Tag: chickens

Posted in Friesland Farm

Eggs, bee swarm & a million and one jobs to do.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 16th May 2022: Unlike a usual Sunday evening, I didn’t sit down, instead I made cakes 🙄 simple 2lb loaf cakes, four lemon and two chocolate. The chocolate ones were made with oil instead of butter because I ran out of that. I definitely managed to use up a few eggs though and as it stands I will have 9 cakes in the freezer for future use 😂 Always handy when we don’t have any eggs in the winter, if we still have loads of eggs when I get back from holiday I shall start among other things, not sure what yet but I will find some recipes I am sure, and I will also start freezing them, might as well. John was also busy out strimming until it started to rain, hopefully we will continue to get some showers over the next couple of days, we really need to replenish the water table.

Actual Monday 😁 I spent nearly all of the morning sorting out clothes ready for packing, all of mine anyway, still have Johns to do yet. He was supposed to be just popping out to replace a set of taps, by 1pm he had not returned, I phoned him and he had had multiple phone calls from customers for various small jobs so had decided to get them done. That’s all well and good but I was waiting to go into town and pick up a few last things for our holiday. Eventually he returned and off we went. Went we got back we had a quick rest before cracking on with some jobs in the evening, mine mostly involved cleaning the washing machine and hoovering the boot room😝 nothing very interesting today.

Tuesday: Started off well with getting some things done in the garden areas, putting up some trellis for a couple of climbers that will ramble over the dog kennels. They have dual purpose, cover the shape you looking kennel structure and provide some lovely foliage for flowers next year 😁 Meanwhile John was fixing wood to the bottom of the gates to stop the bloody geese getting through, they have been ducking under and coming into the front area and then round to the lawn if the gate is open. I then went on to do a bit of weeding and planting the squash plants that had been growing, I also planted up a couple of cucumbers outside and some tomato plants, might as well get them in if I have got them. The reason being that the Bank of England is predicting apocalyptic food prices by the end of the year and inflation at 10%, grow everything you can and make sure you use everything you grow. With doom and gloom on the horizon I thought I would try and experiment, freezing eggs in a muffin tin. You crack them open into the tin, pop the yolk with a cocktail stick, cover and freeze, then once frozen take them out of the tin and freeze in freezer bags. I think this will work fine for any eggs you want to use in baking once they are defrosted they should be like any other egg you have just cracked. Not sure about poached and fried but I can’t see why they would be much different and certainly will be fine for scrambled. Come autumn when the hens are all moulting the egg number reduced drastically and this way I should always have plenty.

Freezing eggs for the inevitable shortage in autumn

Sam came over with the twins late morning and then Shelley and Florence, we spent a pleasant enough hour in the garden although first George got stung by stinging nettles and then Lucie 🙄 They had both finished crying and we were chatting again when Sam looked across to the house with a look of concern and said ‘what’s that’ I stood up to look and immediately shouted to everyone to get in the house. I then shouted to John to get the dogs in now, every one did exactly as they were told which was great. The reason was a swarm, thousands of bees had decided that somewhere nearby they were going to settle, they were not high up either but low down at face level which is why I thought it was better to get in out of the way. They settled in the cider apple tree next to the house and I phoned around to get someone to come and collect them. Dave, one of the bee keepers who we sold honey for last year came over, he got his bee suit on and collected them up, much to the delight of the children, it was exciting for them. He waited a fair time to gather them all up but there were a lot he couldn’t get to go in the box and so he left with the ones he had which must have been thousands, it was a big swarm apparently. The rest were still flying around and clustered on the tree for a while but we went out to get some shopping and when we came back they had dispersed. Early evening I went out to water the poly tunnel and as I got near to the small one I could hear exactly where they had gone 😂 hundreds of them in my tunnel. Hopefully Dave is coming back late evening with some pheromone to gather them up.

The swarm settled pretty quickly fairly low down in a tree right next to the house.

Dave came back with a box that previously had a swarm in and some syrup in the hopes they would go in but they were quite docile but this point and reluctant to move, he gently brushed some of them in and is leaving the box overnight to see if more can be encouraged to go in. I need to water the tunnel 😂 so I am waiting until almost dark before going out to do it, don’t want to make them angry 🐝

Wednesday: I was up early this morning 5am, I needed to get quite a lot of flowers cut for orders today and I didn’t want to be disturbing those bees in the tunnel 😂 They were still mostly all sleeping 💤 I went about my business in relative safety 🙄 actually they are apparently not hostile when they are swarming as they have nothing to protect, no hive, no honey and no eggs, that’s reassuring but still when there are thousands of them it’s a bit scary. The ones that have been left behind number around 200 which is a tiny fraction of the amount of bees in a hive, still it’s a lot of bees in my poly tunnel 😂 I got all the cutting done ended up with wet feet and arms as the dew was pretty heavy after the rain yesterday. Then I went on to getting some weeding done in one of the front beds, I wanted to get them out before we go away or they would be triffids by the time I get back. I got stung on the arms and feet by long stinging nettles, I had changed my shoes for flip flops, what the heck was I even thinking 🧐 numpty. After doing that job it was round to the veg garden, which is rapidly becoming a flower garden 😝 to plant up, you guessed it, flowers. Grasses this time actually, specific types that are great for flower bouquets, they add movement and sparkle. Then I planted up some scented pelargoniums, not my usual thing but the foliage smells amazing and again good for flower posies.

Back indoors and I got the eggs from the freezer, they took a little bit of persuading to leave the tin, bang, bang, bang, but eventually I got them out and popped them into a bag and returned them to the freezer for use later in the year. Back outside to potter a little bit more and to observe the bees, I am quite fascinated by them to be honest, their behaviour patterns under the circumstances are interesting, they clump together quite a bit and appear dozy. Here is what I have learnt, if they don’t go to the box Dave bought, they will die, they need to feed and they are not getting any instruction from the rest of the hive so they don’t really know what to do without all the others 😢 As I said before they are a tiny fraction of the hive, a couple of hundred out of a swarm of 40/50,000 so are dispensable as far as the hive health goes. But they are bees and we need bees so trying to gather up stragglers is a good idea. Those that don’t go to the box will definitely die, this is ok though because they then become part of the food chain for other insects and small mammals such as beetles and mice, it’s just sad. Some of the younger ones could gather pollen and go to a different hive and because they are young and have the pollen they would probably be accepted, old bees or bees with no pollen will not 😏 Nature is both amazing and cruel at the same time isn’t it.

Indoors early afternoon to make up the flower orders and then a sit down before going out late afternoon to deliver flowers and eggs today 😁 Then I have a flower bouquet collection late afternoon.

It’s definitely swarm weather, the chap that collected our bees has collected another three swarms today! He came back to get any of the bees that had gone into the box by dusk, sadly the rest that are clustering in the polytunnel in various places will now die off and be part of the food chain. A queen bee can lay up to a thousand eggs a day apparently so they will soon replenish and he also said ‘our swarm’ is now in a hive and working really hard, yay go bees 🐝

More rain this evening, I for one am not complaining, we really needed the ground water levels to get back up to decent levels 🌧

Massive thunder storms with lightning and heavy bursts of rain.

Thursday: I spent the morning getting my hair done while John was busy at home sorting and tidying his van.

When we returned home we watched the lunchtime news and I can’t help but comment on a couple of things. First is the fact that potentially there will be food shortages due to goods not being able to be shipped from Ukraine. It is a fertile and abundant country but don’t you think it is a bit ridiculous to rely so heavily on one country to provide vast quantities for the rest of the world. Obviously Ukraine needs all the support we can give it in anyway we can but if it teaches us one thing it should be to look at worse case scenarios and see how resilient we are going forward.

Second is the rate of inflation and the rising cost of living, well I just can’t shut up sorry 😝 Back in the 80’s (yes I know I am going to sound like an old fossil) inflation went above 10% and mortgage interest rates climbed up and beyond 15%, 15%! Just let that sink in if you are in your 20/30’s and have a mortgage, I am not age bashing but seriously it was a tough period for our finances and guess what, there wasn’t any talk of help in any way from any direction at all. You got on with it by working more hours or taking a second job and dispensing with any little luxuries, you rode the storm basically and yes some people sank under the cost of it all, some people lost everything and had to start again. I can tell you countless stories of the types of jobs people took that wasn’t their usual line of work because it was a necessity to do so. But also back in the day hardly anyone was in debt up to the hilt, mostly we had a mortgage and that was it, we had a second hand car that was bought and paid for not on tick and our lifestyle was not as extravagant as they are today, that extravagance has become the norm 🙄 it seems to have become an entitlement. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, I know things have changed a lot and I know that there is genuine hardship out there but from observations there are also a lot out there who do not know how to cut their cloth either that or they couldn’t possibly give up what I would consider luxuries at a time like this 🤔

We had a busy few hours this evening, I wrote a list of jobs that need doing just in case John was not aware of all of them 😂 He started off by cutting the grass in the driveway then the paddock and finally the lawn. I potted up some chrysanthemums that arrived today, these will extend the flowers available right through to Christmas 😁 I did the watering in the tunnels, cleaned the horses water buckets out and filled them all up, did a bit of weeding, sorted all the eggs after John fed the birds and collected the eggs. In-between all that we had the twins and then I had a live online workshop to attend, my eyes are very tired 🥱 Up early tomorrow to cut flowers for a 100th birthday bouquet 🥰

Friday: Still rainy lol after all those dry months it hasn’t stopped raining on and off for a week now. Up early and I cracked on with cutting flowers for todays birthday bouquet 🥰 Then it was on to cleaning and then just before lunch ironing johns shirts. The only time I do ironing is for occasions and though I don’t mind doing it I was glad when it was finished 😂 Meanwhile John had to pop out to get a small job done and then once he was back there were jobs on the list for him to get his teeth into. Shelley said make sure I leave her some jobs to do, so I definitely will 😝

I made up the flowers at lunchtime and then delivered them and when I got back I thought I would have a go at a corsage. I quite liked doing one, it’s a different skill to try out.

Popped out early evening to pick up some plants that I had seen for sale, good sized plants that were too good to pass up lol. When I got back I put the dinner on then out to the paddock to get Biscuit in and confine her to a small pen. She hasn’t been bad it’s just that she will get bad if I leave her out on all that grass after the rain we have had so this is preventative.

A live meeting then gardeners world, lovely Friday night, almost, my jeans unexpectedly ripped across the front of the thigh area so I now have to quickly order new jeans for going away 😂

Saturday: A busy day today rammed with every type of job you could possibly think off both inside and out. John has been busy as well cleaning out the birds and mowing the grass in the front paddock by hand because the belt broke on the ride on mower 😝 Shelley came over in the afternoon and we walked through two lots of flower selection, conditioning and arranging, she did a great job and all will be well with that side of things I am certain. In the evening I printed of yet more paperwork for the holiday 😂 one more bit to do.

Sunday: Another busy, crammed day of things to do, mainly packing, I think I have packed way too much and then not enough at the same time 🤪 It’s all the little things to remember but hopefully I have remembered everything and what I haven’t, tough. John has been cutting everything g with the hand mower again, flipping typical that the ride on breaks just as you need to get everything up together. Then he had the front hens to clean out and power wash, that’s the last of the big clean outs, Shelley will then be able to just skip out and all should be fine. I have cleaned the spare room ready for the kids to sleep in, I still need to go and alter biscuits electric fencing to give her a bigger area for a week, then Sam is back from her holiday and will re jig the grazing again.

