Chestnut Fencing

I wrote this post before the lock down and went to get the posts before it as well! 

I've been planning on doing some fencing for a while now.

The area I want to tackle is around the polytunnel. I've been warned that rabbits do like to get through the plastic and so it's best to fence around it.

Polytunnel Layout

With the poly tunnel covered it's got me thinking about the layout inside it. 

How would you layout a polytunnel? I normally garden in 30" beds but want this space to be as productive as possible.

Don't "Panic" Plant

Seed companies have been selling out of seed or having huge orders that they can't cope.

Seeds from America!

I've seen lots of Tweets on Twitter and other sources of people growing gardens while they're in quarantine or lock down. Something I actively encourage as there might be predicted shortage of certain veg later int he year in the UK due to labour shortages as mentioned in my last post.

Now Is The Time To Garden

Weird, weird times at the moment and it doesn't look set to get any better any time soon.

I hope everyone is looking after themselves and doing as much social distancing as possible and staying home when they can. Unfortunately my wife can't as she is a teacher looking after key workers children, but the children and I are holding up at home and ramping up vegetable production. 

I think in the coming months the shops will see a shortage in green leafy crops and some veg. With the recent floods, predicted labour shortages and now the Corona virus it's going to have a huge impact, both here and abroad. My dad has a few friends that farm veg that weren't even going to bother this year as we would have no one to pick them due to brexit, so this will compound that. And I can't see Spain and others wanting to ship much here if they have their own shortages due it the lockdown, although money talks so who knows. 

So now is an important time as gardeners to step up to the plate and grow what we can. It's also never been a more important time to be a seed saver. Online seed sellers have been selling out, our little pots of home saved seed are like gold dust! Maintaining what diversity we can in a wide range of crops has never been more important.

Doing this also will give the children and me some real purpose and make us feel mildly useful. 

As I'm looking after the kids at home they are going to become my own little "land army" and will receive a mainly "outdoor education" as much as possible. I know that hopefully there wont be major food shortages, farmers are key workers, and the supermarkets being empty are due to panic buying nothing else, but I do think it's a good time to be a veg grow, for our bellies and our mental state of being and just encase! 

Remember it's still early so don't sow too much just yet!

Look after each other, keep in contact and grow!

Sending love,

Kev and family 

XXX

Isolation Cage?

This is nothing to do with the current problems facing the world. But all to do with seed saving. 

I have ten of these lovely looking board beans that I want to grow this year called Gloster Bounty. Trouble is it's not enough to eat a good meal of (when grown) and I know it likes to cross.

Ideally i'd like to build my stock of this seed up and grow it properly next year. So to do that I'm thinking about building them an isolation cage over the top. I'm not sure how well they'll pollinate then though, will I have to do it by hand or introduce pollinators like flies from fishing maggots? I'll need to do some research before that time comes! I love the idea of building my seed numbers like this! Hopefully I'll get enough to grow out a full bed next year!

Anyone else grown plants in an isolation cage and had to introduce pollinators?