Tag: asparagus

Posted in Friesland Farm

Swallows, petrichor & some CPR training

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Easter Monday: I keep thinking it’s Sunday lol, Another nice morning, up early again because John is off it means I can go straight out to the garden and get started on some stuff. I have hoed the brassica cage, keeping the weeds for the rabbits, planted some broad beans round the edge of the cage and the brassicas will go in the middle, I’m also planning on growing peas in there because they will grow upwards rather than outwards so I can get them in between the brassicas and keep the birds off, bonus 😀 I did as much hoeing as I needed, I’m taking a more relaxed approach this year as I mentioned before, a lot of the weeds will be hand pulled to feed the rabbits and torts so I need a supply lol. The only weed I am actively controlling is bindweed, the rabbits will eat it but it’s such a thug it gets out of hand quickly and swamps everything so I’m trying to keep it down. I have planted a couple of herbs, my rosemary got so big it split in two and that caused the plant to rot over winter so I have a new one in and I also bought a curry plant to give that a try, I have been going round finding self set plants and digging those up and potting them, even things like Rosa rugosa because I can plant those in the hedge lines eventually.

The swallows have arrived, John spotted them yesterday afternoon flying around, you know Spring has sprung when they turn up 😀 They will have come from South Africa travelling up to 200 miles a day to get here, I think they deserve the noting of their arrival!

Tuesday: St George’s Day April 23rd not celebrated as it should be in my opinion considering it’s our National day! Mia day today but I got everything done before she arrived plus a little watering, I do hope we get some rain this week as things are beginning to struggle a little, they need something to perk them up. We didn’t do much apart from watch the torts and play but Sam finished early so I whizzed round and did the feeding and eggs then time for GOT 😀😀 I feel tired today, that’s the first time in a week or so, not sure why but definitely not got the umph I have had 😕 Late afternoon I planted some more peas, these are going in the brassica cage with broad beans and the brassicas. I thought I would take advantage of the fact that the cage is netted so that will keep the pigeons off them also they will grow much higher/narrower than the beans and cabbages/cauliflower so won’t be competing for space and light. I watered them in even though a touch of rain is forecast and I could smell that the air was charged. I could hear rumbles of thunder while I was out there but as yet I hasn’t come to much and the from the amount of times I have left it because it was supposed to rain and didn’t , I have learnt from experience, a little extra doesn’t do any harm. Hopefully with a rest tonight and a good nights sleep (which now I think about it, I didn’t have last night, I kept waking up for some reason) I should be raring to go tomorrow 🙄

I have ordered 25 Silver Birch trees, yep 25, well they were a bargain, I will only want a few of them but the rest I can pot up and sell on hopefully, if not we will have lots more lovely trees around the place. I tried growing some from seed but they didn’t grow at all and the around the two birches I already have I have never found saplings.

Going back to this morning I just have to tell you this, I went into the stable block to feed the hens that are in the stable (the escapees from the back paddock) near the tap was an overturned bucket with lots of the ground scratched about round it, I lifted the bucket and there was a hen, she has had a lucky escape from the fox by the looks of it, obviously the fox couldn’t work out how to knock the bucket over but it knew there was something under it, the hen clearly felt safe as she had even laid an egg 😬

Wednesday: Feeling less tired today so cracked on a bit, got the feeding etc done and then Into the garden. With rain forecast I wanted to get a couple of things done, first, cut the grass on the lawn and the driveway, two reasons, I want the clippings to put on the beds as a mulch and I don’t want the grass to spurt and get too long to cut when the rain comes. Second job was to get some things planted in the ground also because rain is forecast and that will give them a good start, eating peas and sweet peas mostly. I could have spent forever doing things but finally a shower 😀 I have heard thunder and the patter of a few drops since last night but nothing materialised until now. It seems odd that in England, where the rest of the world thinks it rains all the time, we are desperate for some rain, we haven’t had any for around 2/3 weeks and together with the scorching spring temperatures we have had, it’s a recipe for disaster in the garden, especially veg gardens. It’s not that we want rain all the time but over the years we have got used to it and so garden accordingly, we are now beginning to realise that we need to adapt and change, that is the reason I have been trying to create more of a forest garden so that we have a canopy to hold the moisture in the soil. The time for neat rows and bare soil has passed, well here at least and I need to learn a different way, not new, it’s been done in various forms for hundreds of years and there are always new ideas to tap into, it’s a journey of discovery I am enjoying.

I took a photo of one of the ‘guilds’ I created, it’s in its infancy and the photo is taken from directly above, I planted this up last year and the apple tree had been moved from the paddock because it was struggling massively. The tree is the one with the red leaves in the middle, I so want this to do well because the flesh of the apple is also red which I thought would be fun, then there is comfrey an accumulator, it will pull up nutrients from deep down and deposit them when it either dies back or is chopped and dropped, that’s the theory anyway, then there are strawberries they will spread, covering the bare ground and they obviously bring bees and insects to the area (pollinator) it doesn’t matter if the berries get eaten by birds, they are not my main plants for harvesting, you can just see onions poking through, those help deter pests due to the smell (repellers) I need to plant a (fixer) in there which will be from the legume family, they draw nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on the roots and release it into the soil when they die back, nitrogen is one of the most important chemicals to a plant, it’s needed to make chlorophyll, clover is probably what I will sow, it’s permanent unlike the beans and peas although I may put a couple of those in as well, it’s not difficult once to understand what each plant does and how it helps the other, in this case they are all helping he apple tree, hopefully it will work out, I will let you know. I have other guilds to plant up, the fruit trees have already been in the ground for a year so time to build the guilds 😀

We had a short shower, long enough to be able to smell that delightful smell of Petrichor 😀 one of my fave smells, this is the rain causing chemical reactions of either oil being realised from plants or bacteria, either way it’s a smell I love and the garden loves it too which is the most important thing. You could spend a day watering with tap water just to keep things ticking over, but a short burst of rain and the plants do a little happy dance, burst into life and put on good growth, now we just need a little bit more to fill up the water tanks please 😜

Went up to my neighbours to try and help identify some veg seedlings for her, the classic mistake we all make ‘I will recognise those when they come up’ or the labels fade/wash away, and you are left with trays of very similar looking seedlings 😀

Back home and did an hour in the tunnel, emptying things that have not grown, sowing odd packets of things that have been opened last year and a few left, they may come up, they may not but nothing ventured nothing gained. There were a few chick pea seeds so I sowed them and they grew well but didn’t produce much last time, however I figure the rabbits will eat the tops if nothing else.