There is such a massive amount to organise on a Smallholding when you want to go on holiday, there are endless lists of daily, weekly routines for each and every animal, lists for the top priority jobs, lists for what, where, when, how and why, general lists for the household stuff, deliveries, customers and then there is all the work needed to get it all up together to make life easier for the person who is coming to take over. We are incredibly lucky to have the girls who always know how much we need a holiday and are willing to step in and help out massively, without them we simply couldn’t go away 🥰🥰🥰

Downloaded a few books to read and the Miriam Margolyes book in Audio form, that should be a bit of a hoot 😁

This afternoon I am having my nails, eyelashes and eyebrows, preened, tinted and polished and then a roast a Shelley’s 😁 Back home to get some watering done and water in some nematodes for the vine weevil, fill up the horses water, let a biscuit out for a day and a half before she gets confined for a week, and finally get a sit down. We will have plenty of last minute jobs and things to get sorted tomorrow but for the blog that’s it for almost three weeks. That just leaves me to say have a wonderful Jubilee celebration weekend, it’s not often a Platinum Jubilee is held, what an amazing lady our Queen is in every way, and providing we get a fit to travel result I will be back in a few weeks time. 🚢😁🥂🥳 🇬🇧

Posted in Friesland Farm

Fat fingers 🤪 lovely weather and so plenty to do.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Oh ffs 🤦‍♀️ fat fingers meant I missed the target of save draft and hit discard by accident arrrrgggghhhh. It’s Thursday and I have lost Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 😝

Basic round up of lost days 😜: I mostly spent Monday and Tuesday in the greenhouse and potting up self set seedlings and plantlets such as rudbeckia, campanula, Erigeron. I unwrapped the lemon and orange tree, one has faired better than the other but both are still alive so I have watered and fed them to start them on their way. It was Florence’s birthday on Tuesday so we went round for cake. Wednesday was a total washout, constant rain all day long and we have the usual river and lake in the side paddock as a result. I think that will clear quickly as the forecast is good for the next few days. I spent the day inside, cleaning the boot room and then some other household bits rather than getting a soaking outside.

Thursday: Fat finger day 🤣 omg I can’t believe I did that and it’s not even in the bin so I can’t retrieve it 🤬 On a better note the sun is shining this morning though we did have a frost, should be a lovely day.

Friday: A misty start to the day but full of promise. I got the usual jobs done and then went up to the village, just along to next field actually, to help with some hedge planting that was going on. The field belongs to the village and is an allotment field but there are no allotments any more it has been farmed since allotments fell out of fashion many years back. The chap who farms it has a stewardship scheme to plant a hedge (1600 saplings) and then some wildflower margins and the environment action group were helping to plant them and asked for help and so I went along for a couple of hours to lend a hand. By noon it was getting a bit warm for me even though I had put on my factor 50 🙄 and just as I was thinking I would have to leave them to it Samantha turned up with the twins and so it was a good time to quit. I applied more factor 50 and we went into town to take George and Lucie to the park and then to get them a smoothie so that was pretty much my Friday done.

Saturday: Another nice day although the breeze (strong gusts at times) was a little on the chilly side. Nevertheless John spent the morning painting the new fence in the paddock with preservative and I pottered in the garden. I tidied up the decking area and repotted all the plants that were on the decking plus a bit of planting in some smaller garden borders. We went out to the local landscapers in the afternoon to find it was shut so called in to the expensive garden centre where I bought nothing because the prices are outrageous 😂 Back home to cut the lawn, out for fish and chips and that was Saturday done.

Sunday: Again, a nice sunny day a little less fresh than yesterday, fab 😁 Again we spent the best part of the day outside, John cleaned out the ducks and the chickens while I sorted out plants to go out for sale and sowed a few more seeds. A bit of potting on of plants that have been dormant over winter and are now beginning to put some good growth on. Went round to see Mum and Ken for a cuppa in the afternoon and then early evening we went to Charlie and Maccas for a roast dinner 🥰

There is more good weather forecast for next week although we have a cold night ahead tonight. Jobs on the list for the week are to get the remaining beds up and running for the perennial flowers for cutting, mow the front paddock and the front driveway, possibly direct sow some of the annual flowers, plant more gladioli bulbs for successional picking, direct sow some of the veg seeds such as beetroot and start thinking about planting potatoes. Probably some hoeing and weeding of perennial weeds, clearing of any remaining dead foliage, potting up any self sown plants I find on my journey and keep a good eye on the dahlias so that I can start to take cuttings from those. Housework, paperwork, garden work, Smallholding work, family time, enjoy the spring, that’s the itinerary for the week ahead 😁

Have a good one and I will try to slim my fingers down and not hit the wrong button next time 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed sowing, tree cutting and a trip to the Wildlife Park.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 7th March 2022: Weeeeeeee sliding into another week 😁 Today the weather has been lovely, the sun came out and although the breeze was a tad cold it was delightful working weather. So that is exactly what I have been doing, working outside, I had decided if it was raining I would do housework but lucky for me it wasn’t 😂 I had planned on making a small start on the hazel trees we have in the front, they have been kept in the traditional way for many years, six main trunks from each root but these will block a fair amount of light from my greenhouse and then evening sun from the font beds and so we cut them back each year. The six trunks remain it’s just that we keep the tops low and cut them back at the front as well. I will just do one or two I thought to myself but in the end I did the whole lot and at least that job is done for another year. While I was out there working I spotted a butterfly, my first this year, not one I have seen before though and I had to look it up. It was a green veined white, at first I though it was a cabbage white but when I looked at it close up it was all white and no black tips or spots and having not seen one before I had to find out exactly what it was.

After a quick sit down at noon I went back outside to the greenhouse, a plant delivery had arrived 😝 and I wanted to get them sorted asap. The delivery was from Farmer Gracy and the packaging was lovely I even had some free postcards in there. More dahlias ooops, cactus dahlias this time, I counted how many I have potted up and the number currently stands at 32 🤩 There was also a huge peony root, Sarah Berndhardt and an astrantia, all are now safely potted or planted. The greenhouse was a whopping 29c 🥵 and at this time of year you really have to be on your greenhouse ‘A’ game as the temperatures can swing massively from day to day. That means lots of weather watching, temperature watching, and making sure everything is not too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. I checked the tortoises today, basically I find them in the heap of straw, touch a leg if I can see it and if it moves they made it through the winter, I am glad to say they were both responsive 😁

I then went out to the front beds armed with some pots of wetted compost and dug up a few self set seedlings to bring on, Jacobs ladder, campanula, Erigeron and also took some more basal cuttings of lupin, guara and chrysanthemum (although I found those a bit difficult as they are pretty woody) but nothing ventured nothing gained so might as well give it a go. I would go round and do hundreds more but where would I put them all, as it is my space is filling up quickly, dedicated space I mean, at this rate I might have to take over another area of the Smallholding (I do have my eye on the front paddock 🤪) Then is was inside for a sit down and a cuppa before I have to do the afternoon rounds, but what a great way to spend the day, days like this I think to myself, I really do have the best life 🥰

Tuesday: A cold start this morning though the sun was shining giving a false sense of a lovely warm day 😝 I spent the morning in and around the greenhouse, potting some things on and sowing some seeds. They are only small amounts of seeds at the minute in order to try and get ahead, this may work, it may not, a lot will depend on the weather in the coming weeks really. I also spent a bit of time today sorting through our rather large stash of outdoor gear. We seem to end up with quite a lot of outdoor coats, hats and thick socks, far more than we actually ever get to use to be honest. I tend to stash them away ‘just in case’ well the just in case has come but not for us, these items will be going to Ukrainian civilians that are fighting. I honestly have no idea how we have amassed so may spare weather proof coats and fleeces etc but I am very glad they will be going to someone who really needs them.

I had notification of more plants arriving eeek this should be the tail end no paw but I did order a couple more flowering shrubs for filler foliage. It really does become a bit of an obsession, every time I see somebody recommend something I am on it 🤪 One thing is for sure my garden will be full to bursting this year with shrubs, herbs and flowers 🥰

Wednesday: Not bad weather, the breeze was a little cold but the sun was shining well enough for most of the day. I made a decision to move all the potted dahlias to the poly tunnel because I am running out of space with them in the greenhouse. I have more plug plants arriving any day and need room to pot them up and bring them on, every time I think the plant deliveries are coming to the end I get another notification 😂 For the rest of the morning I made support for the peonies, they are heavy plants and the flowers can easily end up on the ground. I have never grown peonies before, I remember we had them in the garden when I was a child, red ones all down the fence. For some reason I didn’t like them then and therefore never grew them as an adult. Then the year before last a customer gave me some tubers she had divided, they didn’t amount to anything last year and I thought I had lost them but this year there is good strong growth on them so I need to support them. They are a great cut flower and I had ordered (which has now arrived and been planted) a huge root for the cutting garden. The supports I mad out of the hazel I cut down on Monday, the whips where big enough to use to make hazel rings that fit over three hazel sticks pushed into the ground. I used a bit of twine to keep them altogether but they are sturdy enough to do the job and cost next to nothing 😁

Supports don’t need to be pretty they just need to be sturdy enough to do the job, foliage will swamp the framework and you won’t see it anyway.

Thursday: Another decent day as far as the weather goes, sunny, a bit windy but mild enough. I had one job on my radar this morning and that was to cut back the elderflower tree down in the paddock that has grown up behind the guttering on the field shelter and pulled it down. I took my loppers and wandered down thinking it will take me about a hour at most 🤪 Two and a half hours later I finally finished, the tree was bigger than I had recalled and I had to go and get the bow saw for some branches. Then the guttering needed re attaching in places and so I went and got my cordless screwdriver only to find that it had been nailed on. Back to get the hammer and then a wrestle to unclip the gutter from the brackets, I screwed the brackets back in place, got all the guttering clipped back in and job finally done. Although there is a big pile of branches I now need to move. On the way back I decided to have a go at a large willow tree that is near the field gate, some of the branches hang too low to get under it with the ride on mower so while I had the equipment with me I thought I might as well tidy that up as well. Just as I finished John came home to get some lunch as he is just working down in the village. Once lunch was finished I spent a few hours getting some plants ready to put out for sale and I made a living wreath for spring. Just about finished that when Sam arrived with the twins and Mia for the Thursday swimming session. George wasn’t very well today so not too active, Lucie was on form as always 😂 Dinner then a catch up with the news, type this up and then an online flower session at 8pm.

This elder has grown behind the guttering and pulled it all down so needed a good prune and the guttering putting back up securely.
Job done 😁 just a big pile of branches to move now.

Friday: Out early and into the greenhouse to pot up some plug plants that arrived, crazy daisys 😁 Then up to my neighbour to collect more plants that had been delivered there by mistake and stop for a coffee and a catch up before returning home and potting up some cuttings she gave me and the plants that arrived. Sam arrived with the twins and we went to town to meet Shelley and Flo for a coffee and some cake. That was pretty much it for Friday, nice and relaxed.

Saturday: Not such a relaxing day, we have worked hard outside all day long cutting back the hazel nut trees down the side of the garden. There are 15 of them in total and today we have cut back 11 of them, two we did last year to let more light into the poly tunnels and two are staying as they are to get me shade in the afternoon by the back door. The others have all had a chop, they were getting big, the boughs were getting heavy and gnarled and although I hate taking down mature growth it was a case of needs must. We took them down to around two feet high, there are six trunks on each tree so you can see it was a big job to get done. It all had to be cut and cleared as we went and we won’t get any nuts this year but they will all grow up nice and tall again at some point. We may have to keep them lower than they were as we are not getting any younger, these have not been done for around ten years, another ten years and we won’t be able to do the job at all 😂 Dan came to put up fencing in the paddock so that’s good to get that started, I think he will get one fence done today and not sure when he is going to be doing the other one and we still have to get some gates to go in 🙄

Sunday: After doing the necessary jobs this morning we spent the whole day with the children and grandchildren at the local wildlife park. Luckily the rain mainly held off though the wind was cold at times but a great day was had by all and no doubt there are some very tired children this evening and some very tired adults too 😂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sowing, Planting & 2nd place (I will take that 😁)

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th February 2022: There was a beautiful pink glow in the sky this morning before it turned to drizzle.

