2021 Week 4 - My Perennial Project

We'll start with the weather.

It's been a week of fluctuating conditions, beginning with snow and early morning temperatures down to 5 below. But this was followed by a warm and very wet weather system. A couple of nights of heavy rain have seen water levels rise back to annoying levels. The seasonal lake and various ponds have reappeared and it is pretty squelchy underfoot. 

This was my week to be in school rather than teaching from home, so combined with the weather I have had limited opportunities to make significant headway on the smallholding.

Seed sowing steps up
My growing year has stepped up a notch with a gradual trickle of seed sowing. I've pushed everything a little earlier this year and purchased an extra heat mat to help persuade the seeds into germination and keep the tender young plants warm and snug. 

Some of my onions have germinated very well. As they germinate they come off the heat mat to give room for others. They just move to a different shelf on the staging which is currently in a warm spare bedroom. As soon as things warm up a little most of this will move into the conservatory which offers much improved light, but for the moment it's a bit cool in there and damping off of seedlings might be a problem.

All my aubergines have germinated. These need a long season to produce ripe fruit as I grow them outside. Of all my crops these are the most susceptible to red spider mite when grown in the polytunnel and I don't want to risk giving it a foothold back in.

I've started off my indoor tomatoes too, ten different varieties. I'll concentrate on these in a future post.

Strong lupin seedlings
but one seems to have
given up the ghost.

On a more decorative front, some of the seeds I collected from a gorgeous lupin plant have germinated strongly. Hopefully I can look after them and raise them into perennial splashes of colour around the smallholding.

Potatoes
As we move towards February, potatoes loom on the horizon. It won't be long till I pick up my order of seed potatoes for the year and set them to chit. Because of lockdown I saved some of each variety from last year just in case there was a problem with supplies this year. I put them in a spare fridge which seems to have held them quite well. This is just an emergency measure as it's best to start with fresh stock each year.

I have however planted the Arran Pilots which I saved through. These early potatoes have gone into a polytunnel bed with a heavy compost mulch and should give me new potatoes way ahead of the outdoor plants.

Perennial Hope

The week's main excitement has been a steady stream of deliveries of growing supplies. Thank goodness for the internet during lockdown. and this year is seeing a flood of experimental new crops - the product of too much time on my hands during lockdown. The idea of trying a few trendy perennial crops such as oca and Caucasian spinach has rapidly expanded into developing a major new area of the garden. 

I'm no artist, but this sketched plan opens a whole new can of worms

So here are some of the crops which will be in this area:

Fruit and nut trees already present - apples, pears, plum, almond, hazels, sweet chestnut, mulberry, fig. Also small-leaved limes which can be used for fresh leaves and tilia tea.

Soft fruits already present - gooseberries, red, white and blackcurrants, Japanese wineberries, loganberries, blackberry, raspberries, strawberries, chokeberry, Japanese quince. There's also a huge mahonia plant and an area of buddleia and flowering currants.

Other crops already present - rhubarb, asparagus sorrel, horseradish. There's also the elephant grass I planted last year for biomass which has developed strong rhizomes.

Up till now these have been grown in quite separate areas, but a redesign of where pathways go should help link it all together. I plan to introduce more layers to include climbing plants, herbaceous perennials and perennial tubers.

I'll be adding in some herbs too, such as rosemary, oregano and creeping thyme. Comfrey too.

So here's a list of the new and wonderful additions which will pretty much turn the area into a fully blown forest garden.

Good King Henry - Also known as Lincolnshire Spinach. I am currently trying to germinate the seeds.

Caucasian Spinach - Hablitzia tamnoides - If I can get this growing, it should be a vigorous climber whose leaves can be used as a spinach substitute. If this works I won't need to bother trying to grow annual spinach each year, which always bolts ridiculously quickly.

Oca - Tiny little tubers. I've not tasted them before and at almost a pound a tuber I'll eat some of the produce and sell some for growing. Some of the tubers I received were frost damaged (should be safe outside if well mulched) but I have enough left. They are currently sitting in dry compost in a tub in a wardrobe in the garage. They are actually a type of oxalis and will provide a very attractive summer ground cover.

Yacon - I tried this once before but lost it over winter. However, the taste was great and the harvest huge. If I had saved the growing points properly in a frost free place I could have multiplied it a hundred times. I've started this off in pots in a warm room and they have all thrown up fresh green foliage. They will need potting on before they go outside later in the year.