I picked a few bits for the egg shed, rhubarb, asparagus and I put out Welsh onion, these are not something you will find readily in the shops, they are a perennial onion with a bit more of a kick than chives but not as strong as an onion, use them the same way you would as spring onion or chives.

Thursday: We have had a substantial amount of rain overnight by the looks of it which is great, the sun is trying to shine and the temps are not too low so it’s great growing weather. We popped out to do some bits last night and driving down the lanes I was thinking how fabulous the countryside looks when the hedges all start to fill out.

Pick a job, any job that’s the order of the day today, indoors, animals, garden, plenty needs doing, first of all though shower and coffee 😜

I ordered some tomato plants, I thought I had ordered some previously but I can’t find any email saying so (probably end up with loads arriving) I have got some seeds in but I think it’s a bit late really and the plants will give me a good start.

Yesterday while gardening I found a few borage seedlings in the path so I dug them up and relocated them back onto the herb bed, I was reading this morning that borage is especially useful to pollinating insects as it fills up with nectar every two minutes 😲 so I will be on the look out for more seedlings to transplant around the rest of the beds, borage can be a bit annoying if you like well structured gardening as it is big, hairy and floppy (yes, now I’ve written it, I see how rudely that will be interpreted by some 😜) and seeds everywhere but it is a fabulous plant for the insects so well worth putting up with 😀

I got a few of those jobs done that have needed doing for a while, you know the ones you walk past daily thinking, I need to do that, I must do that, I really have to do that soon lol. Mainly it was cleaning out the rabbits, they get deep littered over winter which works well, they have a couple of wet areas the rest is dry and the bumbles fall through the straw to the bottom. Well now was the time to sift all through it, take out the wet, shovel up the bumbles and dust, a lot of the straw is perfectly fine to throw on the toilet areas and then they will have clean straw and hay elsewhere. The quail hut needed doing as well and the nest boxes of the incarcerated hens in the stable, I’m keeping them in hoping that when they finally go back out into the back paddock most of them will stay there 🙄 I picked some fresh food for the rabbits and guinea, weeds, some herbs, and some chard, I gave a bit of chard to the light Sussex and the hens in the stable. We have a light Sussex hen sitting on eggs at the moment, I would be nice if she manages to hatch a bunch of them out, we haven’t had hen raised chicks for a couple of years.

What I really need to get a grip with is feeding the light Sussex as naturally as possible, that was always the intention, a flock of dual purpose birds for our own use, to feed them fresh fruit, veg, herbs & then grain & pulses. For one reason or another it has not been possible to get them out on a paddock as yet and now she is sitting I will have to wait a while longer but it gives me time to put something in place for when the time comes.

We hadn’t had as much rain over night as I thought, just a spitting by the looks of it but just as I finished the rabbits, tidied away and came in for coffee the heavens opened and down it came, good timing 😝

The sun is coming out in between showers so I went out and planted the rest of the seed potatoes this year we have swift (earlies) and Picasso (main crop) last year the potato harvest was not good because of the long hot spell hopefully this year will be better. I also scattered some cornflower and poppy seeds in the flower bed, I have cornflower growing from seed in the tunnel as well but you can never have enough cornflowers 😀 I am trialing a few other things, millet, quinoa, kidney beans, and haricot beans, and sunflowers seeds from the bird seed, to see if they grow and how well and I have had a piece of ginger in my fruit bowl that I was hoping would begin to sprout, it has so now I have placed it on top of some compost in a pot in the tunnel to see if I can get that going. Ginger is a bit hit and miss I find, it sprouts really well then dies off but I do know people who grow it successfully so giving it a go. My tea bush (Camellia Sinensis) survived winter, I need to read up on the best location to plant it once it’s big enough and get this, because if I was trying I wouldn’t succeed, but I used some cut apple wood branches to secure a piece of mesh round some bulbs and the wood has rooted 😲 free apple tree 😀 only one piece out of about 8 buy hey I’ll take that as a win. Amaranth is another I am going to try, the leaves are eaten like spinach and if it goes to seed the birds/hens will love it.

I put an item up for sale on social media and had a chap contact me as he wanted to buy it, all very normal, he didn’t know the area and doesn’t have a sat nav so asked if he could meet in Carterton which he does know a bit, that’s fine we can do that, as a thank you for going out of your way (it’s not really) would you like some tomato plants, yes please 😀 Sungold and Indigo, I haven’t grown either before so looking forward to seeing how they do.

Friday: I have only done the basics today, firstly it’s bloods day, I am pleased to say that the last lot of results were all normal so these should be too, then I went with Shelley while Josh had his class photos taken, then to get a coffee and cake, then a bit of food shopping. Back home and Mum came, then Sam and Mia so we all had a lunch of prawns and salad leaves from the tunnel and some general chat while the children argued over every little thing 😂 the amazing thing is that when it was time for Josh to go, he and Mia suddenly declared how much they love each other lol, if only they did that at the start it might have been a less fractious afternoon, kids 😝

Some brassica plants arrived today, I had forgotten that I ordered them but I’m pleased that there are Brussel sprouts in with them as well as cauliflower, cabbage and purple sprouting, I have loads of the latter two as seedlings so goodness knows what I will do with them all. I ordered plants last year and they did so well that I must have decided to repeat it again this year, meanwhile gaily sowing plenty of the seeds as well 🙄

Saturday: Oh what a difference in the weather from this time last week! The wind is very cold this morning, if you are reading this and not living in the UK you might be able to see why we are obsessed with talking about he weather, it’s soooo changeable it’s ridiculous, it makes planning anything outdoors very sketchy. We are lulled into a false sense of Spring then wham October is back lol, it’s a reminder to make sure any plants that are going out are short and strong rather than spindly or leggy as they will get battered.

