Hello, I'm Liz Zorab and this is Byther Farm and today I'm making a walk in brassica cage.
And what I'm using to create my walk in a brassica cage is
part of what was Big White's chicken run.
So we put up a temporary framework using
2x1 timbers. Temporary, two and a half years ago, it's edged with pallets on the
ground and then it's got chicken wire all around it. And this green debris
netting, it's scaffolding netting, on the top, which provides a bit of shade.
And we actually originally put it there because during an avian influenza scare, if we
wanted our birds outside they needed to be under a netted area, of close
netting, that wouldn't allow bird, wild bird, poop to drop through it. So we set
it all up and once it was set up, it seemed silly not to just leave it there.
Anyway, long story short, the chickens are now in a different area and we will be
having turkeys in this side, when they hatch which is about, I think they're due
in the under two weeks, something like that, then they'll have some time in the
nursery pen and then they can come through to here.
but after last year's escapades,
escape-ades even, I really want to make sure that we've got a secure run.
And I also want it further in that direction.
Because there's this area
that isn't used for anything moment. It's had chickens in it for the last three years,
but my thinking is, if we build a pen which could include the hedge but
probably not. But if we build a pen coming out here and going across to
meet the existing one and then we can open that side up, the turkeys can have
this, which means if I can have the front half of this makeshift thing for brassicas.
So from the outside we can see that the turkeys would be in there and now
I'm constructing a wall here and my brassicas will be on this side.
Now I don't have very much with which to construct a wall, so I'm using pallets and
these are ones where I've already stripped some of the pieces of wood off them.
So this is a solid frame. I've got little baby spiders crawling on me!
So I've placed one on top of the other and strapped them to this post here, which is
concreted into the ground. It's the only post on our whole smallholding that is
actually concreted in. Everything else is I just banged into the ground or
sits on top of it, so that it's temporary by nature out of choice, so that I can keep
changing my mind.
So, one on top of another, I'm pretty comfortable that this
isn't going anywhere because I've been fixing it at this end.
I've cut a niche out of the pallet here, so it will fit around the crossbar.
It butts up against this here and is fixed and then at the top it's behind it, so
this piece goes at a slight angle just to keep that secure.
And then on the other side,
I put this piece screwed into the pallet, which gave me something to
fix it to. I've put a piece here which stops this coming forward. So it's all
pretty securely jammed in and I'm fairly certain this isn't going anywhere until
a piece of wood that's going into the ground rots -
which I'm hoping won't be this year!
So in theory all I have left to do now is
put something across the top, up here, to be able to fix the netting to and staple
the netting onto my frame.
I need to carry this wall on over here and I'm not
sure whether to make it a wall and make it solid or actually to make it a door,
so that we can access the turkeys from this side if we need to. We have got an
access point down there but this would give me really quite a big doorway, I don't know.
I've still got little spiders on me!
So that's something I have to think about and then I need to create to the door around here
to go in this space going out to the main part of the garden.
Easy!
This is seriously hot and sweaty work today, but what I have done is I've bought some
netting over. The thing about the scaffolding netting is that
it has holes in it to join it together with.
And what I did last night was
to sew all down the edges of those holes on one length so there aren't any holes
in it, so the butterflies won't be able to get through. And I've now, let's turn
this round, so I put the netting on, just propped it for now. I'm putting it on the
outside of this frame because when we get the winds during the summer they
come in this direction and the rest of the year they come in that direction.
But this way the wind will push the fabric onto the frame and not away from the
frame. Hopefully that will help keep it in place. There's much more of this than I
imagined there'd be. So I think my plan is to actually tuck it underneath the rail
that I've put along the bottom, and it's coming over the top here, so that
that wall is actually completely sealed. I'm very pleased. Yesterday I was
feeling really despondent about making this and today it's all looking a lot better.
I found two pallets that I'd already started to break down, so they
have gone on there, one on top of each other.
It's still a bit wobbly at the moment and I'm just trying to put a piece of wood
from here downwards so that I've got something to stabilize this on to and to
fix the netting on as that goes round. It's all coming on, it is slow going
and I've had quite a lot of backwards and forwards to the house with people
calling in for various different bits and pieces.
But I do feel like I'm really getting on with this now.
So now I'm on to the next
stage. The wall, as it is, is up I'm quite happy with how secure that is.
I don't think that's going to fall in on the brassicas or on the turkeys which is
how most important thing.
And I have propped some netting on the back here
just to try and gauge a feel of what it's going to look like. I'm very pleased with this.
But what I do need to do is use some heavy-duty tape and just cover the nails that are
sticking out of the pallets, so that as the wind blows they don't catch on the
fabric and rip the netting fabric. So that is my next bit. I like jobs like this.
I know it's a real bodge job and cobbling it together. I don't know it's a bodge
job actually, but it is definitely cobbling something together with
whatever I can find. And there's quite a lot of head-scratching, I've got a lot of sawdust in my head.
There's a lot of just kind of trying to work it out as I go but I
quite like projects where I do that. So I am over halfway around in terms of
getting the netting sorted.The second half of this is to go around the other
side and get chicken wire on the other side of this, so that the turkeys can't
get anywhere near this netting and they're nice and secure in their space.
But as they're not hatched yet, I've still got plenty of time to do that.
So it looks like this is a success! I've managed to seal it pretty much all the way around.
The only thing left to think about is the roof which Mr. J and I are going to do
over the next couple of days. In the meantime I'm just going to trust
that the butterflies won't get in here. I have got a bit of material I can drape
over the top to cover over those last few little tiny
holes that I think I could make this area vulnerable.
I've created a doorway with a suitable covering.
I've started planting it up and I'm really pleased with it. In the back row
is Cavelo Nero kale and then two rows of Kalettes and that's the cross between
kale and a Brussels sprout. And I still have some purple sprouting broccoli, some
summer broccoli and some more Brussels sprouts to go in here.
And so, wherever you are in the world and whatever you've got planned for today I hope it's a good one,
I also hope you'll join me again next time!