In The Garden

Hello Everyone,

Well I have been gardening…home garden gardening. Saturday was such a perfect day for pottering and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I did not complete what I intended to do, but I think I probably asked far to much of myself, trying to tackle the whole garden. Our garden is part the previous owner and part some of the field. We have created the growing areas in much the same way as the beds we have the fruit and vegetables in, ie we use the no dig method.

However, as much as I would like to garden in the home garden all the time, our garden is not cared for as much as the farm gardens are cared for. Some areas I have left to grow wild, particularly as we do have a hedgehog somewhere in said wild bit. I am having to work with shrubs and trees which have been established for many years, but I am also trying to put my own stamp on the garden. I am quite a relaxed gardener, liking a more country garden which flows rather than everything standing to attention. This I find peculiar as within the farm growing areas I, like Bob, do want everything standing to attention, straight lines, even rows and order. I hope you have been able to potter or take In the sights of the beach, parks, countryside or gardens. It really is good for the soul having a whole day of warmth, sun and blue sky. My back is in agony (nothing new there) but I do feel quite refreshed and energetic. Bring on the sunshine!

May is such a busy time for gardeners and here on the farm we are extremely busy. Everything just grows at such a pace. The crops which have been biding their time, waiting for daylight and warmth, are now full of energy and growing at some pace…overnight some plants seem to just double in size. We have removed lots of crops which are now finished, e.g. the golden and red frills, indoor spinach and rocket. The chard we have had over the winter and early spring is now ready to come out of its bed, but never fear as we have more chard. Chard is extremely popular and very versatile as a vegetable. You, our lovely customers, have been eating one crop of chard, but we have sown and planted out the next chard which is ready for harvesting. We are chuffed that we seem to have mastered growing a vegetable and having the same vegetable ready for harvest when the first crop has come to the end of its life. Well done us. We just need to master the process for even more vegetables.

The chard could have gone on and on for much longer as it is a ‘cut-and-come-again’ crop. However, we need as many beds as possible available to allow us to plant out the delicious summer crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, aubergines, french beans and more salad leaves. We have started planting out the tomatoes and the peppers and more beans are in the tunnels now. The other summer crops for the tunnels will be planted out next week. It is great having fresh new crops as the seasons change, we all find it exciting having a change of crop. We are also managing to remember details from last year's planting and using it, hopefully, to our advantage. For instance, planting distances have been changed or the beds themselves may not be used for certain crops as they are not ideal.

Over the winter, if you remember, we fitted guttering and water butts to the ends of the polytunnels. These are to catch rain water and we can use the water to feed crops inside the tunnels or if it is tooooo much water, like last weekend, we can open the tap and allow the water to drain away. After the rain last week we can confirm that the system we have works. This means that the tunnels do not become water logged which may impact on that particular vegetable.

But maybe we will not have excessive rain fall over the coming weeks but wall to wall sunshine. Fingers crossed for that.

Thank you for your continued support (and sometimes patience),

Till next week, have a good one,

 Ann👩‍🌾