We did the morning feeding and letting out and John keeps complaining about the wind and how cold it is, I told him, I know you are just trying to talk yourself into a warm comfy seat in front of the telly for F1 and some snooker 😝 I can find plenty of jobs under cover 😂

Before we get under way for the day on the smallholding though we are going for a bit of CPR training, the village now has a defibrillator in place and offered the free opportunity to learn or freshen up on CPR and familiarise ourselves with how the defibrillator works, too good an opportunity to miss.

The we went straight to pick up some multi purpose compost from the garden centre and of course John had to have a breakfast while he was there 😂 It gave me a bit of time for a look round and pick up some bits, I like to go to the casualty dept and rescue something I might fancy, today was a large lemon thyme for £2. For nearly ten years I have only grown vegetables and fruit with the odd flower or shrub in a pot, I realised how much I missed flower gardening, gardening in general, but I’m a bit giddy with my rediscovered passion for it lol and buying, propagating plants left right and centre. I’m even thinking, where can I start a real garden, by that I mean a dedicated area, it’s not that we don’t have the space, 5 acres is a lot, but can I, should I, give over a particular space to it? At the moment I have a small border in the front of the gate, pots and boxes in front of the building and a small area approx 5ft x 5ft in the veg garden.

I am changing the place bit by bit, I wish I had started 10 years back but hey that’s hindsight for you, the small paddock has got some fruit trees and I have a couple more native trees to go in so that will have a small copse area, and we have a small copse area in the side paddock right down near the road, I have never touched this but was looking at it yesterday thinking I could doing a little bit of tidying in there, it’s mostly hawthorn bushes and put a couple of other trees in there as well. We would have to fence it off though or the horse will probably eat anything I put in!

When we got back I spent a bit of time in the tunnel, it’s nice in there and horrid outside the wind is fierce. I picked up some 50p herbs from the supermarket, basil and parsley the basil I have planted in a pot with a cloche and the parsley I took a sharp knife to the roots and divided it into 4, planted 2 in the salad bed and potted 2 just to see if they take and how they do because that would be a very cheap way to get plenty of herbs on the go. I also picked up a rosemary also 50p, (these are all living herbs with roots) and took some cuttings from the nice soft tips of it, also just to see if it works.

After that we had decided that we would use one of the brooders that John made to move the chicks into as they need more space and will be moved out of it by the time the ducklings arrive. I don’t often give John the credit he is due (doesn’t pay to let him get too big for his boots 😜) but I am soooo pleased with these, they are just perfect and he has done a great job of building them, so if you see him out and about you can tell him ‘nice brooder unit’ 😀😀

Back out into the tunnel (my happy, happy place) and pot on a few more seedlings that are getting big enough now, I’m going to have so much to plant out very soon I will be busy from dawn till dusk 😋 Inbetween I was trying to go round picking up stuff that has been strewn by the wind 😕 hoping it dies down soon.

Then we went to pick up Josh who is coming for sausage and chips and a sleepover at Nanas and Gramp Gramps 😀

Sunday: A better day weather wise, the wind has dropped and we had a fair bit of sunshine in the afternoon. Josh went out and helped Grampy do the feeding and letting out this morning then the boys came over to do some more to the greenhouse and the girls came over with the rest of the grandchildren. By early afternoon they had gone and I set about planting the brassicas up, the whole cage is full now with broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, purple sprouting, dwarf kale and some turnips, all that together with the broad beans and some peas should fill it to bursting once it’s all growing.

I potted up most of the silver birch whips, heeled a couple of them in in various places in the veg garden, the rest will be planted around the farm somewhere yet to be decided.

Charlie and Macca invited us for roast dinner, never going to say no to that 😀 and when we returned I went out to water the stuff I had planted earlier.

Picture of ranunculus which I have totally fallen in love with.

Job done

Day done

Week done 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of Sunshine, lots of birthdays & Easter 🐣

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th April: I was up Uber early today lol, I woke at 5 decided it was still dark so would go back to sleep, couldn’t settle back so eventually got up at 5.45. I was starving, that’s the steroids, I couldn’t settle because my mind had by this time gone into overdrive and that’s also the steroids lol, still it’s a lot better than not having the energy to bother with anything at all so I’m happy 😃

I got up, dressed, breakfasted, out to do the morning rounds all before 7am, it gave John a lie in anyway 😘

I made a gruesome discovery in the quail house, something has devoured one of them, I’m not sure if the others have attacked it or if something has got in, I can’t see how but it’s possible, whatever has happened they have torn it apart and stripped all the meat off the bones making me think it’s possibly a rat but this hut is on 4ft legs up high. I will have to move the other three to safety and see what happens, they can be vicious towards each other if they decide to turn but at the moment it’s a mystery.

According to the weather forecast we are getting some warmer weather this week 😀 a bit of heat for all the fruit and veg will be very welcome.

Today is Charlie’s birthday and we are off out for lunch at Aston Pottery https://astonpottery.co.uk/ which is local to us, it’s a lovely place for lunch, plus a vast range of pottery and gifts and they also have a fabulous garden and sell the plants too, what’s not to love 💗

The wind was a bit blowy today and the warmth never really materialised but it didn’t matter for lunch and nattering and to be honest apart from the basics I didn’t get much else done today 🙄

The seeds are doing well in the tunnel, well most of them, yet again this year the peas are sporadic to say the least, last year I had to sow two lots and still they didn’t come up and this year the first lot are hit and miss, mostly miss 😜 Everything else is romping along.

