas to that before we knew what we were dealing with. What sort of chickens do you have and what size? Sometimes I think we have just been unlucky and I live in hope of having some of my girls for longer.