A Loveliness of Ladybirds

Saturday 5th January 2019
A while ago I wrote that I try to notice something nature-related, however small, every day on the smallholding. But today it was Sue with the sharp eyes.
She noticed this conglomeration of ladybirds huddled together in the crook of a sheep hurdle.
Rather delightfully, the collective noun for a group of ladybirds is a loveliness. How lovely!
I feel a bit guilty as they may well have been displaced by my path clearing yesterday. But I can't leave everything untouched all year and at least if I do disturb them there are plenty of alternative places for insects to hide away for the winter.
These ladybirds are most welcome on the smallholding as it is their larvae which will be munching away on aphids next summer. A Seven-spot ladybird can eat about 5000 aphids in its life.

My day was spent at the bottom of the land knocking in a line of fence posts. I drive them in by hand using a very heavy and chunky metal tool known for some obscure reason as a post basher. It is hard work, so in between posts I removed some of the tree guards from the saplings. They should be old enough to withstand any nibbling now and I think they are better off with air flowing around their trunks.

The day flew by and before I knew it Sue and I were heading south deep into The Fens where we were due our annual meal out with the Grow Your Own group. Amazingly I founded this group five years ago and it is still going strong with many of its original members. A lovely evening was had by all. It is funny going out with fellow smallholders. Nobody orders chicken, duck, turkey or lamb as we have freezers full of the stuff. Instead the game pie was very popular, as was the fisherman's pie.
We did a gardening version of Secret Santa too. The presents were awarded at random and I got The Grumpy Gardener's Book. For some reason everybody thought this most appropriate.

Sunday 6th January 2019
I did unphotogenic jobs today. Drilling holes in wood in preparation for making some willow bird feeders. I put willow rods in soak too. They will just need a day to mellow and I can start making the feeders tomorrow night.
After this I started on the decking by the back pond. I broke the back of it and another day's work should have it almost finished. Pictures when it's done.

While I was busy with these tasks, Sue was cleaning out the chickens and then surprised me by clearing all the dead vegetation from the small wildlife pond in the middle of the veg patch. She uncovered some very nice fungi and a delicate mouse's nest.

After dark saw Sue preparing two dozen pheasants which we were kindly given by a friend. It's better than them going to waste and we do appreciate getting them.

ed. How could I forget? Our first duck egg from the new ducks. It's been well overdue and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. It may have something to do with the fact that we had a (very) late start today so the ducks were shut in their stable for longer than usual. But ducks normally lay early in the morning  so I would be surprised if they have been laying outside unbeknown to us.

Halcyon Blues

More work on the pond
First job on our return was to crack on with the big pond. The overflow boggy area wasn't working as it obviously had a leak and the damp soil was perfect to be invaded by grass. Taking advantage of my renewed vigour and ignoring the heat I set about digging all the soil back out and relining it. It is now basically a second pond which I will plant up with marginal pond plants.

A Kingfisher Missed
All the while I was doing this I couldn't get out of my mind what Sue our farmsitter had told me that morning. Just the previous day a kingfisher had been sat on the log I placed at the back of the pond. We had a kingfisher in our London garden once and only once, but never have I seen one here. I have spotted them on the Main Drain, but only rarely and little did I think that one would visit my new pond.
Let's hope for a repeat performance.
Until then I am gutted that I wasn't here to see it.

Quack Quack! I'm a Duck, Not a Drake

One animal that won't be allowed anywhere near this pond is my ducks. Ducks have already ruined one wildlife pond. Anyway, most of these won't be around for much longer. They have continued to grow at a staggering rate. They are still only eight weeks old. The males are beginning to show their curly tail feathers - it might be in their interests to try to hide these!

But there is another easier way to differentiate males from females. Only the females quack! Again the males may do well to learn to quack PDQ!

A Whopper First Plum Harvest

Other news and the first plums are ready. I've lost the label and am wracking my brains to remember the variety. It may be Opal, which was originally a cross between a plum and a gage. This year they have remained green and not coloured up at all but they have ripened and sweetened nicely in this year's exaggerated sunshine.
Sue couldn't quite reach all the high up fruits, but she still gathered 17.5kg of fruit. That's a lot of plums! We have about half a dozen other plum trees which should come to fruition over the next month or so.

The Hub - A Duck-Free Wildlife Pond

Saturday 14th April 2018
A dry day and blue skies!
Today's job was to build a hazel and willow barricade around the small wildlife pond which forms the hub of The Wheel, my veg plot design. This preformed plastic pond has followed Sue and I from our first house in London where it was the centrepiece of our 16 foot square garden. Our current plot is over 800 times that size!

