An Early Spring Smallholding Week

What I love about working on the smallholding is the rich variety of jobs. So, by way of a bit of a catch up, here's a quick overview of a week here on Swallow Farm.

Thursday 15th February 2018
I started the day by jointing the ducks I recently dispatched and plucked - I am getting better and better at getting all the meat off the bone, which is great as I hate to waste anything when it is an animal's life we are talking about.
Hazel Coppicing
A trip to the vets for standard pet supplies hurt the wallet as usual, but we stopped off at a fellow smallholder's place on the way back to help coppice some hazel. Just one tree for this year but it gave us a fair haul of useable poles. They are a bit rustic but should be ok for what I have in mind, which is to make some hazel and willow hurdles. I had forgotten that the willow needs to be cut for a couple of weeks before it can be sufficiently bent without snapping, so that job has gone on the list.

I would normally cut all the growth at ground level, leaving sloped edges to shed water,

but the owner wanted this year's growth left - which made cutting a lot, lot trickier.

Friday 16th February 2018

The large water butt (an IBC - Intermediate Bulk Container) has been working well as a reservoir from the gutter to the wildlife pond. But the best laid plans... today I just needed to move it about 4 feet to make room for something else.
Willow harvesting

The job went more smoothly than I imagined, so I got straight on with harvesting the remaining willows. For the moment they can lay in neat piles until they have weathered enough to use for hurdle making.

Let there be light in the polytunnel
With jobs falling thick and fast, I made hay while the sun shone and cleaned the polytunnel. I have bought a new long-handled squeegee and soft broom for this and all was going well until a small plastic protrusion went straight through the polytunnel plastic. Fortunately I had a couple of foot of repair tape left over. More has been ordered as this is one thing you want in stock on the rare occasions when it is needed.

The monster chicks foraging in the rhubarb bed.

The upturned bins are for forcing pink rhubarb.

Saturday 17th February 2018

Rhubarb forcing

Not much done today, though I did place a couple of plastic dustbins over two of my rhubarb crowns in the hope that I can get a small crop of forced rhubarb this year. We'll see how it goes.

Sunday 18th February 2018

Grow-Your-Own Motivation

A day spent with the Grow-Your-Own group. I have handed over the reins of this group as I have taken on being Chair of the Smallholders Club and that is taking up quite enough of my time.

Our subject for the day was succession planting and we had a very informative discussion. I showed off my seed organisation system, which I can't show you as it is patent pending (actually it's not, but it should be).

More importantly we enjoyed a high quality bring and share meal. Then there was more club business. Four of the Grow-Your-Own group are now committee members of the Fenland Smallholders Club and we informed the others that the group had volunteered to organise the April club meeting. As this would be the first I had been in charge of as Chair, I want to make it a good one.

Lots of ideas flew about and I think we will put on quite a show.

I always come back from the Grow-our-Own group feeling inspired and reinvigorated.

Monday 19th February

Early Crops

Finally the polytunnel is ready for me to start planting. (I discovered that the old soft broom head fitted the new gubbins I've bought, making for the perfect polytunnel cleaning set up).

In went ten Arran Pilot seed potatoes for a super early crop of new potatoes. I sowed carrots, beetroots, turnips and lettuce too. The polytunnel is great for squeezing an extra crop in before anything is possible in the unprotected beds outside.

Turkeys not just for Christmas

I managed to catch and dispatch the superfluous male turkey - important to do this while I could still tell it from the older stag.

I got it all plucked too while it was still warm. I find turkeys the easiest of all poultry to pluck.

Primocane Raspberries

With these jobs done before lunch, I continued on to cutting back the stems of my autumn fruiting raspberries. It is amazing that from nothing new stems will shoot up, flower and fruit all before winter comes round again.

These are my new raspberries, one called Joan J which gets rave reviews from everyone and one called All Gold (though it doesn't produce chocolate raspberries and they're not Terry's!)

Another Re-organisation

With drizzle coming down all day, I was by now getting pretty damp. The water table is high which means that any rain makes the soil unworkable and things churn up pretty quickly. So I continued the day reorganising the stables. I have made some room in there and want to make good use of the space. It is amazing how every space I create seems to fill up with 'stuff', hence the endless reorganisations.

And finally, despite the weather forecast for the coming week, there are more definite signs of spring. Here's a photo of some catkins I took today.

Step by Step Fedge In A Day (and a bit)

Saturday 3rd February 2018
Today was drizzly, all day.
But with colder weather forecast for the coming week I took the plunge (not quite literally) and decided to get six metres of fedge complete with archway constructed in a day, right through from harvesting the willow.

The idea was to mirror the fedge we made last weekend, creating a corridor with archways off to the side leading into the future butterfly meadow areas.

So here it is step by step:

Step 1
Peg out ground cover fabric. The willow slips are programmed to root and sprout, but they still need a little protection from competition from grasses, at least until they get their roots established.

Step 2
Harvest the willow.
I pollard my willows so the new growth doesn't get nibbled at ground level. It's easier to harvest too.