To say I felt sick yesterday when Putin started talking about Nuclear alert was an understatement and I am sure that the vast majority of you felt the same. How is it in this day and age that someone with such power can (or even want to) play such stupid games 🤷‍♀️ A world where everyone lives in harmony is clearly not possible sadly, the events are unbelievable and the pathetic rhetoric he spouts is also unbelievable, he has lost touch with reality, if he really ever had a hold of it. Because of all that is going on my thoughts are dragged straight back to self sufficiency mode. Not just on a personal level but a National one, the reliance on other countries for vast amounts of supply be it energy, metals, wood or food etc is, in my humble opinion, a big mistake. We have seen how quickly things can change and if the last few years have taught us anything at all it should be that relying on others for our needs can at times see us limping along in survival mode rather than thriving 😏

I spent the morning in relative bliss in the greenhouse potting on plants that I started off at the end of last year. There are good signs of growth and so while we are in the calm before the storm period I decided to pot things on and feed anything that looked like it was in need. Most of these plants will go out for sale at the front but some of them will be used for the cut flower beds or to fill up any empty areas in my flower beds.

Rain stopped play outside in the afternoon.

Tuesday: Is it just me or has everyone got a morbid interest of turning the news on whenever possible? I like information and if I see something written or heard something I like to check it out from as many sources as I can. Nothing I have heard that has come from Russian propaganda has any merit whatsoever as far as I can tell. Things like the Nazi reference to Ukraine, does he have a point I think so off I go to check it out from the most reliable, independent source I can find, I have checked out many things and they have all been twisted to suit Putins purpose, so I conclude that the man is mad, I suspect most other people think so too and who knows where this will end. I am willing Ukraine to somehow beat off the might of the Russian army, their bravery is incredible.

I did a bit in the greenhouse, sowed a couple more seeds but that was about it really, I went to town in the afternoon with a Shelley for a mooch round the charity shops and a hot chocolate (weather is miserable). It was me doing the animals in the afternoon and while I was doing the rounds I realised that the fox had tried to get in the goose hut. One one of the roof rails is rotten and the ply underneath joins right at that point, I think the fox has got up there and tried to scrabble the rotten wood out of the way to gain access. What made me think this is that some things that were on the roof were down on the floor and they were not there yesterday evening. John had to go up and put an extra piece of ply on top of the roof as a temporary measure to make sure I don’t lose any of my lovely gooses 😁

Wednesday: More of the same weather wise though it is supposed to improve later in the week. For now it is grey, damp and drizzly so not much going on outside. I did sow some mangetout seeds (1st sowing) in the greenhouse, I think trying to sow direct would be a waste of time, there are the mice that pinch them or the weather that rots them so starting them off inside is a safer option.

I have been putting the final touches to my very first competition entry at the flower club tonight 😝 I really have no idea if I fulfilled the brief, in fact there wasn’t one really, look it up on the internet, well that produced thousands of different interpretations 😂 so I have done my best with what I had and what I wanted to achieve. I was surprised how nervous I am at submitting it later, but I am also excited to see what everyone else has done to get some ideas for another time and we have a demonstration which will be lovely. A pot et fleur is what was asked for and hopefully that’s what I have produced 🤷‍♀️ next time it’s a pave so I’d better get researching that next 😋

Thursday: I am bouncing around this morning with the biggest grin on my face because I only went and came in second in the ‘pot et fleur’ competition 😁 I was genuinely amazed and even more amazing is that the demonstrator who was booked was the independent judge and did the critique said that it was a difficult choice between the first and second place, whaaaaat 😁😁😁 seriously I can’t tell you how chuffed I am that I got it right. The demonstration itself was really inspiring it was titled ‘be kind to the earth’ and the arrangements were all made using compostable or recyclable holders so right up my street and she even made a heart similar to the ones I made with the weeping birch, obviously hers were amazing but it gives me something to work towards next year so watch this space lol.

My entry which I was totally amazed to find got second place 😁

Not much on the agenda this morning and I had a hospital appointment in the afternoon. The trip to and from the hospital took longer than the actual appointment 🙄 still it was nice to see a consultant face to face again, last time I saw anyone it was 2019 😮 All is well though so that is a good thing.

Friday: Not a bad day, a tad cold this morning but no rain and the sun made an appearance this afternoon. I did some baking this morning, just an oat and seed bar for me to snack on and a date and walnut cake for John to snack on lol. In the afternoon I went into the greenhouse and potted up some dahlias that had arrived, these were from Sarah Raven and are the William Morris collection 😁 there were supposed to be four tubers in there but I found five yay. I also sowed quite few annual seeds, amaranth (green giant) China Aster, phlox (crème brûlée) calendula (orange flash) some sunflowers, teddy bear, a multi stem and some large sunflowers, I also sowed some foxglove seeds, I think that was it but could have been a few more things 🤔 After that I made a cup of tea and sat out the front in the sunshine for a little while that was until,I spotted lots of sycamore seedlings sprouting so I did some weeding. Back inside to get the dinner sorted and then out to feed the poultry and collect the eggs. Back in to get the dinner in the oven and while it was cooking I had a live workshop to attend online. After we had eaten I had another live workshop to attend online and finally that was the end of the day and I could spend the rest of the evening relaxing (actually I was playing wordless unlimited 😝)

Saturday: I planted up plenty of gladioli bulbs today although not all of them, I will be successionally planting these so as to stagger the time that they come into bloom, I don’t want them all blooming at the same time. This will be the same for most of the annuals, the seeds will have a gap of at least two weeks between sowings so that I get a continuous flush of flowers rather than all at once (that’s the plan anyhow) I also potted on some tomato seedlings that I have been growing indoors, they are doing well and just needed to go into bigger pots to bring them on more. I sowed some more zinnia seeds and some sweet peas called ‘sublime scent’ 🥰 After doing that I went and helped John who had been giving the birds a good clean out, he did the ducks, the new point of lay at the front and the hens at the back. I went and did the birds in the stable block, we deep litter those so it was a case of raking it over, adding new sawdust and redoing the laying boxes and areas. I also added some sunflower hearts, seaweed and diatomaceous Earth to their food bowls. The new hens have begun to lay 😁 it won’t be long before we are getting lots of pullet eggs every day. Early evening I went over to Sam’s to babysit while he and Luke went out for the night.

Sunday: Not a bad day today although the sunshine was a bit deceiving, it looked a lot warmer than it actually was. We were up quite late for us as the babysitting was an early morning finish 🥱 but we soon got on with a few things. John did some tidying and burnt some rubbish meanwhile I prepped the dinner for later today and this time it was Sam, Luke and the kids coming for roast. I can’t think what else we did today but we were constantly on the go so must have got quite a bit done.

I need to wander across the paddock tomorrow sometime and see if the wild garlic is growing yet, I have seen other posts where people have handfuls, maybe mine will get to that stage one day 🙄

I hope you have a great week, the news on the world stage at the minute is not so good and every time I watch the news I feel heartbroken for Ukraine. All the more reason to really enjoy the little things in life, the Robin singing it’s heart out on the branch of a tree, that lonesome sunbeam that has found a chink in the clouds, the sound of normal everyday life going on around us, don’t take anything for granted, look, listen, love x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

A new lawn area, new hens & plants arriving 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st February 2022: We have had three storms in five days and it’s not done yet, Dudley, Eunice, Franklin and next will be coming Gladys 🙄😩 The first was bad, the second was worse, the third was as bad as the second and goodness knows what the forth has in store for us, all the while each gust will be loosening tree roots and the dry winter we had just came to an abrupt end 😝 As I always say, you have to watch for February, it’s a bitch that bites you on the backside!

We managed to get the new lawn area down before the storms hit, it makes the garden look a lot bigger but I now have to decided where to put the herbs I dug up.

This is where I had the herb bed but we have done away with it and made a bigger lawn area, less weeding for me more play area for the children.
Luckily we have had plenty of rain to water the new turf in 😂

There is absolutely no let up in the constant gusting of wind 😏 It’s like a headache you can’t get rid of. John has gone to work this morning but he did the rounds before he left and one of the geese has laid an egg 😁 hopefully that will be the first of many. I would really like to be getting on outside but there is no chance of that at the minute so yesterday I bought more plants and bulbs instead 😝 We have the point of lay hens arriving this afternoon, they were supposed to come Friday but storm Eunice was a bit fierce for driving in and so it was decided that Monday would be better 🙄 Meanwhile I spent the morning indoors and paid the balance of our holiday later this year, it was one that was booked pre pandemic and so we never got there. One of the stops (the main reason we booked it) is in St Petersburg, Russia, so we may not get there again this year, who knows how that is all going to pan out at the minute. It is all pretty gloomy on the news front, the weather is awful, really should just hibernate I reckon.

I decided to pop out to the greenhouse and pot up the bulbs I bought to bring them on a little and also sowed a few seeds, bells of Ireland and lemon mint both which are good fillers for bouquets. The wind is insane and we have lost yet more roof panels from the Guinea pig cage, we bought two more on Saturday to replace the ones that had already come off and smashed but we haven’t been able to fix them yet as the wind has not relented. I did say to John we need to rethink the roof but he decided to just replace what is there, well now I think we really do need to re design it because that’s just ridiculous. I personally think we will have to drop the roof to inside the walls, it just gets the brunt of the strong winds and doesn’t survive, no point flogging a dead horse as they say. The fences out there are also wobbling like crazy, I think we are going to have a good bit of extra work to do once the winds finally cease. To be honest we need what I have always said we needed and that is an extra hedge down the side of the garden area, I wanted to double fence it years ago (because the horses would eat the hedge otherwise) and put a hedge inbetween, but my thoughts always land on deaf ears, time to shout louder I think as this kind of weather is only going to get worse in my humble opinion. Hedges are the natural windbreaks that help to slow the speed and reduce damage, it’s why I am always amazed that people are so keen to rip them out 🤷‍♀️

We took delivery of 40 point of lay hens today, they will begin laying in a couple of weeks time and so should have plenty of eggs going into spring. The price of feed is going up massively, the feed supplier isn’t even passing the whole increase on as he is too embarrassed but we have done the figures and will be running a deficit if we don’t put our eggs up by 20p a box. To be honest we should do it every time there is a feed price increase but we don’t and now find we are caught on the hop. Half the problem is the cost of everything is going up and the other half of the problem is the bigger companies squeeze out the smaller producers, so use them or lose them is my advice to anyone who has local producers near them. I know so many people who are thinking of giving up altogether because it’s just not cost effective to carry on 😣

The septic tank lorry arrived, I had spoken to the office but they never got back to me with an appointment so I wasn’t expecting him but that’s fine we were here and it needed emptying so it’s all good.

