January Walk About The Homestead

 Things haven't exactly gone to plan since I last blogged about what I was doing in the garden. 

Probably best to watch the video to see what's been going on, but long story short everything has been eaten! I need to really up my game on crop protection. 

How is your garden looking in the middle of winter?

May Garden And Orchard Tour

So a little wonder around the garden. It's the usual mixed bag, some things are looking good and others aren't!  

Slugs and rabbits have been my biggest enemies this year, although trying to get more infrastructure up and running has slowed me down as well! 

So I filmed a little walk around video, going through the beds. I hope to get some more in fairly soon and get everything planted out that I've got as seedlings, May always seems so busy, fairly sure I could do just the garden and smallholding and still not have enough time! 

Give the video a watch and let me know what you think. How far on are your crops in comparison?

Happy New Year! (And December Walk About Video)

 We had a lovely start to the New Year with a nice easy evening with some friends in the village, the children playing and watching a few films while we saw the New year in. Today has been a very lazy one, but things will have to pick up a gear next week as everyone goes back to school (and I go back to workshop work). 

I did manage to film a quick walk around the garden last night before we went out. I think it's interesting to see the garden after our cold snap, it's affected some veg pretty badly, and making me realise that I was probably far to complacent with mild winters of the past. Oh well, a good learning experience! 

Hope 2023 brings you all you need. We have one big change coming as our eldest will be moving up to secondary school this year so I'm sure that will bring many parenting adventures!

Thanks again for reading my blog, it's the encouragement I need to write it all down and I love looking back at old posts, it's a diary of sorts and has created many opportunities for me, but would be nothing without support and comments. Thank you! 

November Garden Walk About

I'm going to try and do a "walk about" video once a month. I enjoy looking back at the ones I did in 2017 and think it would be a nice record of what we grow each year. 

Obviously it's November (well December now), so not the most exciting garden month, but still a bit going on.

As soon as the Christmas rush is over I can concentrate on some other jobs, like laying some hedging, pruning the apple trees, coppicing the hybrid willow, getting other veg beds ready to plant up. I also have a tree to rip out and replace. 

 But I like how even when you don't think you've done much there is still progress. the polytunnel is going to look really good come early spring I think! 

How much is everyone else managing to do in their garden this time of year?

May Garden Tour 2020

The garden is benefiting with the extra time I've spent in it lately.

There's so much going on so I decided to do a quick (ish) walk around the garden to show you what I've got growing this year.

Lots of crops for seed saving hidden everywhere as well. I'm hopeful this should be my best year for saving seeds and crops for drying! 

November Walk Around

Another vlog and walk round my place on a cold November morning!

Let me know what you think! 

Harvesting Soup Peas & Lots More

The garden is constantly producing lots of produce now, I've just set to harvesting my big batch of soup peas and trying to make sure I keep on top of everything else. 

Here's another video showing what's happening in the garden. 

Vlog Episode 6 - Walk Round

The next Vlog is on YouTube now!

Join me on a walk round the sheep and a look at my very productive veg gardens! Everything is growing like crazy and we're harvesting so much at the moment! 

Let me know what you think! 

May Garden Tour

Busy time in the garden at the moment.

Lots growing and lots to eat. 

Comfrey As A Weed Barrier

I've posted before about dividing up comfrey and using root cuttings to make new plants and the other night I decided to make another huge number of plants with one purpose in mind. 

Plastic down to suppress weeds. 

The idea is to grow a 4ft strip of comfrey (boking 14) down the side of my garden to create a "weed barrier". The idea being that if these plants are established it'll leave far less room for other plants to take hold (like the nettles that are there now), I'll also under sow the plants with clover as a ground cover. 

,

98 root cuttings to make some more plants.

I'm not sure how well this idea will work but it seems like a good idea on the surface. It should stop the buttercups creeping their way back in and with the plastic cover this summer it should get rid of the nettles. 

On top of this I'll be growing a hugely beneficial plant right next to where I need it, I can use it as a mulch, a plant food or to go in the bottom of trenches to grow beans on top of. 

