No digging, plenty of lugging!

With Spring hurtling towards us, there is plenty to do to get ready for sowing and growing. The ground has been pretty much frozen for a while now, so I have used my time to do some of the more physical jobs on the smallholding, mainly moving piles of stuff from one place to another.

Firstly an offer of woodchip rapidly developed into collecting 6 trailer loads of the stuff over several days. It's not heavy, but that's still a lot of shovel fulls to load and then unload at this end.
Considering how much I shifted, it seems to have gone nowhere. I do at least now have some nice woodchip paths between my new no-dig veg beds.
Not all the beds are ready yet as there are leeks and brassicas still in the ground holding up my redesign of the bed system, so the last couple of trailer loads are piled up waiting to go to their new home.

While the trailer was on the car I used the opportunity to collect a couple of loads of straw bales. We are fortunate that a couple of very local farms still do conventional small bales which are far easier to handle than the massive agricultural scale ones which mostly go straight off to be burned for energy these days.
They are still only £1 per bale here, which is ridiculously cheap compared to other areas of the country.

I've continued moving compost onto some of the new beds too. The asparagus bed is looking particularly swanky. I hope the asparagus plants appreciate my efforts and throw up a forest of lovely spears this year.

Final job, and one which Sue excels at, was to clear a year's bedding from the goose stable. We run them on a deep litter system and have a good clean out once a year just before they begin laying, which traditionally happens on Valentine's day (give or take a couple of weeks).
This heady mix of straw and goose poo goes by wheelbarrow straight down to the soft fruit patch. I had to hurriedly prune all the currant bushes before it went down.
I pile it around the base of each bush and then the chickens come along and spread it everywhere!
This practice seems to reward me with ample currants. The blackcurrants especially thrive under this system.

While I was down in the soft fruit patch, I finally finished

cutting back the summer raspberries.

 

I laid cardboard on the grass (thanks Big Dug) and covered it with 

goose bedding. This will create a new bed into which I intend 

to plant more blackcurrant bushes which I raised from cuttings two years ago.

Super Blood Wolf Moon Hug Day!

It's International Hug Day and the rest of the family are really getting into it!

It's also the start of Energy Saving Week, though I think the impending headlong dive into catastrophic climate change maybe demands slightly more than an awareness week!

Onto smallholding matters and Saturday saw the Beginners Grow Your Own group round for our third meeting. This is something I run for members of Fenland Smallholders Club.

The chickens enjoy pecking at broken ice,

even though it's not really the weather for lollies!

A chilly but still morning saw us outside clearing the asparagus patch and making a start on cutting back last year's summer-fruiting raspberry stems. The aim is that I get a little help and that, by actually doing the tasks, the group learn practically.

Asparagus patch

Before and after a long overdue clearance

This was followed by a short introduction to fruit tree pruning.

Once we were wrapped up and working the weather wasn't actually too bad but it was nice to come into the warm where we looked at all the gubbins needed to raise your own veg plants from seed.

From next month it all starts to get a lot more real as seed sowing begins in earnest.

Sunday had me engaged in Smallholders Club business again as I had my first ever AGM to run as Chair. I hate having to do this sort of thing and really can't stand the formality.
Anyway, I got through it and we followed the formalities with a talk by one of our members on shooting for smallholders.


I doubt I will be getting a gun, but it really was very interesting. I felt a lot less nervous once the guns went away!

Back from the club meeting, there was time to clear out the duck stable before heading out for a walk with the dogs under a spectacular full moon.
This was a Super Blood Wolf Moon. There seems to have been a recent proliferation in descriptive moon names! At least it encourages a bit of awe and wonder at the world we live in and, to be fair, there was to be an eclipse much later on in the night.

River Cottage has come to the Lincolnshire Fens

Sunday 27th May 2018

With Sue's rapidly expanding apiary, I spent some of the morning knocking up some new brood frames and a new brood box. Meanwhile Sue was inspecting her bees.
While I was in a DIY sort of mood and with Sue annoying the bees (actually they seem very calm and peaceful this year) I spent some time in the garage cleaning and sharpening my tools.

Bee city

I got to work hoeing some of the veg beds. What a difference a sharp hoe makes.
But it wasn't long before bees took over my day again, for a giant swarm appeared on one of the willow arches. I've already posted about this so won't go into too much detail. But I can't resist posting the picture up again.