Tuesday: Mia day today and so I got a few bits done outside as well as the feeding etc, then when she arrived she helped to do a few more bits before we spent a hour playing pirates in the pirate ship 😀 Then Josh, Flo and Shelley arrived for a couple of hours playing, Sam finished early and picked up Mia so I dashed round got the eggs and feeding down then indulged myself with Game of Thrones 😃 Another birthday today so when John got home we went off for cake 😀 Hoping for the warmth of the sun tomorrow as I have plenty of jobs to get done.

Wednesday: Up early because I couldn’t resist the promise of some warm weather 😀 I could see the orange Sun rising over the hedge when I opened the curtains whoop whoop, then it went cloudy lol, but still warmer than of late. I got the bed stripped and room hoovered and bed re made before 7.15 😀 off out to get the birds feed and let out and then straight into the poly tunnel and garden 😀 Mum arrived and we had a lovely session in the poly tunnel, she was giving me some lessons on cuttings, she has green fingers and years of knowledge so I’m tapping into that 😀 It got even better when some plants arrived with the postman and we got those potted on, ooo what a lovely morning 😀 Mum was just going when Sam and brought lunch, could this day get much better, lunch eaten Sam went to get the horse in and get him a wash down which by all accounts he enjoyed thoroughly. I went and picked some weeds for the rabbits and guinea pig and the set up a run that we have to put the tortoises in so they could eat without the chickens stealing it all.

I’m still moaning on about the price of plants at the garden centre lol, this has driven me to learn more about cuttings and propagating everything I have and I’m enjoying doing it, I just need the green fingers that my Mum has 😜

A quick sit down before I start again.

I did the feeding etc then spent a good few hours doing lots of little jobs, there are a million and one of them 😂 bathing the dogs, they haven’t been done for a while and with some dry days now is a good time. Patch is easy as he is short haired and lanky so doesn’t get too dirty, Mia on the other hand is shorter, longer haired and loves to roll in fox poo 💩 they both get a dose of flea treatment, Mia has a prescription treatment because she likes to roll in fox poo 💩 and can get mange from it. I altered the wording on the egg board sign, put some plants out for sale, got the washing in, put the dinner on, fed and watered the little chicks which are growing at a rate and beginning to feather up, watered the plants in pots out the front, oh and in between I reserved some turkeys to raise for Christmas 🤣 as you do. We always said we would like to do some turkeys and the opportunity arose so I took it, only 6 just to see how they do, excited 😜

I haven’t seen Diesel on the farm for a while, I see him down on the boundary wall and John sees him up the road a little but he is hardly ever at the yard at the moment 😕 there has been no sign of Cruella since the fox attacks back in February so I have no idea what happened to her ☹️ we have not had much luck with cats over the past two years, Molly hung around but obviously she was already old and now no longer with us so to that end I am on the search for two kittens. We have tried the re homing feral cats with not much success, they turn out to be not so feral more petrified, so we thought have them from young, two will be company for each other and hopefully they will be here for a long time to come, just got to find kittens that are short haired and not ridiculously priced!

Thursday: Up early again, you guessed it, bathroom cleaned and hoovered before 7.15, I’m on fire 🔥 😜 two loads of washing on and done then out to feed everything and let it all out for the day. Watering next because we have a distinct lack of rain 😲 so things in pots need a bit of help. Onto the polytunnel to water in there then a quick clean up in the boot room. I had Josh on his own for a few hours and we fed jack a carrot, put fresh bedding in for the ducks, moved the torts to the pen so they can eat, hung out the washing, made a paper aeroplane and flew it, kind of, then we gathered sticks and made a fire, cooked and ate cowboy sausages in the garden 😀

PICTURE ‘this is the life’ was our motto today 😀

Quick rest and a cuppa then onto the unending list of jobs, I’m down to around 999, 874.3 left on the list now 😝

Cleaned out the little chicks who are feathering up nicely now and growing every day!

Did a few more domestic bits before John came home and then went to get a bit of shopping because with a 4 day weekend there will be nothing left on the shelves 😂 I picked up a couple more plants for a couple of quid each a hardy fushia £2 and some day lilies also £2, not complaining at that 😝 and I think they will be on sale by the end of the weekend as most are in need of water!

Good Friday: The beginning of the Easter weekend, Eostre an ancient word meaning Spring, the celebrations of new life, hence the eggs and bunnies both symbols of fertility and the return of some warm weather 😀

It also happens to be Mia’s 3rd birthday today 😀

Up early 😜 crack on before it gets too hot! John did the feeding etc while I did some watering and domestic bits then we set about getting the poultry netting set up in the back paddock, this is a belts and braces job because we have three single strands of wire around the outside too. We need to (a) keep the hens in and (b) keep the foxes out 🙄 the netting has been chewed to bit by various animals, rabbits, geese, fox, as soon as there is not enough charge in a battery it gets chewed so I’m thinking we won’t buy that again. Anyway we have it, such as it is so we have doubled it all up and can only hope that this will work.

While we were collecting netting from the front we saw a car parked in the lane, I went to investigate as there was no one in it and saw a chap taking photos over our neighbours gate, I asked him what he was doing and he said he was photographing the horses, I think he was genuine but I explained to him that it’s not a good idea and he could be seen as scoping the place out, he seemed a bit shocked at that, either way if he was genuine he learnt something new and if he was not he has been clocked, keep em peeled people 😜

I was supposed to have a customer come and collect some goose eggs today but they can’t get past the traffic to the local wildlife park, do you think I should put in a claim 😝 honestly in the last two years the traffic to there on bank holidays has got horrendous.

We had a birthday party for Mia in the afternoon, the weather was amazing, bit too hot for me, hush my mouth, but it was a lovely time playing in the front paddock.

