Greetings from our smallholding in West Wales where Jane and I have been trying to grow as much of our own organic food as possible with varying degrees of success. We are fortunate to have a large veg patch with 26 raised beds, fruit trees, bees, chickens, ducks and periodically pigs.
I am sitting on our patch outside the bee office overlooking the Teifi estuary on a ridiculously warm and dry day. Years ago I would have loved a warm dry spell, now however the pleasure is tempered by the very real fear that it is all part of climate breakdown. I have never known such a dry May. The upside is that my nemesis as an organic grower, slugs, are in hiding and not eating my seedlings. The downside is the time-consuming watering each and every day.
Veg patch:
Usual trials and tribulations. Annual battle with mice eating my peas. They neatly eat them each night. I have tried swilling them in paraffin, which helps, but it has taken me three sowings to end up with a half-decent crop. Caterpillars have been devasting our gooseberry plants. Oh the joy of picking them off manually for an hour or so! We have just tried spraying with eco soap and water and will keep you posted on effectiveness.
On the plus side veg all growing well. We are already picking rhubarb, chard, garlic, lettuce, cucumbers, rocket and broadbeans for the kitchen. Ducks and hens are all laying well. New cockerel behaving himself with only one confirmed attack on a stick wielding walker. It was only a feint and no harm done to either party. Bees looking healthy, numerous and active. No doubt this is because I follow old country lore that you should speak to them every day and tell them all the family news. Seems to be working.
Spent yesterday making comfrey liquid feed. Very high nitrogen and phosphate content and ideal for perking up any veg plant looking sorry for itself. If you haven’t done it yet it’s very simple. Fill a barrel (with a tap on the bottom) to the brim with comfrey leaves. On a good year you can harvest comfrey two or three times a season. If you don’t have the bulk you can add nettles. Fill the barrel with water put lid on and leave for a month or so. Careful when you open the barrel, first time I nearly fainted from the indescribable smell, and several of our neighbours in our Cardiff terrace refused to speak to me ever again and put their houses up for sale.
On the wild side:
Exciting week. Great sight of several thousand baby toads leaving our pond en masse. Hopefully to live long and healthy lives eating our slugs – one of the main reasons for creating a large pond on patch.
Greeted each morning by an episode from Fight Club. A crow and a squirrel have been having a battle royal in a nearby oak tree. I am not sure whether the squirrel is protecting it’s young from the crow or the crow is protecting its eggs from the squirrel. Do squirrels raid nests for eggs? Let me know. Anyway no serious injuries as far as I can tell and they both turn up for the re-match each morning.
Whilst preparing bed for sprouts unearthed a snake. Not sure who was most freaked out. For a moment I thought it might be an adder. On closer inspection it was a grass snake. Beautiful markings and about two and a half feet long. Course nature being a bit complicated and full of ethical dilemmas, grass snakes eat baby toads, but they are such lovely creatures and my slug-eating toads will just have to take their chances.
Tip of the week:
As often happens my sweetcorn stops growing at about a foot high and leaves start yellowing. Tip I picked up from Lawrence Hills (early organic pioneer and his book Organic Gardening remains my favourite) is to put a teaspoon of dried blood around each plant and water in. I thought “really? dried blood?” In a couple of days the difference is amazing.
Please feel free to give advice, ask questions etc using the contact form here. This is blog 1 in what I hope will be a regular series. After 45 years of growing there remains a huge amount I don’t know and new ideas are welcome.