Today's outdoor work was intermittent, for I was having a bit of a lazy day. You can't work solidly every day. At my age the body needs a rest every now and then, even if the mind doesn't want it to!
Fortunately one of our Freeview channels was showing old episodes of River Cottage all day long.
I had seen most of these before, but before I was a smallholder, and it is only watching them again that I quite realise how much they affected my life. The first time round, Hugh F-W planted a dream in my head.
The second time around was more of a nostalgic experience. We've done that... and that... we tried that... that happened to us too.
Very notable is that the rules have changed. No kitchen scraps for the chooks and pigs any more. No burying fallen stock. No blood back from the abattoir for black pudding. Apart from these details though, it was inspiring to watch all the shows again. I wonder what seeds have been inadvertently planted in my mind this time.



With the new bees in the brood box (the new one which I constructed this morning), I spent a very pleasant hour weeding the strawberries with Sue. They are looking good this year and fingers crossed there is no sign of a return of the Strawberry Seed Beetle, a plague of which devastated our crop this year.
There was still plenty of the day left, enough time to mow and edge the paths in the veg plot (overgrown edges are where the slugs like to hide) and ridge up the potatoes.
Sue made another batch of asparagus soup which smells absolutely delicious. We have a few weeks of asparagus left now before we let the plants grow and gather the sun's energy to store in the crowns ready for next year. The spears are coming thick and fast and are hard to keep up with.
At the moment every meal is accompanied by fresh asparagus, new potatoes and mangetout. The potatoes will continue for a long, long while with different varieties coming along nicely, but the asparagus and mangetout will soon be replaced by broad beans, the next vegetable to come into crop.

I leave you with a few images from the smallholding today.

The yellow flowers of Scorzonera in its second year.

Behind, the beautiful blue flowers of its cousin, Salsify

 

Left: Honesty which I have left.to flower and go to seed.
Right: The lambs enjoying a few freshly cut willow branches.

A Wasp Fly I found while planting bee seedlings.

A Scorpion Fly which got stuck in the polytunnel for a while.

Asparagus put to bed

Saturday 13th January 2018
Sheep stuff
I was rudely awoken by Sue with the news that the three ewe lambs had pushed through the electric fence and got in with Rambo and the breeding ewes! Normally they go nowhere near the fence so I don't know if something spooked them. Luckily Rambo did not seem to be showing much interest.
The lambs were overdue their monthly worm treatment anyway, so we herded them all into sheep hurdles and got the syringe loaded up with the drench (oral medicine).

With that accomplished, we separated Rambo and led him up to the top paddock to spend the next few months with the other two ram lambs. So now all the girls are together and all the boys are together.

Asparagus put to bed
A rare dry couple of days and just about warm enough for the fingers not to go too numb.
Sitting on the to do list for a while now has been to clear the asparagus bed. The ferny tops had yellowed and dried out but needed chopping. This helps keep the asparagus beetle down. With the stems cleared away I could get to the weeds. Asparagus is an absolute pain to weed, as its fleshy roots run shallow. So it is a hands and knees job. I piled a good layer of sand and manure on the bed last year which helped inhibit the weeds and improve soil structure. Most of the weeds were easy to remove but couch grass roots had encroached from the edges and needed carefully forking and teasing out.
I then lightly turned the soil in the trenches and let the chickens in to pick out the slug eggs. Early in the spring, when the chickens have been banished from the veg plot, I'll mound up the ridges again and add more manure. There's no point doing it now as the chooks will just scratch it all over the place.

The chickens taking advantage of turned soil and doing me a favour too.

Even better, with the lengthening days they are starting to turn the extra protein into tasty eggs.

I didn't quite finish the whole asparagus bed but there's not much left to do. I had to call a slightly early end to the gardening today as the evening was set aside for a meal out with the Grow Your Own group. The Fens is a big place and we had a bit of a journey to The Lamb and Flag in Welney.
We had a lovely time and a very tasty meal (generous portions and they let me have custard and ice-cream with my bread and butter pud!)

Sunday 14th January 2018
Pruning the apples and pears
With the weather holding fine I decided to get all the apples and pears pruned. However much I read and watch videos, this is a job I am never quite sure if I am doing right. The trouble is that the trees don't often grow like they do in the books.
However, I've been doing it for a few years now so feel as if I am getting the hang of it.