Mashua - A perennial nasturtium whose tuberous roots apparently taste radishy. I'll probably just use this as a decorative climber to come back year after year.

Chufa (Tiger Nuts) - Actually the bulbs of a grass. These are harvested and dried for eating or replanting. I've tried a couple of the dried 'nuts' and love them. They are sweet and nutty, turning coconutty.

Day Lilies - Edible flowers and young shoots. They'll probably be a very occasional harvest, but will add splashes of colour in the understorey of the forest garden.

Perennial Kale - Taunton Dean Kale, Daubenton's Kale and Portuguese Walking Stick Kale. One survived from last year but the ducks or turkeys have demolished a couple of others, which is an expensive lesson for me to provide some overwinter protection. I'll make cages out of willow. I have ordered a couple of replacement cuttings of Daubentons which will hopefully root successfully. The walking stick kale will be raised from seed which came all the way from The Azores. In our cooler climes they shouldn't set seed so easily so will stay perennial.

Wild Garlic - I've purchased seeds. If they germinate, these will be going under trees as lush ground cover.

Wild Strawberry - the seeds have just gone in the freezer to simulate a winter. if successful, these will be used for ground cover to provide tiny jewels of flavour explosion!

Skirret - A very old-fashioned crop. A bit fiddly to grow and harvest but it will be interesting to try.

Babington Leeks - I purchased six tiny bulblets last year and five have come back over winter. These have gone into the new perennial area and should grow much more substantially this year. They start growing midwinter and will have died back down by June, thus offering a leek flavour at a completely different time of year to traditional leeks.

Bamboo - I discovered a couple of lost bamboos at the back of my herb patch. They've been there since we moved in and have just started to thrive. I have taken cuttings from a golden bamboo which grows really tall. This was something I found on YouTube but I had no hope of the woody stem sections throwing out new growth. But lo and behold one of them has. The other bamboo is much thinner but considerably denser. It has gradually expanded into a large clump hidden by a large bay tree. So I have been dividing it, not an easy task. 
I will harvest the bamboos for sticks and canes and might give the fresh shoots a try too. But really I am growing them mostly for their statuesque appearance and for the rustling of their leaves and stems in a breeze.

Siberian Pea Tree - I've just sown seeds so this is a long-term project. Siberian Pea Tree is a nitrogen fixer and will be an important addition to the forest garden.

Sorrel - non-flowering. I already have a large patch of sorrel, but it is quick to go to seed every year and looks messy. So I have purchased a non-flowering form which should give fresh leaves over a much longer period. If it grows well I'll propagate it and dig out the old stock.

A sorrel root division and perennial kale cuttings

Mushrooms - I cant wait to get going on these. I'm planning on growing shiitake, oyster mushrooms and winecaps. An exciting new venture and just perfect for the forest garden.

I am also trying some more exotic perennials which will get their own area in the polytunnel. I'll still have to lift and store every winter probably. So I am trying ginger, galangal, eddoe, apios (groundnut) and Madeira vine. 

The delight of perennial plants is that, once they've got a hold, they can easily be multiplied (sometimes too easily!)

Next week: Pruning the orchard fruits

2021 Week 3 - Seeds of Hope

The Passing of the Seasons

It's been a quiet week here. Mornings zooming into school and darkness by 5 means that I have to squeeze the smallholding work in when I can.

One problem with this time of year is that one or two days of bad weather, if they coincide with my free time, can set everything a week back. And so it's been this week, with the clear, cold air replaced with wet and windy conditions, even a little bit of snow, though we escaped very lightly compared to those hit badly by Storm Christoph.

There were some slight hints of Spring with Great Tits and Robins warmed into song with every odd ray sunshine that forced its way through. But just to remind us, the flooded fields and hawthorn hedges are still jumping with winter thrushes.

The five roe deer have reduced to four, which is a little sad. They spend much of their time sat out in the open, occasionally bounding across the landscape when something spooks them. But a couple of days back I was watching these four and then, scanning across the fields, I came across another three. Each group has one stag with their wonderful suede-like antlers. I guess this is the result of the rutting I observed a while back now. A happy ending.

I have invested in a simple rain gauge which indicated some very significant evaporation after the heavy rain on Tuesday night - either that or the ducks have found a new place to drink from. I'll need to find a new site for it.