Tuesday: Not any old Tuesday 22/2/22 it will be all the 2s at 22:22 tonight lol. I got up wandered into the kitchen looked out the window and saw the horses in the front paddock 🙄 threw on my clothes quickly and went out to get them back into the side paddock. We had let them in there before Christmas to eat the grass off but they were inside an electric fence to stop them eating the hedgerow and my fruit trees. During the storms the side fence had rocked loose and a gateway had come down, I had said to John we need to sort that out, he said it will wait to the weekend so we hashed it back up. I was cross with myself really because I should have pushed John into getting it sorted there and then, I knew what the outcome would be and I was right. The horses will not miss any opportunity to be somewhere they are not supposed to be, luckily they didn’t touch the fruit trees or I would have been so much more annoyed. As it was I jarred my back again trying to move the slip rails to get them out of the field, not the best of moods this morning. I don’t feel the best either and took a covid test just to make sure it is not that (negative thank goodness) So with the niggling pain in my back returned (it was just easing right off) and a heady sinus thing going on, I am rather grumpy and tired today. The winds have eased off but it is still pretty windy out there, it was still this morning but picked up again now. The momentum and enthusiasm I had for everything Spring will bring, has for the moment disappeared, it doesn’t help with the very depressing problems on the Ukrainian border, worrying and unsettling times. I don’t think half the population even realise what it will mean if there is a full escalation of the situation, a Third World War is not something that is comprehensible in this day and age but it could have far reaching consequences for those that are ‘fighting fit’ it doesn’t bear thinking about to be honest.

Sam and Shelley came over with the children and we spent some time in the front paddock playing in the sun was still pretty blustery mind you lol.

John went out to look at a job and when he came back he said the horses had bust into the front paddock again 🙄 So I went out and got them some hay and took them to the far paddock and shut them in while we repaired the fence a little bit better than we had before though it still needs doing properly. It is solid for the time being but once they broke through they will keep going at it so it needs fortifying 😂

Charlotte came round to discuss her venture into growing veg 🥰 She is buying a tiny greenhouse and using some space here, it will be good to pass on as much knowledge as I can.

Wednesday: John has gone to work this morning but before he went he did the animals, the back lot anyway and which left me to do the animals in the orchard and the new hens, just to check on them and make sure everything’s got water and feed et cetera et cetera so that’s what I did. Once I’d finished making sure everything was fed and watered I thought, well I will pick up some of the debris from the storm namely the roof panels that came off of the guinea pig run, two had to come off and then some more came off and smashed all over the ground. Picked it all up and put it in a pile, bent down to pick the whole lot up and 🤬 buggered my back, just when it was getting so much better 😢 I limped inside shouting ‘ooo’ ‘arghh’ and the occasional swear word and am now stuck on the sofa, I wanted to get soo much done today 🤦‍♀️ I have taken some painkillers and having a coffee hoping it wears off, I could cry, in fact I feel like crying right at this minute.

It would be fair to say I did bugger all today except nurse a bad back, hobble about, get an ice pack on it, get a hot water bottle on it (at different times 😝) lie down, sit down, sit up, walk around, wince a lot and resign myself to being incapable, all of which is pretty annoying as there was a fair bit to do and the weather wasn’t too bad. Tomorrows weather is looking a bit more wintery so I will have missed the opportunity 😏

Thursday: Didn’t do much apart from the usual today as I went with Sam, Shelley and the children to soft play. Well I obviously didn’t go on the soft play but I sat and drank coffee while the kids played, then we all went back to Shelleys u til mid afternoon.

Friday: A busy, busy day today. I have plants arriving left right and centre and so I spent the morning planting them up in the cut flower bed area. Roses, sweet Williams, sea holly and Veronica all went in. Plus I planted some of the herbs I dug up at the end of last year. Then John came home and we went out for lunch, well that was the plan except the cafe was on a restricted menu so it was a sandwich and cake. Back home and we got on with tidying and sorting lots of areas in the garden ready for the season ahead. I planted up a task for the flower club I go to, a ‘pot au fleur‘ I have had to Google it and interpret it to fit with what I want to do. I don’t have house plants so don’t want to buy them just to do this arrangement so I have gone with an outdoor style one lol. John cut the grass this afternoon including the new turf, conveniently I get emails telling me what to look for in order to decide when to cut it, it’s ready and it’s dry enough today so that can be ticked off the list for a couple of weeks.

Drying tulip petals 😁

Ooops sorry busy weekend almost forgot about the blog 🤪 Saturday and Sunday: Busy out in the garden as the weather was lovely for the time of year. John has been busy putting an extra row of slabs next to the cold frames so that I have somewhere to put more plants that I am bringing on. Meanwhile I have had plants arriving eeek so I am E been busy planting g them up, generally speaking plants will arrive at the optimum time for planting unless they are plug plants. I have been sowing more seeds, sweet peas as a mouse ate most of the first lot 🙄 I have been out to the garden centre today with Charlotte, she wants to grow a lot more of her own this year and so we went to get seed potato’s and onion sets plus seeds for micro veg and other salads etc. I also cooked a roast today for Shelley, Martin and the kids this time.

Beautiful kale from the garden for dinner today 😁

That’s pretty much it for the week, things are looking awful in Europe, trying not to dwell on it too much but it does need thinking about from time to time, unbelievable in this day and age 😢 Have a good week and hopefully the situation will have improved by next week though I am not holding my breath x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Valentines Day, Rhubarb appearing & stormy weather.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 14th February 2022: Weeee another week to slide into 😂 A sunny, mild start to the day but the actual forecast for this week does not look the best overall, time will tell. John has gone to work today and so I am on duty, once sorted indoors it was out to get the birds all fed and watered. I was hoping to find a goose egg today as traditionally this is the day they be in laying but no such luck just yet, I did put some nice clean straw in to try and encourage them 😝 Then it was onto the hens, the outside run needs a clean but I got on with the stable hens first, top up the water, top up the feed, I added some DE, seaweed and sunflower seeds to their breakfast this morning, raked over the old sawdust to check for any buried eggs and put in a whole bag of clean sawdust in one of the pens, the other only just had some the other day. Then onto let the ducks out and collect their eggs, they need a clean out but I am waiting for John to finish the compost area because that’s where the stuff goes. Onto the orchard pens, did I say that the fox had one of the light Sussex hens, the one that raised the chicks, only one chick made it to full size and now she is all on her own because mamma was taken by foxy, how the other one made it through I don’t know but as I found mums headless body in the paddock I assume the fox was disturbed by something. I put some fresh straw in for her and fresh straw in for the turkeys and the other light Sussex hens. I barrowed two loads of woodchip into their pen as well, the rain has made the ground deteriorate a fair bit and now all but the ducks and the outside hens are clean and tidy. I may go out and do those later or I may wait until tomorrow morning not sure yet.

Back inside for a coffee and a quick sit down before getting on with other things. It is Valentines Day today, not that it makes much difference in our house 🙄 probably the subconscious reason I decided to grow my own flowers at least that way I will have some. It is amazing how delightful a bunch of flowers can be, I remember one year a flower van pulled up and the lady got out with a big bouquet, it immediately lifted my spirits, then I realised they were for our daughter and not me 😏 😂

Valentine’s Day 🥰

Still no sign of the Lisianthus seeds sprouting (told you they were difficult) but others are popping up all over the place. The Ami and snapdragons are doing well, some lupin growing nicely and the sunflowers have just sprouted then there are some veg as well, beetroot, celeriac and tomato are all doing well in fact while I think about it I must sow some more tomato seeds. Oh and the rhubarb is beginning to appear so that won’t be long before the first harvest 🥰

Decided to do some paperwork in the afternoon as the rain began mid morning, simple enough task you would think, printer only has one job and that is to print 🙄 Low on ink it says, change ink, not genuine cartridges it says, I know yours are too bloody expensive, printing it says while making all the right noises but not actually doing anything 🤦‍♀️ Prints out, eligible, shall I clean the print head, ooo yes please do, cleaning please wait, just exactly how long for 🤷‍♀️ A simple task that should have taken a minute and that’s half an hour of my life gone and my blood pressure raised! Not to mention wasted paper and that was only the first of many 😝 I actually went away and made a cup of tea while waiting for it to perform the task of cleaning, came back, want me to clean the nozzles, oh go on then, seriously I can have a shower quicker than that thing can clean itself. And the blame of me gaining a lb or two this week lies fairly on the shoulders of Epson because what else was I supposed to while waiting other than eat the whole valentine blondie that Shelley bought me 😂

After printing out a reem of invoices (yes I know there is a better way but I like tangible paper copies 😝) I need to make yet another note to self: Keep a check on what plants you are buying or you will end up doubling up 🤪🤪 I think I could probably start a garden centre at this rate! I am not even going to begin to add it up yet, just keep telling myself I will make it back in sales 😉 Yes the most I print off the more I realise I need to get a grip on the order information including what, when and prices. No idea how many hours I have sat here now waiting for print outs, tried to make them more printer friendly, failed 😣

Tuesday: Pardon me but what a shitty day 😂 the weather is horrid, wet, cold and breezy, yuk. John was home for the morning and so he did the animals and then a couple of jobs out in the garden I needed done. The slabs down the side of the polytunnel which form a pathway have been down for about 8/9 years and have ‘walked’ so he took them all up p, shored up the side and laid them all again nicely 😁 He was brave working out there because meanwhile I found plenty to get done indooors in the warm 😊 Clean and vacuum the boot room, change the bed sheets and clean the bedroom, dig into the freezer and get ingredients for dinner tonight, a nice beef stew in the slow cooker for John, salmon for me 😝 I also got a chicken out to thaw for cooking tomorrow. We still have plenty in the freezers to get through yet, all that work back in the summer months prepping and freezing starts to pay off now that there is not much growing in the veg garden. I still have cabbage and kale available but nothing else really.

Wednesday: Storm something or other (we get so many these days I stop listening to the names) bought with it some pretty hefty gusts of wind and apparently tomorrows storm (yep one after the other) is going to be even stronger 🙄 I had ordered some turf which arrived first thing so John and I spent the morning laying that and repairing the edges of the raised beds next to it. We have done away with one of the pathways and the herb bed so have another 6mx5m of lawn or we would have if I had ordered enough 🤪 I had to order some more which will arrive tomorrow, but rather glad it didn’t all arrive today as working out in that all morning has been hard work. An afternoon of sitting down is definitely on the cards 😂 We sat down mid morning for a coffee outside and as a vehicle drove past a massive clatter occurred, it was towing a trailer with a tailgate which had come undone and fell with a bang onto the road, not something that happens everyday lol.