I have to hold off on any stone fruits (plums, gages, damsons, cherries, apricots) for a while yet, until the sap is rising.

Let's hope the weather conspires for a good fruit harvest this year. Each year one crop or another catches a frost at the wrong time and one year I lost all the apples and pears to hail damage mid June. I'm not expecting that to happen again in a hurry.

The Perfect Day... almost

Yesterday was just about perfect.

It started with two swallows chattering in the stables. These two birds spent the day air-dancing over the farm. One of the little owl pair sat on sentry duty outside their nest hole.

It ended with two beautiful black lambs delivered in record time.

In between I worked the soil and sowed the first outdoor carrots, turnips and spring onion. Then came the rain to water them and prepare the soil for working the next veg beds. I moved into the polytunnel to sow more carrots, transplant seedlings and pot on some of the faster growing young tomato plants.

Along the way I discovered a secret stash of chicken eggs.

In the evening, Sue cooked up a tasty lamb dish accompanied by the first fresh asparagus of the year, a real treat.

Today has been more testing. The mother ewe still has a trail of membrane hanging from her back end. Though she and the lambs seem healthy enough, we are worried for her. Two phone calls to the vets have left us just keeping an eye on things, so that's what we are doing, but it's a very worried eye.

Everything is growing... quickly

2nd May
The broad beans are up and doing well, well enough indeed to take the netting off and finally be able to access all the weeds which have started to emerge amongst them. I planted out Poached Egg plants among them - this supposedly prevents them being attacked by blackfly and it seems to have worked for the past few years so I'll continue with it.
I got half of the onions weeded too before heavy rain in the afternoon drove me into the polytunnel.
No matter though, plenty of jobs to keep me busy in there. I sowed more carrot seeds. The first two packs of Early Nantes seeds I used have been discarded. I was beginning to think there was something very wrong with my soil but different varieties have since germinated well.
I planted more kohl rabi seedlings out into the beds - these are the last ones for the polytunnel. From now they'll be sown outside. The early turnips I sowed are doing well (after a similar disaster with the first batch of seeds) and needed thinning. Hopefully we'll get some young turnips before long and the plants can then come out to make room for the young pepper plants I've got coming along.
I sowed some peas for outdoors too, deciding not to risk planting them straight into the soil outside - it also brought me some time to construct a support for them.
3rd May
We were awoken at 6am by the dogs barking. They were quite persistent, so obviously thought there was something out there. I went outside but nothing seemed amiss. It was a lovely morning with a gentle and warm southerly breeze.
I decided to spray the last few creeping thistles which survived last year's regime of attack. I have learned that just a few pests and weeds need radical solutions, but I try to do this as efficiently and as carefully as I can so as to leave the wildlife hopefully minimally affected. I tried pulling the nettles and thistles but on the scale of our smallholding it was an impossible task. I still leave patches of nettles around the edge, but the creeping thistles really are too invasive to tolerate. It's a great shame as they are alive with bees and butterflies when in flower.
The day continued hot and the southerly air brought with it an arrival of Swallows along with the first Swift of the year and a brief Sand Martin. Up till now we only had 4 swallows back on the farm. I always know when new arrivals come in as there is much excited chattering and chasing.
The first orange-tip butterfly was fluttering around too and later the first small white (= cabbage white!!!) This prompted me to erect the netting over my main brassica patch. I've constructed a veritable fort which should protect my greens from caterpillar and pigeon attack.

One final job for the day was to move all the sheep down to the big field. The paddock up by the house needs a little time to recover before I move the lambs back up again without their mums.

All the ewes and lambs meet up for the first time.

There is much excitement.

And after the final job, there is usually another one. In weather like this, keeping everything watered in the polytunnel is crucial. Forget for one day or miss a tray and a whole batch of seedlings can be dead. I'm using the overhead irrigation more this year but a bit of targeted watering every evening is still necessary.
After I'd given the hanging strawberries a good soaking I decided to tuck some straw underneath the developing fruits, firstly to act as a mulch and keep in the moisture and secondly to prevent the strawberries from rotting where they touched the soil surface.