I want to move the ducks into the veg plot to hoover up the slugs which live under the grass overhangs where the beds are edged. But they will trash the pond. Instead, I am building a new pond for them, more of a duck lido in fact.

So I set about cutting the stakes for my duck barrier, using hazel I had harvested. I then weaved in the willows, using basic weaving techniques.

I have to say I am very pleased with the end result.

And the ducks are so impressed with their new lido that they have not even noticed the other pond. That one can be kept a secret between me and the wild birds and the frogs and toads.

The first goose egg of 2018

Monday 5th March 2018
An authentic Lincolnshire myrobalan hedge
When they still had proper orchards in Lincolnshire, myrobalan hedges were very much a local feature. Myrobalan is another word for Cherry Plums which produce small red or yellow plums, perfect for jams and country wine. The hedges would act as a windshield for the orchard and provide an alternative crop.
The cuttings which I took last year have done very well indeed, but now needed moving. I had about two dozen flowering currants to find a home for. I also needed to move the bird cherry hedge which I put in last year, due to a lack of foresight on my part and a change of plans.

My cuttings bed last week in the snow.

This area will be making way for a small new paddock soon.

So I had the idea of a mixed Myrobalan, flowering currant and bird cherry hedge. It will provide wind protection, food for us, food for the birds and it should look pretty for at least  part of the year. To add even more colour, I dotted in a few red dogwoods, again from cuttings.
The only missing feature is the Cherry Plums, on order from the interweb. They should arrive just in time, for bare root plants need to go in before Spring really kicks in.

Mid-job

I was relieved to finally sort out the blackberry support frame too. The weight of the plants and the effects of the wind snapped off one of the posts last year. It was all too heavy to lift back up, but today I managed to cut out all of last year's fruiting canes and to disentangle this year's from the cross wires. The new structure is much more substantial so hopefully it will stand for a lot more than a year. It won't take long for the blackberry harvest to repay the cost.

Tuesday 6th March 2018
Time for seedlings to look after themselves.
A big day for some of the seedlings. Broad beans, leeks, tomatoes, peppers, all have got off to an early start in the conservatory. But they prefer the polytunnel, where there is even more light and better air circulation. Now that the temperatures have lifted and Spring may finally be here, with a little overnight protection they should survive and harden off nicely.

Broad beans coming up strong.

Leeks and coriander looking

a bit straggly but should grow on

stronger in the polytunnel.

As soon as the soil is workable, 

the broad beans will go out.

If the weather holds good,

they should quickly harden off.

Tender young tomato plants and peppers.

The mini greenhouse within the polytunnel

should give them enough protection.

The polytunnel mangetout seedlings.

These should give one of the first harvests of the year.

More cuttings
Today it was the turn of the dogwood cuttings to be planted out. A few went into the new hedge yesterday, but I had about thirty to place. The first batch went beside the new pond and I took some time out to start naturalising the edges. It is starting to look really good.

With the cuttings bed cleared and rotavated, I trimmed back the buddleias and took fresh cuttings. Again I got distracted and ended up digging out a sizeable patch of nettles.

Spring was really in the air today. Skylarks sang high in the sky and Sue's honeybees were out in force. The geese and the turkeys were mating - actually the first time I have ever seen the stag turkey 'on the job'.

A quaint place for a meeting
I had to stop slightly early since Sue and I were off to the Smallholders Club committee meeting. Gerry did his best to ruin our plans by disappearing under the killing bush with his first rabbit of the year. It's about time, as the rabbits are already causing a lot of damage in the garden this year.
We had a new venue for the meeting. The committee room the club used to use was being refurbished, which did us a big favour. For it forced us to look elsewhere and we came to The Bridge Coffee Shop in a place called Three Holes (wonderfully descriptive). The owner was happy to open especially for us. We only expected a room and tables, but she was happy to serve us the menu. I must say, a meeting with pizza and herbal tea was much more civilised and comfortable than a stale meeting room. At the end there was a decisive vote to hold our next meeting back at the coffee shop.

Wednesday 7th March 2018
The first goose egg of the year!
I did a bit of general tidying up today, trimming back bushes and tidying beds in readiness for new growth. I started collecting up all the bits of ash tree which have fallen over the winter. The lawn is littered with sticks and twigs right up to small branches. They don't take long to dry out and make excellent wood for getting the fire going.
Sue appeared with a big smile on her face, clutching the first goose egg of the year. Not quite the latest date for this annual event, but last year the first one plopped out on 16th February. That was the last I saw of the egg as it was quickly poached and gobbled up!