Sunday Eve: Having published this weeks blog I set about learning more about permaculture which is the direction I want to head towards especially with the veg garden, turns out that I already do a lot that comes under the heading but you can always learn and apply more 😀
The pullets are laying well and we have trays of pullet eggs, we are managing to shift them so that’s fab but we do indulge ourselves with an egg based breakfast when the supply is plentiful 😀 pancakes being my favourite.
Monday: I spent the majority of the day out in the veg garden doing a bit more weeding and clearing and also sawing, hammering and making some raised beds at the end of one of the veg beds for flowers 😀 all part of the permaculture plan I have in mind.
Tuesday: Did the animal rounds this morning and then decided I needed to peel and cook some more of the cooking apples that need doing, there are still plenty left on the tree but I think I have enough in storage and in the freezer for our use now so if anyone wants any cooking apples come and get em 😀
Had Mia this afternoon, by the end of the day my top is covered in spaghetti sauce and my trousers have Peppa Pig stickers all over them 😜
Wednesday: Usually have Mia but not today so making good use of the extra time and dry weather to get some more clearing done on the garden, cleared away the sweet corn and squash plants and started to take down the brassica cage, the wind has blown it partially over anyhow. Planted up garlic bulbs that I had forgotten I had ordered 😝
Doesn’t seem much to write about now the hectic days of picking and processing the veg are all but over, just some hard graft ahead to get the garden ready to bed down for winter.
Thursday: A busy day all in all, mostly in the garden, the fruit cage needs some attention so I have started on that. The raspberries have got a bit out of control, there are about 40 bushes that have all steadily grown over the years and now it’s too overcrowded and needs thinning out quite a bit so I took out one whole row and every other bush on the other two rows. The bindweed has also taken hold over that time so I have been trying to get as much of it up as possible, it will never be eradicated but if I can get it back to manageable that will be ok. We looked at the structure as a fair few of the post bottoms have rotted and we were going to replace them but I think it will last one more year, now I have said that it will probably collapse in the winter and we will wish we had done it 😜To begin with I thought I had raspberry die back as there is no new growth that I could see for producing next years berries but then thinking about it maybe I have just not seen the new growth which will now have died back anyway so I will hedge my bets, thin them out and see what happens in Spring. There are also two rows of Autumn raspberries outside the cage that need a good thinning, they have not produced much this year due to the weather patterns so I will probably dig out every other one, at least I may be able to get to them next year, at the moment they are more like a hedge!
I weeded the polytunnel first thing and then put 6 barrows of manure in there to give the soil a good feed, at the moment there are just the peppers and the grape vine plus some basil and parsley growing in there, I have started off some peas to plant over winter and the beetroot have self seeded so I will let them do their thing and I will probably (at this point of typing I’m interrupted by John hollering, he is putting the birds to bed and letting the dog out and the dog has found a wandering chicken under the bush, this dog likes to eat fresh chicken, luckily he managed to grab the dog, the chicken got free and I’ve put into the orchard pen, we will see how it is in the morning😩) sow some broad beans for an early crop next year, I’ve given up growing winter salads because I tend not to bother going out there in the cold months.
Friday the thirteenth! To be fair it mostly passed without incident, I got up early made some bread, John did the outside stuff, I cleaned the house and that was pretty much all I did all day, now don’t get me wrong I didn’t sit around but had a pretty constant stream of various visitors right through to 4 o’clock. Around that time I went out to do the feeding, all was well with the hens and ducks and I thought I will just check on the rabbits as I had spotted that they had drunk all their water, lifted up the lid and baby rabbits! Oh my days that is from their escapades last month digging out, 4 dead babies and about 7 live ones and not long been born by the looks of it so might still be more to come 😝
Saturday: Cleaned out the rabbits, guinea pigs and quail in the morning the, babies are still there 😂😂 no more so far so that’s good. Got a fair bit of work done in the fruit cage, I have now dug out all the raspberries I want to remove and we decided it might be prudent to replace the posts around the cage as they have all but rotted away and one good storm will have the far side down. Went along to have a look at the village plan, caught up with a neighbour had a nice chat with her and she has some apples I can juice so am going to pop down there next week and collect some up, probably pick up a couple of jars of her honey while I’m at it 😀 We have Mia overnight, she looks very cute in her dressing gown before bed 😍😍
Sunday: I haven’t done anything outside today as I had Mia to look after but John has been (and still is ) a busy boy, clearing out under the fir trees next to the stable block we found an extra 10ft of ground that will be allocated to the duck run, at the moment he is busy on the tractor moving muck from the pile to my veg garden ready to shovel onto various areas. I have made bread and washed the eggs so not all bad.
We have had an eclectic mix of egg customers this weekend, we get em all! Friday evening we had one that didn’t pay, we know he didn’t because John had just emptied the money so the box was empty, we were leaving for him to drop me off somewhere as they arrived, they can clearly bee seen on the cctv with egg box in hand and John checked the box when he came back 10 minutes later and no money in there, they had the cheek to pick up free windfalls on the way back to the car too, we know who you are and will be watching for you 👀. We have customers from around the world, obviously they don’t come especially lol but we have one from Vienna who calls in for duck eggs on his way back home, this weekend we have Americans and also a couple from the midlands on a cycling holiday 😀
frieslandfarm (flowers) 