4th May
22 Centigrade today. A real scorcher!
I sowed my first beetroots direct outside, between the onions. They are supposedly good companions. I sowed my quinoa seeds too. Well, some of them. I bought a packet which contained several thousand seeds, to be sown direct a foot apart. I had enough for a field full! Unsure of how they would germinate, I sowed them much more thickly. I sowed some in modules in the polytunnel too, just to be sure.
Quinoa is a new crop for me. I like to try new things, but they don't always work. Generally there are reasons why some vegetables (and grains) have become more popular than others, but there is the occasional exception to the rule.
Lastly, Rameses is down to two feeds per day. This in in preparation for weaning him off his bottle milk. His afternoon feed will consist of being offered a tub of creep feed and beet pellets (pre-soaked). I'm sure there will be loud protestations!

Rameses comes out for his feed and has been making friends with the dogs.

5th May

Gosling's first trip into the garden proper.

Not much done on the smallholding today. I did get to the hardware store though so was able to fix the hinges on the duck houses.
40 Sweetcorn minipop seedlings appear to have gone missing! I don't suspect foul play, more an ever increasing propensity to put things down and completely forget about them!
6th May
A white duck egg! The first for some time. The white duck has been through a bit of a hard time. We had to separate her from the black Cayugas as the young male just would not leave her alone, eventually drawing blood on her head and wing. We separated her off for a while. Meanwhile the overly hormonal drake was 'disappeared', but not before he had exhausted another of the females. Sadly we lost her.
The good news is that the white duck has made friends with the lone white Muscovy drake - the larger drake has taken the two females for himself. She has even started going into the same house as him and the egg shows that she is healthy and happy again. Maybe she approved of her new door hinges too.





More exciting news was the first tail-raising display by Captain Peacock. It wasn't spectacular and appeared to be aimed at a duck, but it was still a significant moment.
Finally I undertook a big job today, restoring the asparagus bed. It was in a bit of a state. Keeping weeds out is very difficult and the ridges I grow it on were collapsing. Furthermore, cracks had appeared in the soil around this years emerging spears and last year's decomposing stems had made more perfect hidy holes for slugs, who seem partial to a nice bit of young asparagus.

Traditionally asparagus beds were treated with salt, which would kill off weeds (and I presume do a pretty good job on slugs). I decided that some old builders sand I had would do a similar job, as well as filling in the cracks and holes. Anyway it was pretty hard work but I was pleased with the finished results of my work. The asparagus will very soon begin growing at a phenomenal rate and we can harvest it until about the end of June when we leave it to grow and gather the sun's goodness to store in its roots.

First Asparagus



Asparagus takes centre stage,
even over our own fresh duck eggs and
home-made ham.


Two years ago I planted some 30 asparagus crowns and watched them grow into wispy, fern-like plants. Last year I waited patiently for them to emerge and they duly did, poking their heads through the soil's crust as if by magic. Again, I watched them grow into wispy, fern-like plants. They attracted a few asparagus beetles, beautiful insects which more often than not managed to fly away before I could squash them between my thumb and forefinger. There were never more than a few, though, so no worries about an infestation. I duly mulched the asparagus with hay, supposedly this luxury crop's favourite treatment, but this was not a good move in the year of the great slug plague. It just gave the slimy vermin somewhere to hide and a damp shelter from the sun. The hay was removed, but still the slugs attacked.

But this year, their third year, I awaited the emergence of the asparagus spears with more anticipation. For this year I could eat them! No more patiently waiting while they accrued the sun's energy in their roots and built their strength.

 

Why do I choose to write about this today? After all, asparagus has been advertised at the roadside for several weeks now.

In fact that first, memorable harvest, was a few weeks back now. It happened during the great technological meltdown which brought this blog to a grinding halt for six weeks. And there's still so much for me to catch up with. 

But today, for the first time since we moved in, having feasted on his rhubarb, apples and strawberries, having burned his wood in our fireplace, having borrowed no end of things from him, today I was finally able to give something to our neighbour, Don, which he doesn't grow himself.

Yes. Our investment in a modest asparagus bed is finally paying off.

All being good, we will be harvesting spears from these very same crowns for the next fifteen years or so.

For the moment though, we have another two weeks to enjoy our almost daily harvest before we again leave our asparagus plants to grow into wispy, fern-like plants.