Still getting ground frosts here. We’re not in the clear yet with more forecast at the end of the week.
We’re spending our days mulching, bed prepping, sowing, repotting, fencing and setting up our new and improved irrigation system.
It’d be rude not to
Thanks Amy, we’ve actually got a stand under an oak tree we’ve left to spread.
We’ve taken a call and started planting out the heat-loving crops into their final positions in the glasshouse.
Today it was aubergines. Tomorrow it’s chillies and peppers. These will be followed in a few weeks by tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and tomatillos.
Foraging for our local baker who will be making a special seasonal loaf.
Hawthorn tips, nettles, sorrel, crow garlic, Good King Henry and ramsons in the mix.
Had someone else say baby elephant!
Frosty start to the morning here.
Our wild garlic has been establishing well under a plum tree in the forest garden.
We’ll be doing a light pick today along with some asparagus for an event locally.
Purple sprouting broccoli and oyster mushrooms for dinner it is then!
We love our drying beans here. The plants are nitrogen fixers so work well in rotation, they store for long periods and they’re very versatile in the kitchen
In addition to last years home saved black, borlotti, soy and Jacobs cattle beans, we’ll be adding gigantes and cannellini to the mix
Spent the day at our regional Land Workers Alliance gathering at Old Hall Community in Suffolk.
These events are always a great source of inspiration to us and we feel privileged to be part of it. There’s some wonderful people out there doing some fascinating projects!
No worries, just let us know
And the asparagus keeps coming!
One week in and we’ve already harvested 3kg over two picks. We’ve got 42 plants in the ground and hope for a total harvest of 18-20kg over the six week picking period.
Ah nice haul! Our french core is cranking right now. This is when having the perennials in the mix starts to pay dividends eh
Sorry if don’t see this. We get a mix of species from our tree surgeon. If I was to guess though I’d say it was some type of thuja.
Yes of course! Send us a message and we can work out a date
Maxing out the plant production line for our heat-loving crops.
From heated propagator to indoor grow light stage to polytunnel heat bench with a soil warming cable.
The first of the plants will be in their final position in about two weeks. We are keenly watching the forecast.
It’s asparagus time again!
This year is the first time we’ll be able to do a full seasons pick now that the plants are fully established.
Making the most of the last of this years coppiced willow.
We’ve used the whippy offcuts to make a wind and sun shelter for the garden.
We’ve been really impressed with the regrowth from the willow stools so far; it just grows so fast!
Yep that’s right. Roughly doubling the plants we had in the polytunnel last year. Gives us space to play about with varieties a bit more
We’re coming up to the last stocks of our spuds. Not quite a full year supply but 10 months ain’t shabby.
There’s not a load of veg about this time of year but today we’re having baked potatoes with a pesto of wild garlic, chives, tarragon, parsley, spring onion and spinach.
We’re taking a break year from tomatoes and other heat loving plants in the polytunnel.
We’ve just finished planting up spinach, onion, spring onion and lettuce, which will soon be followed by coriander, parsley, dill and fenugreek.
Very much on the side of good fortune! We’ve even got some popping up in the market garden beds now.
Morels not something we’ve cooked with before so need to do recipe hunt. Prob just going to fry them for now until we work it out
Another good haul of black morels foraged from the front drive. That’s 100g worth now.
The mulch of woodchip and wood ash obviously provided them with perfect conditions.
Ha! This phrase pops into my mind remarkably often!
Nice little harvest for a local event tonight.
We’ve not got loads available at the moment but we do have some exciting seasonal produce. Today it was wild garlic and sprouted kale tops.
Well this is an exciting find!
Right on our front driveway we’ve now got a patch of morels.
We’ve been loading on the woodchip and wood ash over the years, partly in the hope that we’d be creating a habitat for them. Who’d have thought they’d actually turn up!
Time for a move.
Our small propagator is premium space and we’re working it hard.
Today the pepper and aubergine will be repotted and installed under box lights, being replaced by newly sown tomato and tomatillo.
After that it’s melon and cucumbers.
Phew!
Nice! We ended up way short on the passata so growing a lot more sauce toms this year. Main focus is heritage cherry tomatoes for sale, but on top of that we’ll have ruby, purple Ukraine, feo de Rio Gordo and marmande
Yes definitely, we’ve moved the growing to the newly cleared glasshouse. Be double what we planted last year!
Yea these are in our market garden with deer and rabbit proof fence.
Outside of the wire were trialling willow in tubes that well eventually pollard at about 1.5-1.8m out of the reach of our deer species