I've been shifting compost from the heaps onto the beds. The polytunnel is as empty as it's going to be so I am topping up the beds in there as a priority. I've been cutting and chipping wood too. The woodchip goes onto the perennial beds to keep the weeds down and gradually to be naturally incorporated into the soil. I've had to se some on the muddy paths too, as mud skating is no fun when you're trying to push a barrow full of compost or animal feed. 

Seeds of the Future

Outdoor work has been a bit splodgy of late and has quickly resulted in numb fingertips. This is where the polytunnel comes in handy. Early sowings have germinated well. The mangetout is shooting up as are the lettuce seedlings. They are already out in a mini greenhouse in the polytunnel.

I am most pleased that the coriander seeds I stripped from their stalks last week have already begun to germinate strongly. That's one more thing we will be completely self-sufficient in. Coriander is a bit of a marmite herb, but I love it.
I've sown some lupin seed which I collected last year too and the first four varieties of onions have been started so they will hopefully have plenty of time to bulb up later in the year.

In preparation for the imminent tide of sowing and growing my peat-free compost delivery arrived this week too. I order for a few people so I can get it delivered. I do the same with animal feed, ordering for half a dozen smallholdings. It saves everybody having to drive a long way to pick up stock feed and it's a nice way to keep in touch with each other, in a social distancing manner of course.

All three of my yacon buds have thrown up shoots too. More about some of these novel vegetables I am growing in future posts.

I'm glad I was super-organised this year and ordered all my seeds very early, for again this year seed companies are already closing their order books. Wouldn't it be fantastic if this renewed interest in gardening continued when the new normal emerges

Carrot clearance

A more familiar crop is carrots, though I do grow many different colours. The outdoor crop got a bit forgotten again this year, mainly because they were bountiful in the polytunnel. Before I lost them all, we pulled the carrots from the wet soil and Sue did a sterling job of processing them. When picked so late, there were plenty of rejects and cut off ends to keep the geese happy for a while too. There is one variety called Resistafly which is unattractive to carrotfly. Unfortunately they don't yet do one called Resistavole. In fact I think mine are of the variety Irresistavole!

Judging from these two carrots, there should be plenty of baby carrots next year - well, I think that's how it works anyway.

Covid news
Sadly this week we experienced the highest death figures of the pandemic so far. All hope lies in a successful vaccination roll out. Locally we've been aware of more cases than previous and I must admit to feeling much safer on the weeks I am teaching from home rather than in school.

A Glint of Light

There has been reason for hope this week too. We are finally rid of Trump. It was uplifting to hear Joe Biden's inauguration speech. Things need to calm down and many poor decisions and angry policies need to be reversed and the damage mended. 

Hopefully we can see the way out of a very dark winter.

Towards the end of the week, a couple of very late evenings had me researching my newest project, edible perennials. My plans have, as usual, escalated. I don't really know how to do things in a half-hearted way.

This will be the main subject of next week's post.

2021 Week 2 - Bubbles, glitching, edible perennials, shallots and pilates.

Lockdown
Surely no-one can write a blog at the moment without mentioning lockdown. 

Covid-19 has become scary again. If I could I would be happy staying here on the smallholding sheltered from the rest of the world. But schools remain open. We have over a quarter of our pupils coming in daily along with the added complication of teaching the rest on Zoom and furnishing them with enough learning activities to keep busy and engaged.

To reduce the number of 'bubbles' within the school, we now have the school split into two halves. Teachers are physically in school every other week, teaching from home on alternate weeks.

If I hear the words "Mr Pegden, it's glitching" one more time...

The zoom classroom.
There's a problem on the board for you to solve!

 

We've had a couple of foggy days this week

A bit of sun, a bit of snow, a bit of fog, a lot of rain
And no English conversation can proceed without being preceded by the weather. The week started wet and the water still takes an eternity to drain away so we have puddles the size of small lakes. We are still in the middle of winter though, so temperatures haven't strayed too far from zero. At least the ground is not so slippery when it's frozen solid, but by midday it has usually thawed. This is the time of day when I can work most comfortably outside though I have now adapted to the cold and don't really feel it as long as I wear a few layers.

The dyke is full again and the puddles are back.
The hardy Shetland sheep don't really mind.

My Edible Perennial Patch
The big project in the veg patch at the moment is an edible perennial garden. The postie has been bringing me strange tubers and new seed varieties and I have been moving some of the existing perennials around. Now is a good time to move or divide them while they are dormant.