Thursday: The rest of the turf we needed arrived 😁 we now have a bigger lawn area for the kiddies to play on and less for me to weed and tend to. We scrapped the path down the side as well, I spent hours weeding the damn thing might as well cut grass instead. I have also sown a few more seeds today, more tomatoes (gardeners delight, Alisa Craig and tigerella) I have sown some basil and some dill as well, they are all in the greenhouse in a propagator. Still haven’t managed to catch the mouse, it has now eaten all the peanut butter so I have loaded the trap with maple syrup and wheat, my plan is to fatten it so that it is heavy enough to trip the trap 😂 The cats are doing a great job mind you, while we were out there today one of the cats had two mice for lunch. There was a lovely rainbow this morning, the calm between the storms, we are due a pretty nasty one in the early hours, storm Eunice is an explosive cyclogenesis which is a weather bomb apparently, instead of a storm building as it moves, the weather front moves and explodes into a storm. I hope we all come through it without any damage, watching the way they keep going on about it on the news I am surprised everyone isn’t totally terrified and digging holes in the ground to climb into 😏 I am not looking forward to the next 24hrs that’s for sure 😥

Friday: It is 10am just sitting here with a coffee thinking that so far it has not been too bad when a massive gust made the place groan and creak 😏 John has been here all morning but he now has to go and do a small job just when the winds are getting stronger, two points here, he is on the road when it is not so great out there and I am on my own here awaiting any catastrophe by myself 😣 I have some veg soup on the go for lunch and it occurred to me yesterday that we really need some kind of back up plan for any power cut. At least if we had a small gas stove we can boil a kettle, get a warm drink and make a hot water bottle. We have a generator but as I said to John I am not so good at starting it, so it’s fine if he is here not so good if I am on my own 🙄 I figured it would be a good idea to boil the kettle, fill a flask and a hot water bottle just in case 😂 To be honest the hot water bottle is much needed for my back, I woke up with a bad back on Wednesday and it hasn’t really got much better, stiff and slightly painful though not massively, I can move but with caution ⚠️ I would have gone for a walk to try and ease it off but today is not the ideal day 🤪

The winds got pretty fierce with some strong gusts, then it all seemed to die down again and then we lost power and the winds picked up once more. Good job I made a hot water bottle 😝 I called the power company but naturally they are only putting out a recorded message saying they have no idea when they will be able to get power back on and it could be off overnight 😣 I think a few layers of clothing will be needed, although I do have battery powered lights and a solar powered radio which is fully charged so that’s the evenings entertainment sorted 😂 At least I am not panicking about the Rayburn this year, every cloud and all that.

The power came back on for an hour or so and then went off again, but then came back on, how long this will go on for is anyones guess lol. The delivery of point of lay hens was cancelled for today, too risky to travel and we can wait another few days. At one point the wind was so loud it sounded like to door was open, it has died down somewhat now and I nipped out to the post box. I had a quick scan round to assess the place and apart from the bay tree in a big pot that has gone over it’s all looking fairly unscathed, plenty of reports locally of trees down everywhere though.

Judging by a lot of smallholders photos and videos I have seen online, we got away lightly, mostly I would say that is due to the positioning of and building robust pens and huts. We nearly always plan something with the wind direction in mind because it does get pretty windy here even on a regular day so stormy days are much worse. The older buildings are robust as well, Dad was a belts and braces person, there are straps on everything to hold it down luckily, the only thing that always worries me is the metal sheet roofing. Normally they would be fine but with constant winds at that speed they can easily be shaken so much they come loose, I said to John that once the weather calms we (he) needs to check the fixings and tighten any that have come loose.

Saturday: Weather was not much better but less wind and more rain. Didn’t do much outside at all and in the afternoon we went to a joint birthday party for two of our great nephews, 1 and 2 years old respectively. Nice to catch up with people we have not seen for a year or so and the children enjoyed playing together 🙄🤪

🙄

Sunday: Shocking again, almost as windy as Friday, raining most of the afternoon, cold and grey, yuk and more storms rolling in over the next couple of days 😏 It wasn’t raining first thing and John did the animals and then built the new compost bin area. The other has all been cleared and stacked ready to rot down more but we needed a new bay built with pallets which is what he did. Then he cleaned out the ducks, couldn’t do that until he built the bay as that’s where the duck muck goes. And finally he put the wheel back on the car, it had to be taken to the garage at the beginning of the week as the wheel rim had cracked and needed welding. Meanwhile I found stuff to do indoors, I didn’t really want to go outside in all that plus I still have a bad back so didn’t want to be lifting anything.

What is one to do on a cold, wet windy Sunday, well go and buy more plants of course 😁 When John came back in looking for a coffee I suggested we go out and get one accompanied by cake 🥰 and a mooch round at some lovely plants 🤪 I purchased more dahlia, gladioli and some anemone bulbs plus some sweet Williams, you can never have enough plants right 🤷‍♀️ My plan is to take cutting from all the dahlias I have so far which will increase my overall stock. Anything I can propagate I will have a go at, this morning I took some basal cuttings from the delphinium and I will be doing the same from the chrysanthemums and lupin that are coming up, it is a great way to get free plants and easy enough to do. I have used the carnations I bought from the garage a few weeks back (to have a go at an arrangement I wanted to try) to get new plants as well. They are easy to root just in water at this time of year, give it a go if you have any from your valentines flowers 😁 You are looking for new little plants coming from a leaf node, pinch those out and pop in water, they will soon form roots, don’t forget to change the water every couple of days to stop bacteria building up.

That’s is for this week, rubbish weather week I think I will call it 🙄 let’s hope it gets better during the week ahead, have a good one x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Note to self, plants arriving & worrying world events 🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 8th February 2022: Yes Tuesday 🤬 I have completely lost the draft I started yesterday 🤷‍♀️ I am having a mare with technology at the minute, slow to load everything although my provider says all lines in are working correctly. I began to think I had been hacked so changed all my passwords including the one for this blog (I had a spike in stats which seemed sus) and now everything is up s**t creek without a paddle as they say. I have done all the things they suggest plus updated all the security ware and the first thing I find when I log on this site is a missing draft and weirdly some of the posts have had dates changed, I bloody hate technology sometimes. It took me all afternoon to update every install and I haven’t really got very far forward, still having issues 😫 If by some miracle I find the missing draft I will continue with it below.

Did a bit in the greenhouse first thing then Sam arrived with the twins, the farrier who was due at 12 was now coming at 10.30. We got sorted, got the horses in, filled up a hay net and a sack for the filled for when they went back out. Lucy and George helped (I say that loosely 😆) as helpful as two and a half year old can be at any rate 😁 The rest of the day was spent trying to sort the internet out, Shelley and Flo popped in for a cuppa in the afternoon.

Wednesday: I figured out why the draft is lost, because I didn’t save it before exiting doh, but all the other things still stand. I was still trying to sort it all at 9.20 last night and today it is still dropping in and out 🤪 No idea why or how to resolve it to be honest and losing the will to live trying.

No idea what I wrote on Monday and can’t remember what I actually did now either, some clearing up in the front beds I think, can’t remember what else I wrote but never mind.

I had a good day today in the garden, John was here for a while this morning, he did the rounds and then went out to finish getting the compost heap sorted. I know it seems like it’s taking ages but it had to be moved from one place to another and then again because there is not enough room to do it all in one hit. Plus he decided that he may as well riddle it after all so that takes time, he has now put all the available compost into the raised beds on the cut flower area though we still need to fill some more. I decided on four beds that way I can do four successional sowings and when one is finished in turn I can clear them. Meanwhile I sorted out plants that have been sitting all winter and are now starting to wake up, potting some on and putting some out for sale. After I finished that we stood and had a good look at the cutting patch to try and finalise where everything would be going, I think I finally have a plan. Not before time as a few things really need to go in soon so that they can start producing lovely blooms 😁 At this point, which was still only around 10am, John went off to work and I set about weeding some of the other beds. I was out there until 2pm happily weeding on my hands and knees. One of the beds is a difficult one, it has more asparagus in there and normally it is too wet to get on it and weed it, then the asparagus grows and that snaps pretty easily if you try to weed in and around it so I am pretty chuffed and more than a little amazed that I have done it already at the beginning of Feb 🙄 It has been such a dry winter that working on the soil is easy for a change. I came in and got some lunch, sat down for a rest and John came home, lol why is it always when I have just sat down 🤷‍♀️

I have a couple of deliveries coming this week, some more pallet collars to make raised beds and a peat free compost delivery. I should have some bare root roses arriving any day as well as more seeds 🤣 I think I need much more space than I have for these flowers, it’s becoming an obsession!

Note to self: don’t forget to save draft 🤪

Saturday: Yep I have lost some days but for no other reason that I haven’t written anything 🙄 Thursday John was home some of the day and so we worked outside as the weather was fair but that’s as much as I can remember, except that I went for my 4th vaccination and it stung this time so I came home had a cuppa and a rest lol. Friday, I did the morning rounds and pottered in the greenhouse a while then I had a compost delivery mid morning. An hour or so later Sam came over with the twins and Shelley came with Florence. I had a delivery of bare root roses in the afternoon. Back to Saturday, the wind is back and it’s cold but not freezing just feels cold and I had trouble getting warm today. Up early, because I was going out with my sister to a vintage fair in Cheltenham. I quickly planted some hellebore that arrived before I went, I wanted to get them in because it is going to rain pretty much all day tomorrow. Once I came back early afternoon, had a cuppa and a sit down, I went out to the greenhouse (not windy in there) I have been soaking some ranunculus bulbs for a day or so and now they are nice and plump I wanted to get them in pots to start them off. They will go into the cutting garden eventually (once the frosts have passed) but if I can get them ahead that’s good. I also potted up my dahlia tubers to wake them up as well, one of them has a tiny green shoot so now is a good time. The plan is to get them going and then take cutting from them before I transplant them into the garden and cutting patch. I also sowed some sweet rocket (1st sowing) Meanwhile John has also been busy today, some of the time in the garden area doing bits and pieces for me and then some other jobs on top (he told me but I have already forgotten what 😝) I haven’t put the bare root roses in yet, I am trying to decide where is going to be best to plant them 🤷‍♀️

I had a little play with some flowers and foliage from the garden, not a lot to work with at the minute but I enjoyed myself, I said to John I can’t wait to have loads of flowers to make big bunches with 🥰

Note to self: don’t forget to grow veg this year as well 🤣

It is just a couple of weeks now before seed sowing can start in earnest, I cannot wait lol, looking forward to the warmer, longer days.

Sunday: The weather started off ok, dry and mild but rapidly declined to bring rain for most of the day. Beforehand however we did manage to get a few things sorted, John did the animals and then a bit of tidying up in the garden, he also cleared the gully across the driveway so that any heavy rain can run away nicely. I sorted out a bit for roast dinner later and then went out to plant some bulbs that arrived yesterday and the rose bushes that arrived the day before. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to plant these because I need to get to them but I didn’t want them so close to a patch way that up I had to brush past them, they ended up within the veg area because that is full sun which they love and not going to be difficult to get to. Then we went off to get a bit of shopping, not much just the basics, we still have plenty in the freezers to live off yet 🙄 Popped into see Mum and Ken for a coffee before returning home, we met Shelley at Mums and she came back with us to get some eggs and stopped for a cuppa and then Sam, Luke and the children turned up for an hour or two. Once they had all left I prepped the rest of the dinner and then sat down for a couple of hours. Charlie and Macca are coming to eat with us later so we will have seen almost everyone today 😂

We are, like everyone else, watching the tensions on the Russian/Ukrainian border with extreme interest, hoping that it is all some puffed up, macho nonsense. I find it difficult to believe in this day and age that one country can think it can just invade another, seems we haven’t come very far in the last 70/80 years, in fact I would go as far to say the world is dumbing down in my not very expert opinion 😏

When I went to the supermarket this morning there were rows and rows of beautiful imported flower bouquets in the front of the shop for easy access. Inside the shop behind a stack of boxes (I kid you not) we’re a few bunches of British grown tulips and daffodils, I should have complained to management really but the shop was rammed and the staff had enough to do without me adding to their problems but I may send an email.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Goodbye January, a baby announcement & a Sloe Gin competition 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 31st January 2022: The last day of January and while I would never be one to wish my life away I am certainly glad we are another month nearer to some warmer weather 😁 John has gone to work this morning which meant I was on the rota to do the rounds, it is squally out there. The wind is from the west but it is quite cold, there are some big gusts every now and then and it’s generally unpleasant though not as bad as they are having it further North so I am grateful for that. Unless I can find enough jobs to do in the greenhouse this morning I will not be going out there until the wind dies down 😂

I realise I now have a large amount of bulbs to plant for the cutting garden and I really need to sit down and fully apply myself to the plan. I need to go through everything I have ordered that is not here yet, every plant I have already bought that is here, every lot of bulbs I have ready to go in and every seed packet that I have ready to sow. I need to organise a sowing plan both for under cover and direct sowing and make sure I leave enough room for both and then a planting plan that is beneficial to all the plants and makes it easy to harvest the flowers. I seem to be stuck on the plan but that is because I haven’t collated everything yet, I am sure once I have it will be easier to look at what need to go where. That will just be the beginning because then there will be the soil improvement, maybe raised beds to build for some things, the planting up and the sowing at the right time. Growing flowers for cutting is certainly different to growing them for pleasure, with the latter it doesn’t really matter when the flowers appear as long as they do at some point, with the former I need a steady ‘bloom’ throughout the months in order to have the best bouquets and posies. All of this will be running alongside the veg growing lol, good job I have been doing that for years and it’s almost second nature.

