2021 Week 8 - Final preparations for outdoor growing

Spring is most definitely in the air! We've had warm, dry winds all week which have done wonders drying out the land. It's left the soil in the veg plot nicely pliable too, not that I dig it much now that I have converted to no-dig. It does make for good weeding though. Oh the satisfaction of pulling out a couple of foot of couch grass root in one go!

The veg plot is gradually taking shape as winter debris is cleared and beds are covered.

There was a lull in the seed sowing schedule this week so instead I've been concentrating on getting all the beds ready. With no dig, this mainly involves just shifting all the compost I managed to make last year. There's not enough to apply a thick covering all over, so I focus on using it in the polytunnel and on this year's potato beds. I've also been harvesting and chopping back the willow growth. Some is used for structures to support climbing plants and the like in the veg plot. The rest will be shredded and can go on my new perennial beds.

The mangetout has been planted in the polytunnel beds

We were back at school this week. Actually it was our bubble's turn to be teaching from home, but our broadband has been behaving like a temperamental small child which meant that I had to go into school every day just to connect to broadband so I could Zoom into pupils' homes and classrooms. I mostly had to work in a classroom on my own so I didn't do too much bubble crossing. 

The nights are really drawing out now though and it's easily possible to get a couple of hours done in the garden when I get home from work. This makes a really big difference.

Home from work and still plenty of light left

One of the principles of sustainable smallholding is never to throw anything away and to accumulate anything that might come in useful one day. This policy was vindicated this week as some incomplete polytunnel frames which I had collected quite some years ago (and had been moved around the smallholding several times) finally found a use.

With my new found interest in growing perennial plants, I have lots of pots over-wintering. They are fine in the polytunnel over winter, protected from the worst of the wind and frost, but temperatures in the polytunnel have been soaring whenever the sun shines, These plants are much better outside now, but a modicum of protection from the wind and the birds is still useful. So I have build an extension onto the back of the polytunnel and converted a previously wasted space into a nursery area. I just need the bird netting to be delivered and it will be complete. There was an old scaffold platform making the place look messy too. This I have repurposed into staging for plant trays.

I am really pleased with the new space I have created.

Boris and Arthur help out
with plucking as usual.

Bird flu restrictions are still in place so the poultry remain locked up. But the turkeys have started to fight as two young males have been strutting their stuff. There always comes a point when rearing birds when the boys have to move on. With this more aggressive springtime behaviour came a bit of wanderlust too. One morning we discovered they had got out and ventured into the field next door! This was the cue to round them up and for one of the boys to be freezer-bound. As usual I got a couple of wing-whacks in the face in the process of catching him. I've learned to take my glasses off.

I've been a busy boy this week. I've also built a low shelter for the chickens, again using old bits of polytunnel frame. I've got some old polytunnel cover sitting around that I scrounged too which should make this into a perfect shelter from the wind and the rain. It will also give the poultry some dry, dusty ground to bathe in once they are all free to explore.

The Silkies have had a major home improvement too. I purchased several large sheets of welded mesh. This was mainly to stop the rats digging under and into their pen, but it has also served to keep the chickens up abuve the mud. They seem very happy with the new arrangement.

More happy animals.

We have let the sheep back out of the stables. They were ecstatic, the old ewes running and bouncing and leaping around the paddock when they were let out. Rambutan got very over excited too. He is not in with the girls this year, but decided that ramming me would be quite a good game. I can tell you it hurt! It did remind me why they are called rams.

The geese responded to having all their stable straw changed by almost immediately beginning to lay. The first goose egg is one of those markers of the seasons for us. Next up will be the return of the swallows onto the farm.

Of course, I can't go without giving a Covid update. There is seemingly light at the end of the tunnel as Boris revealed his road ma. As expected we get all the children back at school in  a couple of weeks time. But I won't be around for the first week when they come back. For I have finally got the hospital appointment I've been waiting over a year for. This is one of my regular cancer checks and it has been a worrying time not having these checks. Hopefully nothing nasty has developed inside me while the hospitals have effectively been closed for normal service.

As well as the twice weekly lateral flow tests I am now taking for school, I will be required to take a proper test before I go into hospital and to self isolate for a few days beforehand. This time exactly a year ago I was one of the first to self-isolate in this country following my return from Thailand with a persistent cough. How things have developed since then.

Finally, my forest garden has arrived in a couple of boxes this week. Well, it's just part of what will hopefully become a food forest in the future (more of an edible copse really). For now this unusual mix of trees and shrubs has a little growing to do.

I'll tell you what the plants are in detail next week. I'll leave you with a mystery. What are these?