Many of the tubers I have received, such as chufa, apios, oca and Madeiran vine, need to be stored awhile before they go in the ground. Others, such as yacon, eddoe and galangal have been potted up and I am hoping they will begin to shoot so they can get a headstart for the year. I'll write more about these unusual food plants as the year progresses.

The perennial patch is starting to take shape. I have a basic plan so that it can incorporate the asparagus plants already there (I spent three days hands and knees weeding these to restore the bed to vitality) as well as sorrel and horseradish. An existing greengauge tree and  cider apple tree are at the centre of the design. The aim is to create a small forest garden. 
We shifted a rhubarb to the base of the greengauge, where I also intend to cultivate mushrooms later in the season. We dug up and moved quite a few of the elephant grasses too, filling gaps and creating a tall, swishy backdrop for the garden - the savanna bordering the forest! Dividing a bamboo was a trickier job than I had anticipated. There were several attempts by the bamboo to poke out my eyes!

Chinese artichoke
about to be transplanted

I also dug up my existing bed of Chinese artichokes which were sited where my greenhouse is going to go (I have put off constructing this for longer than I care to remember). They had been long forgotten and invaded by couch grass and willowherb, but the tubers persisted. I selected out the strongest tubers and replanted them in the gaps where the asparagus has failed.

The perennial patch will become a regular feature of this blog as it develops throughout the year.

Early seed sowing
The annual cycle of seed sowing has started too. Just a few crops for now and mostly those which will end up in the polytunnel. Mangetout and coriander are the first. But patience is required as there is no point starting seeds too early in the year. They will struggle without sufficient heat and light and will be held back waiting for correct conditions outside.

Seed sowing has begun!

As usual I am super organised and have now received all my seeds for the year. Many people don't even think about this until early Spring, but they may well be disappointed for a second year in succession. One of the good effects of lockdown is a renewed interest in growing your own which has resulted in some seed companies having to stop orders or limit quantities. Of course, staff sickness and fewer staff due to space is affecting the suppliers too. So if you're still with me and planning on doing some growing this year, best get onto those seed purchases without further delay.

Shallots
The shallots have been planted out this week too. I save the bulbs from year to year but I am never quite sure when to set them out in the soil. I think any time between January and March is fine. Some were beginning to rot though as I failed to give them enough air flow in storage, so it seemed a good time to sort through them. On average each bulb should split into between four and nine shallots. That's not a bad return. I know that with garlic a period of cold is supposed to help make sure they divide and don't just grow into one big bulb, so I wonder if the same might be true of shallots.

Pilates - an unexpected New Year Resolution
Finally it's back to school again. We still have a dance teacher come in for the children who are attending school - we also zoom the lesson into homes for others to join in. This week part of the routine was pilates. I had always dismissed this without knowing anything about it. But as I watched I was struck by the elements of yoga and some similarities with tai chi. I have been vaguely considering both of these as a bit of gentle lockdown exercise and mindfulness.
As I have gotten older, despite leading quite an active lifestyle, my body has started to seize up. I am about as flexible as a gnarled, stubborn old oak tree! I have been having back problems too. I have found myself having to limit what I do to accommodate the preservation of my body. My mind finds it frustrating.
But as I watched the pilates I began to notice how it focused on strength through the core of the body. I used to have very strong stomach and back muscles until some major internal replumbing when I was forty. Even watching from the sidelines I could see how pilates might just be the form of exercise I needed.Then along came an exercise which was exactly the same as one the hospital physio had given me to do.  When I got home I looked up pilates on Youtube and was in for more surprises. The second clip I watched was a perfect match for the first set of physio exercises I had been given for my back troubles. The physios had just nabbed everything from Youtube pilates!!!

So there is my new year resolution. Sue is keen to join in too so that will make it all the more enjoyable.

Anyway, I can't put off feeding the chickens any longer. We've had a little snow overnight followed by rain so the ground will be treacherous outside.

Next week I'll show you my latest seed storage solution. We'll be sowing spinach, lettuce, onion and aubergine too. And hopefully my kaffir lime seeds will have germinated.

2021 Week 1 - Garlic, Willows, Sheep's Feet and... LOCKDOWN

A Frosty Start To The Year

There were no New Year's parties at the end of 2020. Most of the country had been placed in Tier 4. This virus respects none of our traditions. Of course, the chances of me out partying to see in the new year were miniscule anyway!