We moved 51 hens to their new back paddock enclosure, fingers crossed they stay there 🙄 by this time it was 9pm so we shut everything else away, I made myself a hot chocolate and John a tea, then I sat outside and drank mine 😀 The moon was fantastic tonight with an Amber glow just fabulous, I listened to all the noises, distant dog barking, sheep bleating, watched the night flights going back to London and wondering where they had been, and was aware of the bats flying around. We have always had bats flying here, I don’t know where they roost, we have never come across any in 10 years but they are out every night. Back inside to catch up with Gardeners World 😀

Saturday: Ahhh up at 5.30 lol, once I’m awake these days and if it’s light I figure I might as well get up and get on so that’s what I did, nice time of the morning as I watched the deer running across the field at the back of us. By the time John got up at 7.30 I had everything fed, watered and let out, got some plants in situ and done the watering 😀 He went off to finish the last few bits of Shelley and Martins bathroom and I set about planting the broad beans and putting together some metal shelving in the poly tunnel. Martin came and dropped off the wood for the greenhouse which is being done tomorrow 😀

Now by this time I was beginning to notice one or two hens walking around the place 😣 I went into the stables and there were about 10 of the buggers, more have appeared during the morning, we decided in the end just to electrify the ring fencing hoping the hens would stay behind the netting, so that’s clearly not working. I managed to shut the majority of them in a stable and that’s where they can stay for now, at least it’s not all 51 of them……yet!

I cut a piece of contorted hazel for the Easter tree, I like doing it and the children like looking at it, they get to take something off the tree to keep each year.

The thing I’m finding with this glorious weather is that I quickly run out of time to spend in the poly tunnel, it gets hot and as the trees are not out in full leaf yet there is no shade either, so while I’m itching to be out there, i can’t 🙄

Browsing through things while it’s a bit too hot for me I discovered you can eat Hostas, Hostas, who knew that? Amazing, apparently they taste a bit like asparagus and are considered a mountain vegetable, might just have to try one 😜 further reading and I discover that they are the perfect forest garden vegetable and have the potential to be a major commercial vegetable 😲 I wonder how many people I can convince to have a go lol, well if they are good enough for the slugs I guess they must be tasty 😋

Late afternoon/early evening I planted out some peas and watered bits that I have been planting over the last couple of days, then it was time to round up the escapees and take them back to the hut in the small back paddock, 22 of them in all 😕 Tomorrow we will electrify the netting instead of the strand wire and see if it keeps a few more of them in.

Before we did that John put the other birds away and I went to do the geese and Sussex, as I stepped out of the door I could hear a Robin sending out the alarm call and jumping from branch to branch in the trees, I wondered what was alarming it and then the cat appeared (the Robin has a nest in my plastic flower mountain) then I went over to the geese two of which had managed to get the wrong side of the fence so there were geese honking, A Robin shrilling loudly and the cat meowing, a right racket going on lol.

Easter Sunday: A busy day ahead of us, Martin & Luke are coming over to build the frame for the greenhouse, Macca is giving them a hand as is John. Charlie, Sam, Shelley, Josh, Mia and Florence will also be coming over and I will be on bacon rolls and tea duties then later on a roast lamb dinner and blueberry and apple pie, Chocolate cake and of course Easter eggs😜

It really was a busy day but the lads got loads done, we ate heartily and the children were exhausted at the end of it all, I am pooped 😬

The asparagus is at last coming through 😀

Over and out for this week 😴😴😴😴😴

Posted in Friesland Farm

Bad start, got better, life is good.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th April: A woeful morning right from the off, early morning call to John, his Mum is being admitted to hospital after an incident, I do the morning rounds, and we have had a fox massacre in the back paddock. It has gone in through the window on the roof and massacred the hens that sleep in there overnight ☹️ The window was broken but it’s up high on what you would think was an impossible incline, I’m thinking that the strong winds overnight have shaken the rest of the glass and it has broken and any opportunity is all the Fox needs.

It’s bitterly cold out there this morning, I’m hanging on to the fact that this is the last day of the cold weather 😜 It is fricking perishing out there, the wind is blowing a hoolie down from the North, less than half an hour out there and my hands are like ice blocks, I don’t think I will bother outside, the farm behind has a bonfire and there is smoke blowing straight down the yard, don’t get me wrong I love the smell of a bonfire but I can even smell it indoors too 🙁 Ever wish you had a rewind button for the day 😝

It warmed up in the afternoon, typical after I had lit the Rayburn, when John got back from the hospital he cleaned out the front hens which was overdue, while I cleaned out the quail, then he spent the rest of the evening cutting up wood from the mountain 😝 I did a bit of gardening, weeding etc and we didn’t finish until it was dark.

Tuesday: May Day 😄 Today didn’t start off much better lol, I cleaned and filled up a drinker for the hens in the orchard, turned it over and whoosh the bottom came off and a couple of litres of water went everywhere, all over the side and down the back of the cupboards in the boot room 😜While I was outside I took a little time to inhale the perfume of the apple blossom on this glorious May Day morning. I collected fodder for the rabbits, hazel, lemon balm, fennel, dandelions, plantain, grass tufts, I love watching them pick out their favourites first, usually the dandelion closely followed by grass and raspberry runners.

Then we did some tree work in the front paddock, two trees that died a couple of years ago after a pony got in and ate the bark from them, bits of branches keep falling off and they needed taking down properly. We have left about 4ft of stump on both of them, I saw this on a programme about an arboretum, they leave the stump to rot naturally and provide a home for the insects, great idea I thought so that’s what we have done. There is an apple tree that I planted a couple of years ago that should now get lots of light and put on some good growth, the dead wood has been cut up and put in the firewood store (smaller stuff is set aside for use in the fire pit later in the year)

After that John cut the front driveway grass and the lawn while I tidied up the orchard and burnt some dead stuff and twigs, a great mornings work 😀 John went off to the hospital at lunchtime and Mia arrived for her afternoon with Nana while Mummy goes to work, looking every inch the gardener in her hat today 😍

John came back and we had a load of wood chip delivered into the ménage so he got the tractor out and spread it, meanwhile Mia and I made daisy chains, had rides in the wheelbarrow and watched Grampy on the tractor.

I did a bit of baking while I was getting dinner ready, biscuits and a rhubarb loaf, mostly to stop John moaning that there is nothing to eat when he is home.