I wanted more comfrey plants and this seems like a good area to plant them.

What do you think? 

Will it work as a weed barrier?

Vlog - Episode 1 - Garden Tour

Right so I thought I'd do another video and start doing a bit of a vlog (video log) as well as the blog. 

Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the next episode.

Do you like the intro?

A Quick Tour Of The Garden

Another shaky video tour around my garden on the 1st of May.

Not huge amounts going on but things will really speed up this month as the weather warms up. I've also got loads growing on the windowsills inside but they're almost worthy of another post by themselves!

How's your garden looking at the moment?

Tour Of Mum's Garden

This is a very picture heavy post! 

Mum has finally opened her garden to some local gardening clubs and the NGS next year. She has worked on the same garden for over thirty years, although it has taken many forms in that time. 

When my brother, sister and I were young she used to grow much more vegetables and we had a big lawn to play on with swings and even the climbing frame that our primary school chucked out as they deemed it unsafe! 

Now the garden is divided up into different areas, with two ponds, a stream, BBQ area, raised beds, parterre, even an area for the grandchildren with a sandpit and a veg bed for them to grow things in. 

BBQ area added last year, we built the patio years ago using the old slabs that used to be the floors inside the house

The fencing I put up earlier this year - looks really lovely with things growing up it now.

The pond was added about 15 years ago

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veggies in the raised beds

Children's area

Parterre

The Brick garden shed that took a few years to build and finish - finished it last year but started it about 3 years ago! 

The stream - mum added this some years ago and everyone who sees it thinks it's natural!

Second pond at the bottom of the stream

Stream with the oak bridge that my brother made for her

Greenhosue and lawn

The walled garden area was built to separate the farm yard from the garden

Thirty years of hard work and constant design and development have created a beautiful space, she spends every spare minute in there and it's not difficult to see where my passion for growing has come from! I like the fact that each year she adds something new whilst maintaining everything else, 

Let me know what you think.

Kitchen Garden Tour - July

Another video tour of the kitchen garden and Long Furrows. 

This one is a little shaky I'm afraid and there is more weeds than I'd care to admit! Lots of produce growing at the moment, I was almost too ashamed to show everyone my second garden but the grass isn't too bad to pull up! 

Let me know what you think.

Veg Gardens And Water

On a sunny June morning the veg gardens are looking pretty good. I thought I'd post a picture here before the weeds take hold and it all goes to pot.

Kitchen garden- a little weedy but only two plots left to plant up

Things are coming along nicely, hopefully we'll harvest some early potatoes in a week or so.

Long furrows is getting full now. unfortunately the grass is coming back through so I need to mulch or cover to stop it. 

I seem to have planted a ridiculous amount of food this year, but with both girls eating a lot more I've no doubt we'll get through it. I now need to be better at planing my harvests and working out how long things are going to be in the ground for. 

I want to start selling more veg but until I become more organised it seems that just a pipe dream, I also think that irrigation might be key for ensuring crops take as long as they should (no shortage of water if I save it through the winter) rather than being sat for weeks without growing because they've had no water. Currently I tend not to water anything once it's established (called the Spanish system) and this works fine when just feeding us but if I want to start selling a little extra I could do with things moving a little faster. My idea with not watering is the roots go deeper and they can then survive with no help from me, it's worked every year I've gardened so far but tempted to try a change in system.

Does everyone else irrigate or water each night or every few days? If I had to water both of these gardens by hand it would take hours!

Kitchen Garden Tour - May

I had intentions to do these videos once a month but it hasn't happened. I'll try to do them over the summer months to give myself a record of what's growing. 

Hopefully the video gives you a good feel for what's going on in my kitchen garden, next time I'll include Long Furrows as well.

Sorry if it's still shaky - it must just be how I am! 

Let me know what you think.

Veg & Fruit Garden Tour - Video

I thought I'd do a little walking tour of my garden so you'll have to excuse my goofy voice and silly hat! 

there's much I've missed off this video but it gives a good feel for the garden. When I say "next year" I mean this year but next growing season, otherwise I just sound stupid! If people like the video I could do more - let me know what you think!