Last year I posted a weekly update on our first year of growing vegetables, living here. This year everything is so far behind, due to the weather there has been little to write about. Now, although late things are looking more promising...very dry though, we desperately need rain.
Photos taken this morning,( when will I learn that early morning light is not a good light for taking photos.)
The veg patch taken from the 'house end'
The veg patch taken from the chicken run.
The rhubarb now in it's second year is doing well, we have cooked and frozen a fair amount, jam and chutney next.
Having only a very small patch, which feels as if it is getting smaller, the more we would like to plant, we chose only to plant a few potatoes this year.
The marrows, courgettes and gherkins have just been planted out, cucumbers and squash will go in this week.
At the weekend we tied the broads beans, they are just coming into flower. We also sowed the french beans. The runner beans are just coming through in the greenhouse.
The shallots and onions are doing well, although the second row of onion seeds were slow to come through. We also have leeks, turnips, beetroot, carrots and parsnips at different stages of germination. The salad crops and parsley are ready for picking. I think that's all we have for now. Sprouts will go in at a later date.
Oh and despite my scepticism the solar mole repeller appears to have worked !
Today we have managed to pick up quite a few jobs that were on the' must do soon' list.
The ewes and lambs were vaccinated this morning for Blue tongue, they were then along with Fred sprayed with Blowfly repel, an organic treatment against fly strike.
All the hens and houses have been treated for red mite, an ongoing programme which so far has kept the mite away. The beak of a Welsummer hen was trimmed, as it is slightly hooked. I am afraid the hen is on the 'soon to go' list. Apart from her deformed beak, she isn't a great layer, her eggs for a Welsummer are pale and when she does lay more often than not it is outside.
All the nettles and thistles in the grazing areas have been strimmed and the yard grass cut.
The livestock trailer has been fixed and the gate post between the Fowls Run and Orchard repaired.
More compost has been brought back from the yard and the gherkins, marrows and courgettes planted.
Further work has also been done on the 'to rent' house.
All in all a good days work and we still have one more day of the weekend left.
I am getting so much pleasure from our newly dug wildlife pond. Below the latest delight. The pond is a long way off from becoming established but it is getting there. Each day there seems to be more wildlife appearing, the plants are somewhat slower. I bought mostly native plants with just a few exceptions.
We have had an interesting few days with the bees, on Monday they decided to swarm. We weren't too surprise as during the weekly inspection on the Sunday we discovered 6 capped Queen cells, ones that were obviously missed the week before.
The cells were in the center of a frame, one possibility; the bees were looking to supersede the queen, the other they were about to or already had swarmed. There were eggs in some of the frames, so we knew the queen bee was still there 3 days ago. She was a young queen so unless she had been injured there was no reason for her to be superseded, so a swarm was likely.
We went through the frames one by one looking to see if we could see the queen, we never have before, so not finding her really didn't help. As Sunday was cold and overcast with the odd shower we took the chance that if they hadn't swarmed already they wouldn't do so until the following day.
The plan first thing Monday was to divide the hive into a couple of nucs. There were 3 frames, each with 2 capped cells on. One for each nuc and one to be left in the original hive to artificially swarm. The frames with brood and stores was also to be divided between the nucs.
As it was they swarmed before we had a chance to put the plan into action. Luckily my son who owns the bees, was there to see it and to capture them before they disappeared.
(unfortunately he only had his mobile phone camera)
Photo: Bees swarming
Once they had gathered together they soon settled very close by and we were able to put the skep above the swarm for them to crawl into.
Photos: 1. Swarm 2. Moving into the skep
Twice the bees left, once in the skep. As we felt maybe it was too small, the third time they were collected in a cardboard box, which was then tied in a sheet and left in the apiary until the evening when we would walk the bees into the hive.
Photo: 1:Finally caught in a cardboard box 2 & 3: Walking the bees into the hive.
Once inside the queen excluder and door guard were put into place and the bees left to settle for the night
The following morning there was an ominous black cloud in the sky, the bees were on the move again! At first we thought it may have been a cast swarm from the old hive, despite having squashed all but two of the capped Queen cells, the previous day. However after a few minutes circling the sky the cloud turned around and headed back to the hive. It was almost as if they had just remembered they had left the queen behind. The hive was completely covered with the bees as they slowly walked themselves back in.
Photo: Bees slowly working their way back into the hive
Fingers crossed they are now settled.
We have a mole in the vegetable patch. Although going by the destruction it causes it is hard to believe there isn't a whole gang of them.
For a week now we have played a 'battle of wills' game. Every night the mole uproots the broads bean plants, every morning we firm them into the ground again. I think the mole may be winning, the once healthy looking plants are beginning to look decidedly unhealthy. We have already lost a complete row of newly germinated carrot seedlings and now a row of beetroot seedlings appear to have been targeted.