Wednesday: Raining and cold again ☹️ Did the morning rounds with John then he set about tidying up the wood mountain area and various bits while I went into the greenhouse to work. I feel disheartened at the amount of time and effort I am putting into growing seeds when the temperatures make it a struggle this year, a few of the seedlings have suffered damping off because the compost (that was watered when the sun was hot and shinning) is now cold and wet. I have relented and taken the power out there to turn on the propagators that I have available to warm it up a bit, hopefully it will only be a couple of days at most but this yo-yo-ing of the weather is making things difficult. I have just been watching a video of how to make a hot bench with soil warming cables which I think is what I am going to have to do for next year, I have earmarked a piece of celotex for the job and we have plenty of wood to make a bench 😝 I planted up the pea seeds I have had sprouting on the windowsill, I hope they grow, I never had such a bad year with peas as this year has been. I also planted the sweet pea seeds which I also had sprouting, we can only hope they continue to grow. I’m beginning to wonder what the heck I do wrong, some people are naturally green fingered and can grow something from a dead twig, I am not one of those, if the chance is there for it to die, it does 🤔

After being outside I came in to finish off the loaf of bread I had proving before I went out and got all the ingredients ready for dinner tonight, John has chicken casserole and I am having a Lean in 15 chicken carbonara. I put some sausage rolls in the oven at the same time as the bread, something warm and tasty for John to have with his coffee after being out in the rain.

I ordered myself a chop saw, as a girl does lol, there are things I want to make and waiting for John to be here with his circular saw (which doesn’t cut very straight or so he tells me) is a pain so I will have my own and I can get on when I want to. Bird boxes and herb boxes are on the list but I got carried away looking at benches with storage in, who knows I may achieve this yet 😀 My son in law Martin has offered to give me a lesson on the saw and I am taking him up on the offer better to be safe than sorry and if I know how to use it properly there will be no end to the kinds of things I can ‘knock up’.

Thursday: Lovely weather this morning and after doing the morning rounds, John came back from sorting his Mum out, she was discharged yesterday, we had the arduous task of taking down the fence in the back paddock, it took till lunchtime to cut off the stock fencing and then take down and clear up all the post and rail, we now have one huge paddock at the back 😀 easier for dragging and maintaining and Jack thinks it’s Christmas 😀

After some lunch and forty winks 😉 we started the afternoon jobs, John on cutting up wood as the mountain he was clearing is now full of old rail from the paddock 😝 and I did some veg gardening, to be honest, sitting here now I can’t think what I have done but I did do something 🤪 Mum called round with my niece Zeri and we spent a bit of time looking at the rabbits, guinea pigs and baby chicks 😀 then John did the afternoon feeding and egg collecting while I transported compost from the sack in the front to the beds that needed filling. It’s a shame I can’t get the tonne bag any closer to the garden but it’s in the front driveway until it’s empty enough to be able to drag it! John went off to get his Mums dinner and I planted some runner beans in the poly tunnel and some ying yang beans outside, hopefully they won’t get eaten by slugs and mice, always something attacking the veg.

I cleaned the oscillating sprayer and looked for the hand held trigger type sprayer which I can’t find, I have a feeling it didn’t work and water just spat out the end so I must have thrown it away, I will order a new one, I am going for the Karcher brand as their oscillating sprayer is so good much better than the hozelock one which gets stuck all the time.

A family birthday means we are out for the evening for nibbles, or scoffs which is more like it 😄

Friday: Another good day weather wise, temps look to be warm and no rain 😀 John went off to get some bits of feed and sort his Mum out so he won’t be back until gone midday today. After the morning feeding I did some weeding collecting four buckets of forage for the rabbits who were very happy about that, I sowed some sunflower seeds into pots and then some carrots into one of the smaller raised beds, I have to get everything ready to cover before even starting as the chickens can smell disturbed Earth from miles away and are there scratching as soon as your back is turned. I weed killed the bindweed as it is such a pain to try and dig it all out and I don’t want it taking hold this year like it did last year. When John came back he moved the tonne bag of multi purpose compost with the tractor so that it is nearer to the garden, makes life a bit easier. I have dedicated a small section of one of the beds to flowers this year, I am planting it up with anything and everything I have, it will be a totally random selection and randomly planted, no order to it whatsoever, we will see how it turns out, the main aim is to have a riot of colour to look at and a nectar patch for the insects to feed on. My chop saw arrived………watch this space 😜

Saturday: Well we are on a roll with the weather ☀️ of course with it this hot it means I have to get started early and then chase the shade 😂 which runs out around 2pm at this time of year. I have got plenty done though, I finally planted the potatoes, I looked round for a place but there is not enough soil depth on the beds to grow them so I have used the two long raised beds that used to have flowers in them, I had dug up and potted everything in order to empty them out and put them back together but it never got done and so it’s perfect for growing spuds in, the rest are in pots and potato growing sacks anywhere I can place them I have, I told you the garden was all a bit random this year 😜 First thing this morning I took clematis cuttings after seeing something on Facebook that reminded me it was the right time, I have Montana, Neiobe and Dawn, the Dawn was bought by a friend for my 40th birthday many, many years ago now, it’s a small clematis that is ideal for a shady corner, hopefully the cuttings strike but I won’t hold my breath lol. I potted on the runner beans and put some more seeds into trays, the sprayer I ordered arrived and I have sorted out and connected up all of the hose pipes and various heads for them, I think I will be watering sooner rather than later with this heat. I fixed a little wooden cold frame that I have had for years, the glass fell out and I have finally put it back in and secured it, it now has sweet pea, poppies and cosmos seedlings growing under it. I have filled up some old recycling boxes with compost ready for the cucumbers in the small tunnel and repotted a grapevine that was in the wrong place and struggling, it’s now in full sun so hopefully will romp away nicely. John has not felt well today but despite that has fixed the top rails on one of the paddock fences before deciding to have a sleep.