I finally sat down with all the seeds, a list of plants and some note markers and plotted out the cutting patch. I needed to make sure I have pathways so that I can reach the blooms with little effort and I needed to get in some sort of order what is seeded when, with or without heat, undercover or direct sow 🙄 I think I have it sorted, until I realise I have either missed something out or for something in the wrong place 😂

Mum called round and I helped her to get something sorted on her laptop so that she can hopefully get her manuscript sorted and sent off to publishers, she has been writing it and re writing it for years, time to get it looked at 🥰

I heard a noise outside and wondered what the heck it was, looked out to see our hedge being cut in the driveway. We had it done for the first time last year and John decided it was so much easier and quicker to pay someone else to do it that he had asked him to do it again this year, he randomly turns up when he has got time.

And now I can tell you what I have known for a while, we are going to have another grandchild 😁🥰 Charlie and Macca are expecting their first baby in mid August and no they didn’t waste any time but that was the plan all along! Six grandchildren 😮 awesome, we are totally delighted and can’t wait to meet him/her when the time comes.

The egg numbers dropped drastically from the hens we moved outside, arrgghh just when I need them to stabilise, I should have given that a lot more thought 🤔 it’s colder out there and they had the light on for a couple of hours after dark in the stable block, doh.

Tuesday: Positively pooped by lunchtime 😂 I spent a very busy morning outside, first I did the morning rounds and then straight onto some gardening chores. I set up a map of the beds for the cut flower garden then decided that is wouldn’t work how I had organised it so I am back to the drawing board. I cleared a few weeds from the raised bed between the tunnels, it still has some small cabbages growing in there but I also found some self set aquilegia and a primrose 🤷‍♀️ so I transplant those. I planted some more plants I bought at the weekend, beautiful hellebores and very bright cheery primroses. I potted up the foliage shrubs I bought a few weeks ago and I potted on various bits and pieces. I also tidied up a lot of the plants I divided at the end of last year, I leave the dead stems until I am certain I can recognise what the plant is and then snip them off. Then I went over to one of the bigger beds and started raking up debris, I emptied the compost bin nearby and started to refill it with any uncomposted materials (quite a lot of that) I got halfway through and realised it was lunchtime and I was hungry 😋 It’s breezy but the sun is shining and it is quite nice out there today.

Wednesday: The day started off on the wrong foot, John went off to work and I went to do the morning rounds and found that the hens had eaten most of the eggs that had been laid already🤬 These are the hens we moved to the outside pen and I have no idea why they are doing it, they didn’t do it in the stable 🤷‍♀️ I have now split them up a little, it’s not the room that is the problem but once one starts they all start. I called the supplier and ordered 40 more point of lay because these lot are now around 2/3 and they have developed bad habits 😂 It’s fair to say that they have been a delinquent bunch from the off, we have had plenty of batches in over the years and these were trouble right from day one, going where they shouldn’t, laying goodness knows where, in house fighting and now egg eating on a mass scale, time to go, once the new hens are laying well these lot will be sold off.

In order to work off my grumps I went out to the veg garden, it is a lovely day, fairly mild and the sun is out. I spent the whole morning sorting out the bed behind the fruit cage, it has the apricot tree (which doesn’t produce many apricots) the cherry tree (that the birds eat before I can get to them) the runner bean area, spare asparagus and the thornless blackberry. A bit of a mish mash and to be honest probably could do with a massive overhaul as comfrey and feverfew grow like billio in there and no matter how much I try I have a job to keep it all under control. After raking up debris and cutting down runners from the apricot tree I went on to sort the runner bean area out. This bit has some of the bindweed problem and so I have weed membrane down but I pulled it all up, cleared the bindweed roots that where surface and laid it back down. Then I did the other side of it, it seems like a bit of a wasted area really but for the time being it will stay like that as I don’t have the time or the energy to change any of it. I just need to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control because it is an area I don’t need to visit very much and so gets overlooked ( maybe call it the wild area 😉) The bindweed roots I pulled up will be burnt, don’t want to risk them in the compost otherwise the problem will get worse. I came in for lunch and a sit down, my legs got a bit wobbly, I was in need of sustenance. That’s when I sat and wrote this and I am hoping I find some energy to get back out there 😝

Thursday: I started off well, got all the morning rounds done and the hens are better behaved today, not munching on eggs, I have no idea what that was all about 🤷‍♀️ Then into the greenhouse to sort a few things out and pit some things up, I also tidied a few things, stuff I put down thinking I will move that later then before you know it there is quite a bit to move. I put some pots of tulips and allium out for sale, the green shoots are just pushing through the top of the soil so I know they are good and strong. Then Samantha arrived with the twins and stayed for the afternoon, normally she would then take the twins and go to pick up Mia from school, come back, drop the twins off and take Mia swimming. Today though she left Lucie with me and took George so Lucie helped me to feed the chickens and collect the eggs, she was brilliant, carrying a bucket with some corn in she fed the hens like a pro 😁 George was most upset that he didn’t get to stay and do it but he can have a turn next time though I don’t think he will be as helpful somehow. Lucie is definitely going to be an outdoorsy grafter type, George more of an indoorsy desk job type I think, he is already very precise with everything so maybe an architect lol. Once Mia came back from swimming and they had all gone home it was time to get dinner, John had pool night and I had an online masterclass about annuals, perennials and foliage 🥰 Will sleep well tonight.

Friday: Brrrr cold and raining first thing this morning with some sleet thrown in for good measure, needless to say I waited a while before going out to do the animals 😝 Once it had stopped raining I went out and got that all done, I was just sorting the eggs out when John came home having finished work for the day and it was only 9.30! That kind of put paid to my plans for the day (which actually was just a fair amount of reading and resting because I still felt tired) After having a coffee we decided to go and get some shopping done, I had made a list the night before of a few things I needed. After shopping we went round to see Mum and Ken for a cup of coffee and got back home around Midday. We actually didn’t get a lot else done to be honest, except the necessary, by the time I sorted out the evening meal, John popped out to have a quick look at a job someone in the village wants doing, and a few household bits, there wasn’t much time for anything major. Just as well really as it never warmed up at all really and the lower temps are around for a couple of days more yet.

I have another masterclass online again tonight and then one on Monday evening as well, I love it and there is always something to learn 😁

Saturday: Not sure what we did to be honest, apart from the usual jobs I rather think we didn’t do much at all in the day 😂 In the evening we went to the Cotswolds 2022 Sloe Gin competition at The Fox Inn, Broadway which is between Stow on the Wold and Morton in Marsh. The event raised money for Maggie’s cancer care charity. What a fabulous evening we had, firstly the fact that the entries wereWith members from Cornwall to Inverness, Flowers from the Farm is the award-winning membership association for artisan cut flower growers in the UK. all from the villagers was indicative of a great community, secondly the pub and its staff were friendly and welcoming. It is very many years since I have been to a pub that has that traditional village pub feel and vibe, we had great fun judging the 22 entries and giving them a score, we had some great food and a good laugh with the locals who were a welcoming, friendly bunch, honestly I couldn’t speak more highly of the whole event. We will definitely being going back to the pub and most definitely for next years competition lol. And for anyone who watches Father Brown investigates, that’s the pub they use for filming 🥰

Sunday: Despite the gin tasting last night we were up and at it this morning 😝 The windy weather is still here, getting tedious now mind you 🙄 but it is a little milder today I think. I spent the morning giving a full clean out to the quail and Guinea pig runs, once the guineas were done I went onto the quail, opened the door and one flew straight out past me and up onto the Turkey run roof. It stayed where it was and didn’t move so I went and got the clean straw, told John and he came to help me catch it. He waved a long pole in the direction of the quail who duly took off towards the greenhouse and landed in an ungainly fashion on the lawn. John went round to look for it and shouted he could find it, I went round and said ‘you have to think like a quail’ 😂 what is the first thing you would do as a timid little bird out in the big wide world, hide, I went round to the area I had seen it land and there it was tucked in some long grass. I was hoping that I would have some more quail delivered today but the chap is having difficulty getting hold of them, I am not in a hurry so it can wait. We came in for some lunch and then I sent John off to pick up a vase I had seen on marketplace, meanwhile I went into the greenhouse. It seems I have a mouse again this year because some of the sweet pea seeds have been disturbed and one which was shooting has been chewed off 🤬 I have now primed the trap with peanut butter, I need to get this one as soon as possible or I will have nothing growing, it is not an ‘all you can eat restaurant’ ya know 😏 Mid afternoon I decided that was enough outside and came in to get some compost ordered. I am swapping over to peat free, it will be good once the whole industry makes the move to only supply peat free. The only reason I don’t always use it is because I often ask John to pick some up, multipurpose compost he can mange to remember, multipurpose, pear free would be pushing it too far 😉

Some spring hope appearing 🥰

This week I joined Flowers from the Farm, this is an organisation I first saw and heard a few years ago at an RHS show. I was tempted to join back then but didn’t really have a plan going forward about growing flowers, well now I have and so I applied and became a full member 🥰

‘With members from Cornwall to Inverness, Flowers from the Farm is the award-winning membership association for artisan cut flower growers in the UK.’

If you want to read more about the association, where you can see them, what they are all about then go to www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk they also have a live map of all members who grow flowers here in he UK (including me😁)

Posted in Friesland Farm

Busy week, painting projects & preparing to flower farm 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th January 2022: Milder than it has been, dry and the ground is not frozen yay that means I can get outside and get something done. First though I had to get the animals all sorted as John has gone to work for a couple of hours but will be back mid morning. As soon as I could I went outside to get the job done that I had gone to sleep thinking about, sad I know 😂 The job in question was cutting back the lilacs in the veg garden. Quite a few years ago we thinned out the lilacs at the front and heeled in some whips, they were supposed to be dug up at a later point. That was probably something like seven years ago so you can guess how big they have got. They are at the end of the bed where I will be growing the cut flowers and so I cut them down by half in order to get the maximum sunshine but still provide a wind barrier, I also hope I will get some good lilac flowers from them although possibly not this year. I dug up a fair few whips to pot up and there was just one big root I couldn’t budge. John came home at that point and we went off to the diy shop to get some paint for the roadside advertising boards. I want to paint them the same colour (or near enough) to the logo background and try to pull everything together a bit better. Once back home John had to go off to the bank to shut down an account we haven’t used for around ten years but still had a small amount of money left in it. I sorted out what would be for dinner this evening and then got the smallest board in to give it a clean up and repair some little parts that had got damaged in the wind. I realised I needed to re do the blackboard paint so called John who was on his way back, he turned around and went to get the paint from the diy shop, bad management from me there but at least I can get the boards sorted. While John was out doing the afternoon rounds I painted the smallest of the boards with new blackboard paint and once it has had a makeover it will look splendid. John also went out and dug up that last root for me 😁 tomorrow we will go out there and put everything through the chipper, tidy up and that bed will be ready when I am for planting up.

