Leftover seeds

[Eyren]

Every year I seem to have more leftover seeds, and not all of them are worth keeping - carrot and lettuce seed doesn't keep well (IIRC), and packets of brassica seeds always contain far more than I can possibly use on my tiny lottie. This year, though, I have a new plan.

I'm saving up all my odds and ends of seeds and mixing them together in a little plastic bag, then in the autumn and winter I'm going to sow them in trays of leftover compost indoors, and give the seedlings to my chickens when it's too cold and wet to free-range. If they don't germinate it's no great loss, but if they do, the girls get a tasty vitamin-rich treat!

[TPeers]

Brilliant Idea! Mind if I nick it?

[Eyren]

Not at all - that's why I posted it here, instead of just jotting it down in my gardening diary

[Snadger]

You would have to be selective as to what you sow as some plants are poisonous to chooks................tomato and potatoe foliage and probably peppers to name but a few, methinks!
Brassica's should be no problem at all!

[Eyren]

Yeah, I'm not putting any tomato or pepper seeds in there, and of course seed potatoes don't keep anyway. Basically it's going to be anything you can eat the leaves of (brassicas, lettuce, beetroot, etc), plus carrots and celeriac. Peas would be OK too, but they keep fairly well and are nice sprouted as salad

[Lemon]

Hi, just wanted to say that we had three pepper plants in pot son the patio last summer and our 2 girlies stripped them bare of leaves! When the peppers turned red - they had them too!

I read that hens know what is poisonous to eat and will leave well alone. Obviously it's not good to leave it to chance! By the way - they left the tomato plants alone but enjoyed the toms!

I have (possibly HAD) spring onions in the garden - I leave them out all year round - the girlies love to graze on them too!

[MaureenHall]

Brilliant idea Think that's something I'll be having a go at too. Already some of my seed packets have spilled in the bottom of my "March envelope" so there's a start

[Suechooks]

I've got some packets of salad leaves that I've mixed up and sown in big pots for the chooks. I did it last year and it worked well - for about 2 minutes per pot / tray which was all the time it took them to dismember the whole thing!

[Snadger]

I sowed trays full of mixed corn in the winter, but they look so green and lush it seems a shame to stick em in the run and let the chooks decimate them in three minutes flat!

[Eyren]

Hi, just wanted to say that we had three pepper plants in pot son the patio last summer and our 2 girlies stripped them bare of leaves! When the peppers turned red - they had them too!

I read that hens know what is poisonous to eat and will leave well alone. Obviously it's not good to leave it to chance!

My cats have eaten chilli seedlings down to the stem in the past, without ill effects - maybe the immature leaves don't have the same level of poison? Not that I would recommend it!

[Sue]

Eyren
I was wondering about chillis, my bad cat Cocoa pulled off all the chillis from my string and was having a good game bashing them about without any ill effect, didn't try to eat them though.
Sue