Cleaned the boot room up a bit, it gets so dusty very quickly that it’s a thankless task but has to be done, then gave the dogs a groom, patch is moulting like crazy, hardly anything came off of Mia!

John took to his bed, he has a high temperature and is pretty unwell 🤒 so it’s up to me to put the birds to bed tonight, it’s very pleasant out there this evening.

I noticed on my way round how much the asparagus has shot up just today, I have been picking a bundle of 10 nearly every day but in the morning I am going to have to cut it early or some will be too long, it does not stay in the egg shed very long it sells pretty quickly, mind you the rhubarb is the same and it looks like I will be picking mange tout as well, the over wintered broad beans in the greenhouse have just started to form, I love it when the veg starts coming in thick and fast.

Sunday: Cracking day again and even at 7am there is no ‘cool’ feel to the air so it’s gonna be hot! The animals are flipping annoying this morning, the cats have taken to following me everywhere and now diesel is sat on the shed roof right next to the bird feeder and all the little birds are giving the alarm call. The chickens are pesky this morning pecking at my boots while I’m sat drinking coffee outside and trying to wander into the kitchen, the dogs bark at fresh air and take off chasing fresh air also every 2 minutes, while I’m typing a chicken flies onto my knee, what’s wrong with them all today?

Did the morning rounds, John is poorly in bed though better than he was last night, then I did a bit in the greenhouse and moved some stuff to the poly tunnel and then I thought bugger this I’m going to have a few hours off lol. You may have noticed that we work 7 days a week usually but today as John is not up to it and it’s a lovely day I decided to read in the shade, bliss, inbetween I took a walk around one of the fields and thought why go anywhere when you have all this to enjoy 😊. I had an egg customer that was Spanish and out for the day call in and bought some eggs and asparagus, ‘you have a lovely Farm’ he said in a Spanish accent, ‘thank you’ I said and thought, yes we really do even though I spend all winter moaning about it, days like today give it back tenfold 😄

As I was having a few hours off and I can’t really sit still very long I decided to pick dandelions and have a go at making dandelion honey or ‘poor mans honey’ I was going to make dandelion jelly but I thought the honey seemed more interesting. I sat in the paddock for a good half hour picking the heads then another half hour or more pulling or cutting the yellow petals away from the green bits and then simmered them with a sliced lemon for 20 mins, they now need to soak overnight so the next instalment will be on next weeks blog 🤪

The petals once they are picked are incredibly fluffy and tactile to put your hands in and if anyone fancies a go themselves we have millions of dandelions all growing in untreated paddocks so come and help yourself 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of sunshine ☀️ Jobs completed (at last) and thunderstorms ⛈

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 16th April: Had a very busy day today! Mostly in the garden, I made a little strawberry bed inside the fruit cage and planted strawberry’s that had set themselves in various places, then I spent the rest of the time tidying up, pots that had got blown around, plants that didn’t make it through the winter, raking up dead stuff etc etc so that when the nice weather comes I might just get time to sit and appreciate it all 😜 I carried on a bit too long then it was all to do at the end of the day, light the fire for some hot water, clean up, feed the birds, do the eggs.

I ordered a new choke lever for the lawn mower, it got broken last year and it’s hard graft trying to move it with various implements 😜 I need to give the mower a service and sharpen the blades but the parts are extortionate so I will clean the spark plug up, sharpen the blades with an angle grinder, check the oil and put on the new lever when it arrives and maybe hoover the air filter lol, then it should be good to go 🤞

Tuesday: Up had a shower and had a batch of blueberry muffins in the oven before 8am this morning 😀 I had some blueberries to use up and all the grandchildren will be here later so nana made nana cake 😀 It’s windy this morning and a tad cold with it, still waiting for this heat wave 😜 I’m sure when it gets here it will be with a vengeance like all our weather patterns seem to be.

Fed and water all the animals and foraged for the rabbits, this morning they had, lemon balm, apple, sweet potato, plantain, raspberry runners, broccoli, kale, some cherry wood and violets, happy bunnies.

Doing the afternoon feed in the wind,rain and cold I fail to see how tomorrow is supposed to get up to 24c 😝

Wednesday: The Sun shone ☀️ and how 😀 amazing after yesterday evenings weather. Needless to say there is a lot to do although we would have got further on except for the rain last night, I was hoping that some of the paddocks would nearly be ok for dragging but the rain put paid to that so probably be the weekend when it gets done now. John had a day at home today, I’m not going to call it a day off as I think he has to work harder here than in his regular job 😝 he has been busy taking down all the broken fencing in the back paddocks. We are making two large paddocks instead of six smaller ones that we had originally, they will be much easier to drag, roll and seed without fences in the way, there will only be four corners in each paddock instead of 12 in this particular area, which will make turning the tractor a whole lot easier. It looks lovely with the fences down as I said to John it’s good to change things about a little.

Meanwhile I have been in the garden, watering the tunnels and greenhouse, the temperatures are sweltering in there 😜 At last I have sown some runner bean seeds, I don’t know about other veg gardeners but I don’t feel I have got going until the bean seeds are sown and the potatoes but they are still not in yet due to the inclement weather we have had. I made a quick mini garden and filled it with compost ready for Mia to play in when she arrived, she had a wonderful time digging and moving soil from place to place. She had her lunch outside while I sat and sharpened the grass clippers, all four pairs 😜 I ask you, how did we manage to end up with four pairs? Then it was time for her nap and I cleaned off the decking area and put the parasol cover in the washing machine, hope it comes back out in one bit 🤪 John had a bit of lunch then went back out to the fields, I did help him a bit this morning collecting up electric tape and stakes, I will try and do a bit more later on this evening after Mia goes home.