Last night while checking my emails I looked at a particular website and decided I might like to go on one of the courses they were offering. I talked it over with John because it’s not cheap lol, but I am so excited to have booked a cut flower day course with Sarah Raven 🥰 She is the guru of cut flowers in the UK and I can’t wait to go and do that, yep it’s fair to say I am ‘cock a hoop’ about that.

At times I think to myself ‘whoa, what are you doing’ and then other times I am full steam ahead with ideas and plans, the one thing I keep telling myself is to just roll with it and enjoy everything, I mean what could be better than growing flowers all summer long. The one thing I did think was that at least picking flowers is an early morning job 😁

The poultry are obviously all still shut away and it would seem that it’s particularly bad this year 🙄 On the one hand it is easy for us to do them every day and they are not all over the place laying but on the other hand I kind of wonder what is the point of having them if they can’t get outside for four months of the year and so far that’s two years in a row we have had to lock them down 😔

Tuesday: oooosh been very busy this morning, after getting the morning jobs done including the animals, I got straight onto painting the primer on the advertising board for the front of the drive. I figured if I did that quickly it would be drying while I went about the rest of the day’s business. Today on the agenda was chipping up all the prunings from the lilacs and the apple trees I pruned the other week. That took around three hours and all the mulch went back onto the ground under the lilacs and around the lavender. John meanwhile was working on the area that will now be grass, it was the herb bed and I have dug everything out and potted up or replanted elsewhere. The sides of the bed need removing and all the soil needs moving so it is level with the pathway (although the path will also be grassed) He has been doing a fabulous job, riddling all the soil as he goes and putting on the rhubarb bed which really needed a top up. Around 11 John went out to look at a couple of jobs and an hour later returned, I had some soup in a mug outside, I didn’t want to stop and sit down otherwise I wouldn’t get going again. John got himself some lunch and then came back outside where we worked until mid afternoon, should sleep well tonight 🤪

In between everything else I was also painting and re writing the advertising chalkboard for the flowers.

Wednesday: Another busy day today, mild again which meant plenty of time outside to get stuff done. John carried on with the removing all the soil from the area we are putting down to lawn and while he was doing that I potted up all the lilac whips I dug up yesterday and I also planted 100 allium bulbs of various types. Some will go out for sale and some will be for the cutting garden. We then moved onto a different area, the brassica cage has been there for about four years I think, it is time to use it for something else before I end up with club root 🙄 I took off all the environmesh and hatched a plan 🤪 the plan involved re using items we already had to create a sweet pea growing area, I have some metal grid sheets that are pretty big and so I wanted one of those attached to the framework of the brassica cage and a narrow raised bed at the bottom for the sweet peas. It should be pretty successful 🤞 and a dedicated area for the sweet peas which have deep roots. I have now almost cleared the area where the rest of the cut flowers will be going and just need to make a plan of what is going where. I will get some pictures once it’s cleared properly and ready to go.

In between all this I was repainting and re writing the advertising chalkboard for the eggs, the boards are all having an overhaul and a refresh, I didn’t get before and after pics of the first board but I have of this second one.

I have also been trying to make hearts from the weeping birch branches, every year in winter it sheds lots of branches, they are very long and wispy, ideal for making things with.

Much better 😁

We popped out to get a bit of shopping once we had eaten dinner, figured it would be quiet in the evening. We got back just in time for a zoom meeting I almost forgot about 🙄 it was a cut flower meeting, very interesting and nice to see others who are doing the same thing.

Thursday: Making the most of John being at home because today is the last day for a while. So after the morning rounds John got straight on outside finishing the sweet pea box and I got on with chalking up the egg board for the roadside, looks pretty good and should just give a nudge reminder to anyone passing that we still sell eggs. Once I had finished I went out to help John, I lined the box, moved a few barrowfulls of dead and decaying leaves (I need to burn these as they are from the pear tree that has scab) Then once John had finished I laid weed membrane down over the rest of the plot to stall the weeds until I can get on it. We measured the plot and overall size is 12ft wide by 30ft long with some small areas already planted with the lilacs and lavender but the rest is ready to plan. It then started to rain 🌧 oh rain stops play says John, nope rain just means play outside stops but plenty to be done inside 🤪 So for the second time in as many weeks John got the hoover out 😝 that is worthy of writing as it doesn’t happen very often, not at home anyway, I am reliably informed by customers that he hoovers in their houses! Hoovering, tidying, wipe round done and time for a sit down, we have the twins later so need a rest in between. I have had to order a new vacuum cleaner, we have two, one is for the boot room and used to do the Rayburn, it’s gets that stale smell so it is the ‘outside hoover’ it has given up the ghost so the ‘indoor’ one moves to outdoor and the new one will be for inside.

I am feeling like my head is fit to burst with everything at the minute especially social media lol. But it’s an extremely useful platform both for getting information out and for receiving information. I just think that at the moment I have too many social media plates in the air 😂 online courses, zoom meetings, online workshops, relevant groups for flowers, Smallholding, self sufficiency, veg growing, gardening in general, personal, then there are the farm pages to run on Facebook, and Instagram and the blog and podcast, I think I need a PA 🤪 Still it keeps me busy right 😝. That and preparing the garden for spring, all of it not just the flower patch, growing seeds, potting up plants and planting bulbs not too mention keeping up with the weeds once they start in earnest.

In the past I have tried to find and trial other more environmentally friendly weed suppressants but I have resorted to the landscape membrane. I tried jute which was ok but only lasted the year which would make it pretty expensive, the cardboard method works really well and is cheap but to cover the area that I need to cover takes a LOT of cardboard so I can only use what I have. The biodegradable membrane is great (expensive) but not permeable and very flimsy so at the moment for large areas it is the landscape membrane I am afraid. Two reasons why this is the best option for me, one, the area is pretty extensive and there is a lot to do. I need to be able to be in control of what gets done and when, which leads me to the second reason and that is the Lupus. I have no idea how the year ahead will go regards the illness, if I am lucky and can keep on an even keel without flares, it will be smooth sailing. If it doesn’t go well I can be incapacitated for weeks sometimes months and then things will get very out of hand, it will stress me out massively and stress is something I need to avoid at all costs because it is a trigger. Sometimes you just have to do what is best for you and your health even if it goes against your ethics which in this case it does but I do need to balance one against the other and until they come up with something amazingly good that’s what I will be using. The good thing is that I use it over and over again but it does shred at the edges if the wind gets at it which is not great, if anyone has any tips on how to stop that I would be interested.

Friday: A frosty morning again but hopefully the sun will thaw everything quite quickly. John has gone off to work today but he did the animals before leaving so I got on with a few household chores. I am hoping to get outside once it warms up a little bit.

Last night I drew out the cutting patch to scale and am giving the layout lots of thought, I think that is the right approach because if I rush in with deciding where things will go chances are I will have forgotten something and have got change it all. The annual flowers are easy enough but the perennial flowers all have different needs and once they are in I don’t want to find I have got it wrong.

Update on the soil blocks and the grow lights: The soil blocks are definitely a winner, I need to get the level of moisture right next time when I use the block because if you have the soil too loose they can crumble a little when the edges dry out but I think that is more user error than design fault. So far I still think they are a brilliant concept, pricking out is a thing of the past with these as exact seedling has its own little bit of soil which you just transplant into the next size block, it’s genius really 🥰 As for the grow lights they have pros and cons, I bought a set with a clip that clip to a table or bench and four arms that have the lights in, the lights are red or blue or a mix of both. The pros are that they do work well, when I change the light colour, the leaf colour of the seedlings change as well. The seedlings also respond to the lights but you do need the lights directly over the seedlings, no point trying to squeeze an extra tray at the end of the light range because the seedlings just lean in that direction. I bought them because the lisianthus are difficult to germinate and grow and I wanted to give them all the help I could. I have seen set ups with trays and trays of seedlings on shelving each with lights attached to the under side of the shelf above. My thoughts are that although we are impatient to get growing, and so use these false environments, nature really does know best and waiting for the light levels to increase is probably better, you will end up with stronger seedlings. I wonder with big set ups, where are they moving all theses seedlings onto once they get big enough to transplant, another set up? You certainly couldn’t move them to outside, not in the UK at any rate, considering we are still weeks away from the last frost date that would be too risky. I imagine people must have a second stage set up that is perhaps under heated cover 🤷‍♀️ I am not sure, maybe I will research it to find out. Overall both the seed blocks and the grow lights are good but for the lights I personally wouldn’t go to a bigger scale not unless I had a good second stage set up to move them too.

John came home mid morning which I wasn’t expecting. I had decided to give the office/craft room a bit of a tidy up but as soon as I finished that I went outside with John to get some work done on the garden. The compost heap needed turning and the compost that was ready needed distributing. I decided that the beds in the big tunnel could do with topping up so that’s where the compost went. I moved two smaller beds that were temporary and put in some pallet collars to make two bigger beds which John also filled. I gave the tunnel a tidy up, put some membrane over the beds. That is the tunnel ready for the season apart from a good wash which needs to wait until the damp weather is finished otherwise the green algae will just come back. I don’t think I have ever had the tunnel ready for action this early in the year. John then carried on with turning this years heap, the more you turn it the quicker it breaks down but it’s hefty work. I tidied up some broken pots and bits ready to go into the skip and then I too sorted the compost bins at the other side of the garden. In the beginning we only had one compost area but I wasted a lot of time talking it all to the other end of the garden each time that I decided to have extra bins within the garden area. I have two big square ones and two darlek type, I emptied out the darleks and put all of that on top of the material in the square ones. Again the more weight on top the quicker it will break down, I quite expected to see some wildlife in there but nope not today. By 1pm it was getting colder and we had both worked pretty hard so it was inside for some soup and a sit down. The soup is from the soup bags I made up at the end of last year, very handy to pop them in the slow cooker with a stock cube in the morning, turn onto high and its ready to blitz and eat at lunchtime. It’s also great because there are veg in there that John wouldn’t normally eat but once blitzed he has no idea 😁

It occurred to me while I was in the poly tunnel that I could offer advice to anyone who is torn between a poly tunnel and a greenhouse. If you can only have one I would say go for a tunnel, they have different uses but a tunnel can be used similar to the greenhouse plus so much more and always go for the biggest one you can afford or site, whichever that is. If it is a greenhouse you really want above all else then by all means get the best you can afford but unless you want it for aesthetics don’t spend the extra on a posh one. It doesn’t work any different and doesn’t make you a better grower, there are better ways to spend the extra money on a greenhouse, such as ventilation, shading, decent staging, irrigation systems, electrics and decent propagators. Also a green house that is well put up will stand the test of time, doesn’t matter how good it looks if the wind rocks it will soon start to leak or worse the glass will crack. Our first poly tunnel has been up for around 10 years and the covering is still fully intact and functional, a lot of that is down to where it is sited, it doesn’t get battered by the wind, which improves the life span. In the tunnels I opted for an overhead irrigation system, which I don’t use, the reason being that too much water is wasted when it is watered from the top. You water areas that don’t need it such as the pathways, watering at soil level is far more cost effective and it is directed straight to the roots of the plants which is where it is needed most.