Step 3
Trim and Sort the willow.
Long straight stems are best. The longest for the archway, the next thickest and straightest for the uprights.
Weavers need to be just a little thinner and anything really long and thin is ideal for binders.

Step 4
Drive holes into the ground and insert the uprights, ideally a foot into the ground. Align the uprights in the plane of the fedge and firm the ground around their bases.
It doesn't matter if they are not yet completely vertical - this can be achieved when the binders are woven in.
For the arch, the uprights are inserted into the ground at an angle so they bow outwards. The tops are tied temporarily with baling twine, trying to pull the arches into a consistent  symmetrical shape.


Step 5
Weave in the binders. This is the trickiest part. Pairs of long willow whips weave in and out and over and under. They bind everything together (hence the name).
I find that this step often causes the whole fedge to pull one way or another. If this happens I pull it back with cord and a stake. Once the fedge is complete it will hold itself in place and no longer pull one way. Then the cord can be released.



Step 6
Insert the weavers. These go into the ground and weave up across three uprights. This is where everything suddenly comes together.

By this stage I really was working in the dark. The temperature was dropping and my wet hands were turning numb. I kept going, keen to at least get all the whips into the ground before it turned icy over the next few days. But eventually I had to give up. I placed lengths of twine on the ground which are used to temporarily tie things in and I couldn't even see where they were. I was pretty much working by touch alone!

I didn't get the whole thing done in a day, but given the conditions and how short the days are at the moment I was pretty amazed how close I had come. Another hour or so of light and I would have finished.

Sunday 4th February 2018
Steps 6 - 8
Up early to get the fedge finished (and get some photos of where I got to last night).
First those last few weavers.

Step 7
All the temporary ties (baling twine) get replaced with tying tube. This is a hollow rubber tube which is soft on the wood but over time should create a pressure graft where it is used to tie living and growing wood.

Step 8
Trim everything to look neat, tie the projecting tops of the uprights into design of own choice.

And that's it.
OK, I've simplified it a bit.
If you want to go ahead and build your own fedge, there is a great video on YouTube by the people at Willowbank. (I actually purchased the DVD before I found this.) Unfortunately it stops just before Step 8, but you can probably work out what to do.

I'll post pictures in the summer to show what it looks like with leaves on.

A Solstice Tree

Last week at the Green Back Yard Christmas Fayre I was inspired by this:

Tuesday 19th December 2017

My Own Solstice Tree

So today I embarked on my own tree, for solstice of course, not Christmas. I don't do Christmas.

First step was to harvest the willow and sort it. I needed about 30 rods for the verticals and some thinner but long ones for the weaving.

I then tried to figure out how to actually make the thing. I cut a silver birch branch, choosing one that was straight and nicely white and pushed it in the ground. I then used a brooder ring to mark the circle and set about poking the willow rods into the ground all around it. There was a fair bit of trial and error to get all the rods to the same length and the ground got muddy as I worked round the tree but I ended up with this (the tree, not the dog):

I was very pleased with my afternoon's work.

Wednesday 20th December 2017

Natural decorations

I do the construction, Sue does the decoration. And a fine job she did of it too. By noon on Wednesday our solstice tree was adorned with ivy, rosemary and conifer sprigs. Colour came with a splash of hawthorn berries and a dash of class was added with artichoke and teasel heads. The whole was topped off with a star of allium seedheads.

Thursday 21st December 2017
Happy Solstice!
So this is it. The shortest day reached. The sun rose at... well, it was misty most of the day! I was busy in the kitchen all day since I'd invited the Grow Your Own group over for a special solstice celebration meal and I was really pushing the boat out, as you can see from the menu.

The evening went very well indeed. The food was delicious with the soups and the roasted butternut being the stars of the show.

From now on the days get longer.
Hopefully the chickens will realise and start laying again very soon.

Living Willow 2 - A New Benchmark

Saturday 25th February 2017

The Good Samaritan
The day began with clearing the fallen trees without bringing down the telephone wires. It really was like tree surgery and my super-long-handled loppers were invaluable. The problem was that without them the only way to reach the branches I needed to cut first was to lean a ladder against those very same branches. I've tried that sort of thing before and ended up with my hand half-chewed by a bow saw!
Today's operation was successful, if a little tricky. With the telephone wire no longer under threat, there was just the small matter of a couple of rather large trunks leaning at an alarming angle. I couldn't even access the base where the tree had grown through the stock fence. There is only so much headway you can make with a bowsaw and a pair of loppers.
It was at this point that a passing Good Samaritan pulled up and produced a chainsaw out of his van. In a matter of a minute he had saved me at least an hour's hard work. It was nice to know that there are still people around willing to lend a hand.
I do actually possess a chainsaw, but I have not yet studied the instructions or been shown how to use it safely. I didn't think that using it at short notice and in a tricky situation would be a wise move. Better to learn when I have more time and in a more controlled task.
Goose eggs for sale
On a different note, the goose eggs are coming thick and fast now. We will have to start selling them as each one goes a long way! The duck and chicken eggs are coming thick and fast too at the moment.