Probably a complete waste of money but we have just bought a solar mole repeller. I will reserve judgement on it's effectiveness for now.
This morning we woke to yet another hard frost, hard enough to turn the grass white and crunchy. I know the occasional snowfall isn't unheard of in this part of the country in May, an extreme example was in 1996 when the annual Ten Tors challenge was prematurely ended on the Sunday and many teams were airlifted off the moors.
However this year the low temperatures have covered such a long period of time. Everything in the vegetable garden is behind. The potatoes, onions and shallots are fairing the best.
My main concern is the lack of grass. It is growing but so slowly. Usually at this time of year the grass grows faster or at least as quick as the sheep can eat it. When I move them onto a fresh area, the area that they leave is usually ready for their return sooner than they have finished the new field.. not so this year.
To help elevate the situation I was hoping to book Fred into the abattoir as soon as possible, unfortunately it won't be until 15th June, a month away and every day the lambs grow and so does the demand on the grass.
On a beautiful morning, like today. When the sun is shining, the breeze lacks the cold nip of the past few days, everywhere is clean and tidy from the weekends work, the animals are well, the trees are in blossom and the birds are busy nesting - everything makes perfect sense.
It has been approximately 7 months since we filled the newly dug wildlife pond with water and added a few oxygenating and marginal plants. Most of the winter it was covered in a thick layer of ice. However soon it became inhabited with life, either arriving of its own accord or brought in on the plants. For me each new discovery evokes a childlike delight.
Today there is evidence of several damselflies emerging. The leaves of some of the marginal plants have the empty larvae cases ( exuvia) of the nymph, left behind after it climbs out of the water where it has spent the last year and emerges as a damselfly. As the nymph spends at least a year developing underwater before emerging, we must assume that the eggs arrived on the vegetation brought in.
Photo: Empty case of Damselfly nymph
Newly emerged, Common blue damselfly
The annual Ten Tors Challenge takes place this weekend.
The very best of luck to all the teams taking part. Especially Kingsbridge Community College.
Take care and have fun.
Work on making the orchard sheep proof has begun, albeit in an indirect way. The orchard, rather a grand term for an area of rough grazing that can only boast an old Bramley apple tree and a couple of ancient Dittisham plum trees, is adjacent to the garden of the house we are renovating. All that separates the two at present is an old stone wall with a few tired fuchsia bushes and a length of rusty chicken wire on top, with a good 4ft drop on the garden side.
As the house will be rented once finished, a more secure fence is needed.
Once completed it will take us one step further to having extra grazing for the sheep, who can only now graze the area if supervised.
More fencing needs to be put in place between the orchard and the neighbours garden, the churchyard bank needs protecting and a couple of piles of rubble that have been waiting to be moved for far too long now all needs doing before it is as sheep proof as anywhere can be.
To enable today's work to be carried out without too much hindrance from the livestock, this morning we had to move all the animals, their shelters, feeders, drinkers etc.
Fred was moved from the paddock to the strip of land between the poultry pens and the Fowl's run, which meant the Welsummer breeding flock had to remain in their area rather than free range. The ewes and lambs were moved from the Fowl's run into the paddock and the geese were moved from the orchard to the Fowl's run. The Indian Game flock have a mind of their own and go where they choose !
Rather than go through the whole procedure again tomorrow morning, tonight I think they can stay where they are.
I thought I saw one yesterday but today I definitely did. The swifts have arrived.
The swallows have been here for several weeks now. It is always lovely to watch their aerial acrobatics and to hear their chattering but the mess they make when roosting and nesting in the feed shed is something I always seem to forget from one summer to the next.
At this time of year all evenings and weekends are given up to livestock and gardening, this weekend has been no different.
The sheep have been moved onto fresh pasture.
Photos: Freda with Frank and Florence, Amy behind. Lambs now 5 weeks old
Compost has been brought back from the yard, the grass has been cut and more vegetable seeds sown. The extra strawberry plants, we ordered a while ago have finally arrived and have been planted out, making the fruit garden now complete. We will have very little fruit this year but the promise of plenty in years to come. The flower garden has had a little more attention, mostly pruning of shrubs.
The most rewarding job this weekend, however is the new poultry pen has finally been finished. Well - the ground has been dug over, rotovated and raked and the grass seed sown. We still need to finish a little of the fencing and renovate the poultry house but the hardest part has now been completed.
Photos: Almost completed poultry pen
Next we need to decide if to replace the rusty, broken old fence between the new poultry pens and the Fowl's run. It certainly needs removing and we need to decide if to leave it down, so making the Fowl's run larger or repalce it. The small parcel of land between the two areas at the moment is so useful, but we can't really justify the expense of new fencing for such a small area.
Maybe a decision best left for a later date.
.JPG)