Signs of a new season

Hello everyone,

We have sure signs of a new season. Not only do we have germinating seeds appearing, the broad beans can be seen popping up in the above picture, but buds are appearing on the trees and shrubs, flowers are popping on the early flowering cherry trees, daffodil leaves are growing and the waves of snowdrops all create a welcome relief of colour and freshness. I have even seen bunny rabbits!

But, I am not sure if the warmer winter days have been playing havoc with our inner clocks? All a bit peculiar. The change in weather this week made for a welcome cold snap and snow…now it feels like winter. The snow I was pleased with. It makes a pleasant relief from the winds.

The Lovely Lucy parked herself in the greenhouses this last week. Lots of seeds need to be sown from now, when I say ‘lots’, I mean thousands! The pepper and chilli seeds have now all been sown. These seeds need a temperature of at least 18* to germinate, they also can take up to 4 weeks to germinate. We use a propagator to regulate the temperature. Water is also an important element to the healthy growth of any seedlings. Watering sounds simple, you just spray over the top of the growing medium. Not necessarily so. Watering can be from above or below the tray. Sometimes the tray may sit in water or stay fairly dry. Some trays need to be watered daily, others maybe just a couple of times per week. This will all depend on the variety of crop being sown, as to how the watering is carried out.

The most important consideration for germination and the growing of seeds is air circulation. While propagators are used we do open the air vents and very often take the lid off completely. Oxygen is soooo important. The seeds need to breathe in oxygen. Oxygen helps the seed to create more cells within the embryo and you know what happens next…grow baby grow! It’s all a science thing which happens in probably 99% of all our seeds. Once again we can say thank you Mother Nature.

Graham the Great had a comprehensive list of ‘bitty’ jobs. The winds and torrential rain have caused some damage to parts of our little farm. Guttering and watering pipes have all needed to be replaced or corrected, netting and ground sheets needed to be readjusted back into place and a general sort out of broken branches. The rhubarb is starting to show signs of life…yay! Graham has mulched all around each crown. 

One of Graham's nicer jobs was going to a local farm to buy hay bales for the chickens. These bales are for the chickens to play upon and scratch at. The chicken runs are now all really muddy and well used. Muddy from all the downpours. Well used from all the natural scratching by the chickens. The girls have eaten all the grass and herbs we had growing in each run. They do get lots of greens which is the excess from our harvested veg. However they do like to climb, perch and scratch, so we thought we would get them some hay bales to play on. They do seem quite happy.

I would like to thank you for all the support you have shown these past two weeks. It is great to know that in these times we have such lovely customers who want to eat organic produce which is delivered weekly. It is also great to know that so many of you want a surprise box which means that you have your very own ‘invention test’. 

Enjoy and have a great week,

 Ann👩🏻‍🌾