Fried goose egg (L)   Eggs piling up (R)

Fougasse Fougone!
Fed up with clearing up after the storm, I decided to spend the rest of the day baking. I knocked out a multi-seed loaf, a couple of muesli breads, a rhubarb brown betty ( rhubarb from the freezer, but this year's will be ready in about a week) and three fougasses. Here they are pictured, except the three fougasses, which lasted less than an hour after coming out of the oven!!!

Sunday 26th February 2017
In between some frankly foul weather, there have been some fairly strong hints of Spring this February. Under one of the Ash trees, the border is subtly brightened up by the hellebores which are flowering beautifully.

I set about today's task, sorting the left over cut willow for my project.
Can you tell what it is going to be?


A couple of showers had me taking refuge in the polytunnel, where I have moved some of the hardier seedlings which I germinated indoors. It won't be long before the whole tunnel is jam-packed with young plants.



When the rain stopped I got back to the task in hand.
Can you tell what it is yet?

A Mystery Clutch
Along the way, I was distracted by a little weeding in the herb border. There I came across a clutch of mystery eggs. They are not guinea fowl eggs or duck eggs. If they are chicken eggs, they must have been there quite some time.
But there is another possibility, for Lady Penelope Peacock and her chick (now looking very much like Lady P) were hanging around the area. The eggs looked a little small, but just maybe they are the first eggs from a young female?



I got back to the project.
Can you tell what it is now?



Monday 27th February 2017

Elvis is broody again! If she stays broody, I will try to discover where the Muscovy Ducks are laying their eggs and sneak a few underneath her.

It was not a day for working outside. In fact, the dogs declared it an official laze indoors day.

Anyway, there was time enough to almost get the willow project finished. It just needs the seat rungs and the back woven and the bench will be ready, grandly overlooking what will be the new pond. If all goes to plan, the legs, the arms and the back are all planted willow which should root itself and spring into growth.

Tuesday 28th February 2017
A Few More Days of Incarceration
Today was the day when our poultry could, in theory, go back outside under some very strict rules. However, we have more gales forecast so I thought it wise to take down the netting rather than fix it in place. Without the netting, the turkeys would be sure to go a-wandering further than is permitted. Besides, I want to let the birds out over a weekend so I have time to keep an eye on things. They will just have to wait another few days.

I didn't mention it the other day, but I managed to jam a cut end of stock fence straight into my hand a couple of days ago. It hurt when I did it and bled quite a bit, but I thought it would heal fairly quickly. However, it must have hit straight against the knuckle, for it swelled a little overnight and was quite painful when I was working yesterday.
But last night it really swelled up (the picture does not show it at its worst), enough to force me into resting up for the day today.








Instead, I took the dogs out for a nice long walk.

And that, apparently, is the end of winter 2016/17.
Tomorrow, allegedly, is Spring.

Living Willow Fedges and Archway

19th February 2017to show them how to build a fedge and an arch out of willow. In case you don't know, a fedge is a cross between a fence and a hedge, constructed from live willow poles.

A willow after harvesting.

Believe it or not all these offshoots

have only been growing for one year.

That's because all the energy from the root system

is going into growing these new shoots.

We started off with an instructional DVD before heading out to harvest the willow. Each year I cut most of my willows down to a stump and as if by magic they grow lovely straight new shoots. The more established they get, the longer and stronger the shoots.
These one year old shoots are full of growth hormones. You simply lop them off and poke them a foot in the ground. Nothing will stop them rooting... Well, that's not quite true, for they need to grow away from competition from other trees and they ideally need to be planted through a weed-suppressing fabric, at least until they get a hold.




With twelve little helpers, harvesting and trimming the willow took next to no time. I had done the groundwork with the mulch fabric and marking out and planned to split the group into three teams, two working on fedges and one team on an archway.


We had a pizza break after harvesting before heading out to start the main job. There was stiff competition for the best poles, but the archway team got first dibs as they needed the longest ones.



Building a fedge is just like a giant version of basket-making, but all very simple techniques broken down into just a few steps. I have to say though that teaching adults is much more difficult than teaching primary age children!

Firstly the uprights go into the ground, a foot or more ideally.

Next the binders - long straight sticks woven in to hold the uprights in place. These will eventually rot down and die, but by then the living willow part will have well and truly rooted and should have pressure grafted itself together.

An archway is basically two fedges joined at the top.

With the uprights in place and secured, the weavers go in, thinner whips so they don't pull the uprights out of shape. These are woven in and shaped to however you choose. We tried to follow the example in the DVD.

Finally the tops of the uprights are used to form the top of the fedge.

So that's the basics. Of course, there is room for considerable artistic impression and improvisation along the way.

We didn't quite have time to finish before people had to head back to feed their animals, but I spent the next day finishing everything off.

This fedge will act as a screen for the shed, especially in the summer