2021 got off to a lovely frosty start. The whole of the first week saw night-time temperatures at or below zero, barely rising throughout the day. This is ideal for working outside. After a few days my hands got used to the cold and I started to enjoy it. The ground stayed hard and the air was crisp and sharp. 

Winter jobs are not so pressing as the rest of the year, but it's still important to make hay while the sun shines - figuratively at least. More like cut hedges, prune fruit trees, take cuttings and prepare veg beds while the wind and rain hold off.

The Willow Holt Begins Its Second Year

I spent the first three days managing my willow holt. The basket willows had struggled through the year but most had survived and developed from the small sticks I poked in the ground last year. The more successful varieties had grown sufficiently for me to take lots of new cuttings to fill the gaps and extend the holt.

The story was similar with the short rotation coppice willows. These are fast growing varieties to be cut every two years for wood. This will be used for fuel or for chipping. Once established new rods can easily grow 12 foot long in a tear.

This pollard willow stump is only about 6 years old.
It yielded all the wooden poles which are lying
across the picture.

I have been busy cutting back some of the many hedges I have planted around the smallholding too. I cut sections on a three year cycle to allow for maximum wildlife benefit.

Foot-trimming The Sheep

The mud has been hard on the sheep's feet. It gets stuck in the cleft of their hooves and causes discomfort, especially if any small sticks get lodged. For some reason this year their nails have grown longer than usual and they were all in need of a ped-ewe-cure. This was not a job to attempt on slippery, muddy ground, but with everything frozen solid we seized the day, rounded up the sheep and set to work.

Ten years ago I could neve have imagined myself doing this.

Growing Garlic

Traditionally I like to plant my garlic on 1st January. It is now 8 years since I purchased the original garlic bulbs. Each year I save 100 cloves for planting. I reckon that initial purchase has so far given us close to 1000 cloves of garlic. 

LOCKDOWN!

We weren't far into 2021 when things took a turn for the worse. a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading rapidly. But schools went back as normal on 3rd January, so we were incredulous when that evening a national lockdown was announced again. Long overdue, but the timing was bewildering. Back to Zoom lessons at school. Covid seems scarier this time and if i could I would retreat into my own little world on the smallholding.

A Perennial Project

One problem with spending so much time at home is that I keep coming up with new projects. As if I'm not kept busy enough just keeping everything going as it is!

My new project is developing a sizeable bed of perennial vegetables. More on this in future blogs, but I plan to grow the likes of Oca, Caucasian Spinach, Good Kng Henry, Yacon, Tiger Nuts, Day Lilies, Skirrets and Walking Stick Kale.

Mighty Mites In The Apiary

Winter is a risky time for the bee colonies too. Most of last year's adult bees die at the turn of the year, leaving smaller numbers of young bees to form a protective ball around the queen. They circulate and vibrate to keep warm, but warmer winters mean that they come out and expend energy searching for non-existent food sources. 

Strong colonies are resilient though and far more likely to survive the winter. But there is an ever-present threat to them. For lurking in the hives are varroa mites, living on the backs of the bees. If bees were humans then varroa mites would be the size of a dinner plate.

To help the bees, Sue treats the hives periodically with thymol based chemicals. The bottom of each hive is open mesh for aeration and under this is a temporary floor, either correx or plywood. One purpose of this floor is to catch the dead varroa mites as they drop off the bees. It's a good way to judge the mite level in the hives.

Strangely, some of the hives had lots of mites, others very few. 

They really do look quite nasty when magnified.

A heavy mite drop from this hive.
Below, a close-up look

Birdlife

Of course, I am always birdwatching while outside. It has been an incredible period for birds on the smallholding. There are starlings, woodpigeons and winter thrushes in large numbers. Flocks of skylarks and meadow pipits explode from the stubble fields ad gulls, crows and lapwing pick over the flooded fields.

The pair of stonechats are still on the smallholding as well as five yellowhammers and a small flock of reed buntings. There is always something to distract me from my work.

Clear winter days make for some spectacular sunsets.

And finally...

this is the time of year when I am cutting the willows. The branches are a very welcome addition to the sheep's diet. They love the catkins which are already emerging as well as the tips of the small branches, but most of all they love to strip the bark. this is ideal as the willow can the be used as support poles in the vegetable garden. Because it is debarked, it does not root and compete with the vegetables.

A new branch is worth tussling over...
But there was room for everyone in the end

And to put all this into a wider context...