Ate supper out on the decking, how lovely 😊

Thursday: Another hot one predicted so I was up at 5.45, actually I woke up, my back was aching, I needed a wee and I had acid reflux so I figured I might as well get up and stay up and get an early start in the cool! It was actually very pleasant and I got on pretty well up to the point where the postman came and delivered the choke lever for the mower then it went downhill 😝 I fitted the part but the recoil rope would not budge so I go onto you tube to see what the problem might be, I checked the blade wasn’t wedged (eventually when I found the correct tools) I took off the top cover and checked the spool that was working fine, checked the engine spinny bit was moving, it was, next step check with the spark plug removed, finally found a tool to use for that and snapped the spark plug in half 🤪 I was cursing and swearing and nigh on stomping when John came home, found the right tool removed the remainder of the plug, went and got a new one then helped with solving the problem. It seems when I put the choke lever back on I hadn’t quite got it in the right place and now we have done that it’s working fine 😀 it took me roughly three times as long to fix the damn thing than it did to cut the grass, but I now know a lot more about lawn mowers 😜

After some lunch we got started on cleaning out the middle bay of the hay barn, we picked that job as it was in the shade but it was still hot, dusty work. We quite expected to see a rodent or two when we lifted the pallets that the hay had been stood on, and patch was on standby to catch anything but there wasn’t a single movement so I’m guessing the cats are doing a better job than I thought. John went off to do his Mums dinner and I had a shower and box dyed my hair, it was getting rather too grey and I’m not ready for that just yet lol.

The farmer next door was dragging his field, I knew it was the right time and looking at the forecast we may have missed the opportunity as showers are forecast for Sat and Sun 😝

Friday: Up early again today, rather enjoying the cool early mornings to be honest 😁 John is at home today, well partly, he has to go round and sort his Mum out mid morning but we cracked on and got the animals fed and watered, then John went down to the back paddocks to fill in holes where here has taken out the posts. There is still one more fence to dismantle, then the remaining fences to repair, we had a quick look at the back wall which is a falling down stone field wall. It would be good to put it back up but in all honesty that is a massive job so we may end up taking out the stone and planting a hedge, unless we can find someone who wants to practice their stone walling 😜 While John was out doing that I got on with watering the tunnels and greenhouse, then I finally put the first early potatoes in one of the raised beds along with some beetroot seedlings, carrot seeds and a bulb of garlic, I’m mixing it up this year lol I used the green netting that was too small for the fruit cage to cover the hoops I had already put in, the chickens would be scratching it up before I know it if I don’t cover it as I go. I planted some more beetroot seedlings in the poly tunnel and some melon plants under a cloche. I am trying to decide what is the best thing to tackle slugs, I have some beer traps but unless the slugs feel like a pint they still attack the plants and I don’t want to use slug pellets. So having done a quick bit of reading it seems diatomaceous earth is a good organic method, or at least worth a try, and since I have a sackful I will give it a go, along with damp cardboard, at least I can feed the slugs to the ducks 🦆

Saturday: Up and at it early again though not quite as early as previous days 😜 Main jobs on the agenda was to get the netting on top of the fruit cage and get the brassica cage up, missions accomplished by lunchtime. The brassica cage is a belt and braces job because there is nothing more disheartening than seeing the wonderful, green, bushy plants get decimated by caterpillars 🐛 I’m hoping they won’t get in this, any brassica cage is only as good as it’s weakest point, hopefully we don’t have any and I will be planting a sacrificial crop to lure them away. After that I actually planted the broccoli plants 😀 I also planted some, pak choi and chard directly into the ground and made hoop covers to protect them from chickens, pigeons, anything else that will have a go at them

I was on a roll so I sowed some coriander seeds and some summer savoury, a good day in the garden. John tidied up the rest of the hay barn then went to get some chick crumb as the quail are due to hatch tomorrow and the little silkie bantam has hatched some chicks but I can’t see how many yet I can just hear them. I noticed the asparagus has shot up so I picked a handful of spears, I will probably put those out for sale as I already have dinner sorted and we are out to lunch tomorrow.

Charlie cleaned the boot room floor, it really is grey not muddy coloured 😮 to be honest it is not a ‘priority’ job on my great list of jobs and so I’m grateful that she has done it.

WOW we had the mother of all thunderstorms late evening, lol, I love a good storm.

Sunday: The storms carried on into the night and were so loud it woke most people up in the area from what I have heard, certainly some very loud claps of thunder woke us up at 2am!

Despite the storms and the downpours, the sun was shining brightly this morning and everything felt as fresh as a daisy. We did the morning routine and I watered the polytunnels, then I sowed the wild flower seed where I wanted it, I must say I was taken back by the instruction to weed killer the area first? Needless to say I didn’t which may be an error but I couldn’t see the logic really. Walking back across the paddock I realised it was ripe for dragging, it was only 9am so still cool enough, I convinced John it was a good idea and Macca was eager to have a go on the tractor so that’s what we did. We only got the big corner paddock done as the tractor was playing up a bit and the gateway into the next field is still too wet though John really wanted to go through I put my foot down, the last thing we need is a stuck tractor so that can wait until next week. I finished off the dragging, I love driving the tractor, everyone else gets bored 😑

I can’t remember if I have written that the silkie has hatched at least one chick, hopefully she will have a few others to join it soon, the quail in the incubator show no signs of hatching even though we are on hatch day, I tried candling them but they are difficult to see through so its a waiting game. We made a decision to allow the geese to begin sitting so any eggs they lay from today we will not be picking up for sale, I am hoping for more than one gosling this year, after all they have had two years practice at it now 😜 John has busy busy tidying and moving wood, now we have moved the tractor to the hay barn there is space under cover to get the wood in which will keep it nice and dry for next winter.

I had an hour spare to pot on some tomatoes before we go out for lunch, I have beefsteak and plum this year as well as regular tomatoes, I haven’t done cherry toms this year as I wanted to have a go at different varieties, the other seeds are at last getting going, cucumbers are just breaking the surface, at last we are under way 😀

We went to Upton Firehouse for lunch, if you live locally and have never been put it on your list of places to try you won’t be disappointed, if you have been before you will know why an afternoon nap was next on the agenda 🤪 😴

http://www.uptonsmokery.co.uk/