Another online flower workshop tonight, I am learning lots and loving it 😊

Saturday: Windy lol, that’s today, but mild enough and the sun peeks out now and again. After the usual jobs John asked what needed doing and so I gave him a verbal list, he chose the duck pen 😝 great because that was the dirtiest, muckiest job and I didn’t really want to do it 😂 We had to let the ducks out for a while in order to get it done, John shovelled out dirty, wet, smelly mud and shoved up plenty of duck poop, he then power washed the whole pen. Meanwhile I did the horses water and let them into the front side paddock, they now have three paddocks to roam over. Onto topping up straw in the hens laying areas and then to top up straw in the goose hut, I also found some site fencing (that plastic green stuff) and put that up all along the side of the little paddock that the geese are in. About four years ago Mum, Ken and I planted 950 daffodil bulbs, the first and second year they came up lovely, the third year we had to keep the geese in there due to bird flu and although the daffs came up they were short because the geese trampled all along there hampering growth. The same was likely to happen this year except that I have now fenced it off and hopefully I will get nice tall flowers 🤞 Once I finished that I made the decision to move the ducks back to their original housing, we were going to wait and get the hut moved and a new floor down but the hens in the stable could really do with some fresh air and so they will now move into the pen John has just cleaned out and the ducks will go back to their own home. One of the ducks is not looking very strong so I have ,over her to a stable on her own with food and water to see if she gets any better, she was quite light in weight and muddy I am not sure what has happened to her but if I can try and get her better then I will. I then went on to do some bits in the garden, I cut back all the autumn raspberry canes, potted a few up that I pulled up I also repaired and secured the posts that the canes get tied to as some of them were broken and wobbly. By that time it was lunchtime so I came in for some soup and a cuppa, John also came in for something eat. We had planned on a quick sit down and then carry on but Sam arrived with the children for a couple of hours.

I did another online masterclass about peonies in the afternoon, these type of classes are very good because they are specific and include information about using them as cut flowers rather than just in the garden borders. I have another three classes I think over the next week or so, I am really enjoying them and although I am not a novice gardener I am learning new things all the time 😁

This is the cut flower area it is approx 30 x 12ft 😮 the lilacs I cut back are at the far end and there are some lavenders in there already. The box on the right hand side are for the sweet peas and I need to decide how best to use the rest of the area, not that I am short of plants and seeds to go in there lol.

The weed membrane is to slow down and weed growth until I can get it sorted. This bed has always been a bit of a problem bed, rouge raspberry runners, comfrey and bindweed all have their roots in here, I may have to look at a few raised beds for some of it until they have all died off which could be a year or two 😏 The list of plants and seeds I have is pretty extensive from the favourites like roses, dahlias and peonies to cornflowers, poppies and snapdragons. The beauty of the mix I have is that the bouquets will not be like the ones from the shops, they need to use flowers that will transport well, I can use whatever I want and whatever is looking good at the time of picking.

Sunday: John did a bit outside in the morning and I was indoors making hearts from twigs. Just before lunch I decided I needed a trip to the garden centre to see what is actually out now, of course that result in some spenditure 😂 I said to John, I am investing for this time next year and to my surprise he said ‘good idea’ well then there was no holding me back 😝 I bought some beautiful hellebores, nerine and anemones, I am determined to have naturally blooming flowers this time next year! We were speaking to someone we know who works at the centre and he said that I was onto a good thing, growing and selling flowers and plants, because importing them is about to get a lot harder than it was due to brexit, I hadn’t realised that when I decided to do it but it’s an added bonus I guess. We stopped at the garage on the way back because I wanted to get a cheap bunch of flowers 😮 to give something a try. I was pretty pleased with the result proving that you can even make these look like they are bespoke 😁

Garage flowers and some twigs can still make an artistic display 😁

Have a great week, we are one more week nearer to spring 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Cold frosty weather, a game changing bit of kit & a birthday lunch.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday: Grey, dull but mild enough for Winter. John still has his tooth problem and it has got worse not better but he went to the dentist this afternoon and they have given him stronger antibiotics. Because he is not sleeping well he was late up this morning and late going to work, he had a little job to do and went off to do that which meant I was doing the morning rounds. Once those were done I was determined to get these sweet peas sown and so once I had put some washing on I went out to the greenhouse. I sowed 100 sweet pea seeds, some Ammi majus (bishops flower) some cleome seeds and I took a chance with some indigo rose tomato seeds. The last three of these are now in a windowsill propagator on the kitchen sill and the sweet peas are in the greenhouse, fingers crossed for some germination. I had planned to carry on and get some more done outside on the garden itself but by the time I had done those my feet were freezing so I came inside to thaw them out. It started raining so that put paid to that and then John came home and spent the rest of the day on the sofa, I figured I might as well get some indoor work done and so I cleaned the bedroom, bathroom and living room. Hopefully this next lot of antibiotics will start to work fairly quickly and life can resume to normal and I don’t have to work round John at home.

Tuesday: John still has toothache this morning 🙄 but he has gone to work and hoping that the new antibiotics start to kick in at some point today. I did the morning rounds which at this time of year and we the birds in lockdown takes about 50 mins to an hour and then I can get on with other jobs. I went into the greenhouse and used my new gadget, a soil block, how have I managed without this for so long 🤷‍♀️ I can make soil blocks for seedlings in next to no time and can fit 80 blocks for seeds in the size of my hand 😮 it’s a game changer, save on compost and space 😁 I sowed antirrhinum (snap dragon) seeds and another Hardy annual though the name escapes me at the moment. After that I pruned my wisteria and climbing rose out the front and then onto a bed at the back where I cut down the Himalayan honeysuckle, winter pruned an apple and pear tree, lifted the canopy on the mulberry tree and then winter pruned another apple and pear tree further up in the veg garden. A winter prune is just taking a third off each branch, the younger trees I have left the middle stem unpruned as I want them to get a bit taller even though they are dwarf varieties. There is a lot of work to do but it is still quite wet and so I am choosing jobs that don’t require walking on the soil, I don’t want to crush the structure of the soil at this time of year.

At lunchtime Shelley picked me up and we collected Flo from school and went for lunch 🥰 a nice couple of hours out and although I didn’t purchase any plants I did by some reduced christmas baubles for next year 😂

Soil blockers by Ladbrooke a great gadget that saves on compost and space. The small one makes 20 blocks and fits in my hand, the bigger one makes four but has the small square that clips into it and perfectly leaves a space the size of the smaller soil block to pop the seedling straight into, no pricking out 😁

Wednesday: There is such a difference between the temperature yesterday and then today 🙄 Yesterday I went to put the eggs out in just a long sleeved T-shirt and my gillet, today it is very much colder and frosty even though the sun is out it is not burning the frost away as yet. I did the morning rounds and was hoping that by mid morning it would have warmed up a bit but that didn’t happen and so I did some more research and learning for the cut flowers. There is always much to learn even when you think you know a lot already 😂 this morning I was watching videos on plant support and how to make your own. Bought ones are expensive and when you need a lot of them it can be very costly so I am looking for different ways to achieve different types of support. Last year I used hazel whips, they work pretty well when they are bent over but they need to be quite long and very flexible, they work ok for things like delphinium and lupin but I want something a little more robust for the dahlias and rudbeckia. Then I need different support for sunflowers and different again for things like cosmos, John is going to be making a lot though he does not know it yet 🤪 He has different antibiotics now as the first lot were not doing much and the pain has subsided though not gone entirely just yet but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

As the sun was shining I went out in the front area and did a bit of weeding and cutting back for an hour or so. John came home just after lunch and later in the afternoon we went out and did a few jobs, burn some rubbish, hang a gate, alter a gate that had dropped and covered up one of the beds in the veg garden with weed membrane. We had a look and a discussion about the duck area which needs modifying and by that time it was getting dark so John did the afternoon rounds while I came in and got the dinner sorted.

I am trying to decide what to do with the bed I covered, I plan to put the cut flowers there but there but it has always been a problem area. It has bindweed in it, raspberries canes that I can’t get rid of and comfrey that has sprouted everywhere plus a row of lilacs that are creeping further and further into the bed. For the time being I have covered it to stop anything growing, it is about 10ft wide by 25ft long so it’s a good size area. In order to get something growing there this year I think I will have to leave the membrane down and put some raised beds on top, the decision is what to use without it costing a fortune 🤷‍♀️

Thursday: I did the morning rounds and then Sam picked me up to look after the twins all day at theirs while she went to work with Luke, once they were all home I went with Sam and Mia to watch Mia in her swimming lesson which was lovely to be able to do. Consequently I didn’t do anything at the farm and John went home in time to do the evening rounds.

Friday: I had high hopes for today but they went south 🤪 We started off early, John went to get feed and I did the morning rounds, it was freezing this morning 🥶 Once I had finished and John was back we went to town as I had to have my routine blood tests first thing. A quick coffee and a bite to eat for breakfast and then back home. There was not a lot of heat in the sun today and so the frost and frozen ground never really thawed, bang goes my plans of working on any open ground. I also had a little wobble today, I felt really tired and a little unwell mid morning so I had to have a lie down 🙄 I recovered after a short while and went out to collect some seeds from the snap dragons and put in some plant supports for the plants like delphinium, lupin and achillea. Then I had to have another lie down 🤷‍♀️ I was just completely zapped of any energy. By mid afternoon I felt a lot better but carried on resting, Mum called in and we had a cup of tea and chatted about what we had been doing in the week and gardening of course 😁 Hopefully it won’t be so cold all day tomorrow.

I ordered a grow light which arrived today, I thought I would give them a go and see how well they work. Because we have low light levels at this time of year, seedlings benefit from extra light but it needs to be the right kind of light, a light bulb won’t do the job you need a full spectrum light with red and blue light as well. Early seedlings can get leggy without good light and they tend to lean in the direction of the light meaning you constantly have to turn them to promote strength in the stem, a grow light should eliminate that, that’s the hope anyway.

Saturday: Really cold and frosty again with no sun appearing for the best part of the day in fact heavy fog came down. No point planning any outside work today just as well really as I spent more than three hours trying to sort out an app that just kept crashing. In the end, after exhausting all possibilities and communicating with the tech team, I abandoned the app, their loss (well mine as well because I really liked it 😏)

Sunday: A different day altogether 😁 much milder, sunshine and no rain. That meant that we could get some work done outside, John did the morning rounds while I sorted the eggs and indoor stuff and then it was outside to get on. John spent the morning cleaning and hoovering the car and van 🙄 not really the jobs I had in mind but they needed doing so I guess it’s all relevant. Meanwhile I spent the morning right at the front of the driveway where I have a beautiful contorted hazel tree. This will throw up straight stems and a try to revert so in order to keep it contorted the straight stems need cutting off right down at the bottom. This is the best time of year to get that done, before things get manic and I completely forget to do it. I shovelled up leaves from the driveway and cut back encroaching ivy which was trying to grow across the drive and generally had a good tidy up at the entrance, not too tidy just yet but tidy enough. I now have a bundle of hazel whips to decided what to do with and I was going to do the willow but the secateurs are not up to doing the thicker stems so that can wait for another day.

I also sorted out some seeds that I collected the day before, snapdragon and love in a mist, I have put them into little envelopes and put some out for sale. There are probably thousands of snap dragon seeds, I am not sure what I will do with the rest of them yet, I might sow some to bring on as plants for sale 🤷‍♀️

This afternoon we are off out for dinner, it is a surprise 30th birthday lunch for Macca and just for once I actually had enough time to put something nice on rather than slinging on clean jeans and a top which is what normally happens, so it is a rare occasion, if you see me out wearing a dress you will know why 😂 Of course as soon as we are back it will be work clothes back on to do the afternoon rounds 🤪

Have a great week 🥰