News From The Wider World

American politics took a nasty turn this week with its outgoing president inciting acts of treason by an angry mob who call themselves patriots.

2020 was declared the joint hottest year for Earth on record. Nothing to celebrate.

Covid-19 continues to rip through Europe and America.

Thank goodness for the simple pleasures of the life we have chosen to live here. 

2020 - A Vision Gone Wrong

2020.

Well, what can I say?

It's not quite gone to plan.

Here’s my review, a whistlestop tour. It was hard picking out the moments and the images.

The year got off to its usual start in the garden, 100 garlic cloves being dibbed into the soil on New Year's Day. We started the year with some very wet paddocks too.

But it wasn’t long before news of a distant virus raised its head from afar. At the time it was a very distant threat. Little did we know. Apart from the weather, the B word had till now been unavoidable. Who would have thought it could so quickly be upstaged by the C word.

Before too long this new type of coronavirus was impacting my year, with hastily rearranged flights for my annual birding trip abroad. The day after Valentine’s day saw me heading off for Thailand and what was to be a brilliant holiday. The birds were great, I had good friends for company and Thailand is a wonderful country.

By my return in early March, this distant virus was making the headlines in Europe with a serious outbreak in Italy and cases starting to appear all over Europe. I picked up a cough in Thailand and was forced into a strict self-isolation in one room of the house. Even my rubbish had to be bagged separately. 

I was one of the first people to go for a test. It was all very strange and clandestine. Pull up outside the hospital, make a phone call and wait for a doctor in full hazmat to emerge from a side door and lead me away. In our safe and protected modern lives, suddenly finding our lives threatened by pandemic seemed somewhat surreal. But it wasn’t long before everything was far too real.

Roll into March and a rapidly developing situation had the country locked down in fear of an invisible killer. 

There was hardship, loneliness and sadness for those worst affected. Toilet rolls became the new currency, ridiculous as it sounds. But humankind grinding to a halt also afforded a glimpse into an alternative civilisation. Wildlife invaded towns and cities, the air was cleaner, it was quieter. People started to appreciate nature, the simpler things in life, life itself and the key workers who devote their lives to public service. If only it were possible to freeze this image.

Of course, I choose to spend my life immersed in nature and the countryside. It was great not to feel quite so odd for a while. I continued to notice the amazing world which surrounds us.

Here on the smallholding little changed. In fact there was more time to keep up with the endless list of jobs and the lack of traffic and aeroplanes brought a strange peacefulness and serenity to the place.

As we passed Easter, the geese failed to hatch a single egg as they swapped and changed nests in the stable. 

Birdwatching took on a new form. Noc mig. Nocturnal migration, birdwatching in the dark. I sat out till the early hours wrapped in a sleeping bag and soaking up the night atmosphere. Amazingly there are birds which regularly fly right over the smallholding that I've never seen during the day. And Tawny Owls have most definitely moved into the area.

With the end of night-time frosts within sight, potatoes were planted, beans sown, onion sets set, seeds sown and seedlings nurtured.

School changed a lot and I felt sorry for Sue as headteachers were left to make life and death decisions with little guidance or information and revised instructions raining down at the shortest of notice from on high.

As spring progressed it was looking like a good year for growing. Sowing, hoeing and growing continued apace. From tiny acorns sprung mighty oaks – well, tomato seeds and climbing vines at least.

Into early summer and lockdown was starting to succeed. Some children came back to school and we all learned how to conduct our business on ZOOM. Masks had become standard indoor wear and hugs were out. There was a new normal.

On the smallholding the two female turkeys eventually found somewhere to safely lay their eggs without the crows finding them every day. We ended up with four young birds from one nest followed by five later in the summer from the second.

The year rolled on irrespective. The sheep were sheared as the weather  warmed up. Flooded paddocks became a distant memory as cracks appeared in the clay ground. A promising harvest was beginning to suffer, though we had raspberries coming out of our ears.

Comet Neowise made a brief appearance in the night skies and reminded us all of just how small we are.

Summer saw the pandemic situation much improved. We were encouraged to Eat Out To Help Out and on the smallholding we even managed to host a volunteer from France for a week. He was a delight to host. We were on top of all the smallholding jobs and even managed to get a few sheep shelters built using materials we had lying around.

new shelters for the sheep

new projects

The garlic was harvested. How things had changed since the cloves were set in the ground on the first day of the year.

Normally deserted beaches were packed as staycations took us back in time.

The polytunnel went mad. We’ve never had a better year for tomatoes, peppers and chillis. I seem (fingers crossed) to have sorted out the long term problem we had with red spider mite.

Blight stayed away from the potatoes long enough to get a decent crop. Pink Fir Apples are a treat in a good year.

chillis and peppers had a good year
as did Pink Fir Apple potatoes

The sun shone brightly and all was rosy.

It was a good year for the bees. Sue collected 200 lb of honey and still managed to leave 20lb on each hive for the bees. We had 8 swarms, not all from our hives. It was a good year for wasps too. I found 4 nests, three by being stung before I found them!!

Bees marching into their new home

Into the autumn. Schools back and inevitably that virus started to rear its ugly head again. Four of our ewes had unplanned lambs! (Clearly they did not know they shouldn’t get pregnant back in April when we put the rams back in after the winter. 

Sadly we lost the first lamb, which was born to a new mum and was very premature. Even more sadly we lost one of the ewes after a successful birth. We were left with Little Orphan Annie who lived in the house for quite a while until she was big enough to look after herself and survive the cold and wet. She still goes for the occasional walk with Sue and the dogs.

The rest of our pet family continue to make themselves well and truly at home!

Autumn crept upon us.

It was a ridiculously good one for rare birds turning up. I managed to just about stay within Covid rules to spend time on Shetland, Orkney, Tiree and The Scillies. I didn’t spend quite enough time on the smallholding though! This happens most autumns, but this one was exceptional.

As we headed into November we headed into another lockdown, though schools stayed open and it really didn’t feel much different to normal life. We don’t exactly spend much time going out or shopping anyway. Frosty mornings returned and in early December we had the first snow of the year too.

Sadly it was too much for Rambo, our breeding ram. He had lost weight steadily for a couple of years and we didn’t think he would get through last winter. I shall miss him greatly as we enjoyed our cuddles. He had a very good life though.

  

But with December came another type of lockdown. Not this time for us but for the poultry as cases of highly pathogenic influenza popped up all over the country as wildfowl migrated here for the winter. As far as I’m concerned this is another problem completely exacerbated by industrial ‘farming’ of livestock, but small scale keepers are always hit hardest by these restrictions. On the positive side, for almost a month we enjoyed the presence of up to a couple of hundred wild swans in the field right next to the farm.

And so we find ourselves past the 2020 winter solstice. Vaccinations mean there is light at the end of the tunnel and as the days again lengthen there is hope for the future. 

If the omens seemed good with the Great Conglomeration
of Saturn and Jupiter, there was sobering news of a new
more transmissible virus variant.

But 2020 really knew how to kick us in the teeth.  Along came a new virus variant, Christmas all but cancelled and the return of fear and uncertainty.

And I’ve got this far without mentioning the B word. We have a Brexit deal. The jingoistic blind patriotism makes me despair. But another side of me is uncomfortable with ever-increasing globalisation. If it means we produce and purchase locally and only what we need rather than greed then there may be a positive side to all this. Enough about this divisive issue.

I’ve not mentioned the T word either. But Trump is gone too. The madness is hopefully over.

So what with Coronavirus, Brexit and Trump it has been quite a memorable year.  Ever the optimist though, just maybe these times of upheaval might result in some sort of seismic shift in the way humans conduct their lives and what we all value.

Ruff Hide - wellies recommended!
Flooded fields have attracted impressive flocks of birds.
So I built a new sheep shelter, temporarily to be used as a bird hide.
The third bird I saw from it was a Ruff, a new bird for the farm, species 116.

On the smallholding we end the year with paddocks under water again. The year has come round. Another week and I plant 100 garlic cloves. 2021 begins.

It's been a thought-provoking year to say the least. But it's helped Sue and I realise just how lucky we are to have chosen the slightly unconventional path in life that we have.

The joy of being mostly self-sufficient has never felt more important, the value of what we have created here never greater.

My hopes are that somehow all this mess results in less consumerism, that we come out of this divisive year somehow more united and more caring of each other, that the selfless service of health workers, care workers, teachers becomes properly valued and recognised as more important than the blind pursuit of monetary wealth and thoughtless consumerism . 

Most of all though I hope that people continue to notice nature and appreciate all the special things around us which don’t come in plastic packaging.

My optimism is not blind though!

Roll on 2021.