Welcome back to the trials and tribulations of our smallholding.
Patch:
Weather pretty awful this week. High winds, heavy persistent rain and lower than normal temperatures. On a positive note, I’m hoping that with all the people taking up gardening due to lockdown there will be much more awareness of weather and climate change. When you grow stuff, the weather becomes a much more direct and important part of your life than when you shop in the supermarket.
As I stood on Monday morning amid the wreckage of the green-house glass and damaged plants caused by the 50 mph winds, one young toad turned to me and said sarcastically, and rather cruelly I thought, “and you call yourself a master gardener?”. “No” I shot back with rapier-like, almost Wildean, wit, “Not so much a master gardener, as a Marxist gardener!” Oh how we laughed (the more discerning of you may have rightly deduced that I made that story up for comic effect. In fact, according to the met office, the winds only reached 45).
Despite the weather, most things growing well and we are now enjoying courgettes, tomatoes and fresh peas. Beetroot, onions and shallots ready for harvesting, storing and pickling. It is tempting to leave beetroot longer so they grow bigger. I fell for this once and they were huge but riddled with slug damage. Long ago I read somewhere that for every slug visible on the surface there are ten underground. This was such a mind-numbingly awful fact, that I have never dared to check its veracity.
Pickled 11 jars of beetroot, 12 of surplus cucumbers and Jane made a really good cold cucumber soup (thanks to Joe for the recipe).
Harvesting these crops will give me room to plant out swedes, turnips, spinach and, yes, more leeks! We are now virtually self-sufficient living off the patch. (Incidentally, we recently discovered that John Seymour, the father of self-sufficiency, lived here at Bryngwyn for a short period in the late seventies).
Managed to pick several pounds of redcurrants ahead of the blackbirds. No easy task. One year we made the mistake of going away for a weekend and the blighters stole the lot. Redcurrants are high in pectin and much sought after by jam makers. We swap surpluses, if we’re lucky, with local jam makers Foxhill Farm, for a few jars of their delicious marmalade.
Chickens and ducks continue to lay well. If you don’t already have them I can thoroughly recommend getting a few chickens. They are surprisingly easy to keep. Ours are totally free range during the day, but locked up securely from foxes each night. I still have nightmares from the one night I forgot to lock them away when we lived in Cardiff. A fox devastated the entire flock bar one, and she was never the same again, flatly refusing to go into the hen house for the rest of her life. Totally my fault and not a mistake I am likely to repeat.
A few chickens don’t need much space, a small garden is easily big enough, and don’t be put off by the books with long lists of horrible diseases. In our experience these are rare. This may be because free range, low density rearing seems generally free of the diseases which can sweep through intensely factory- farmed chickens. We’ve never had any health problems with our pigs either, probably for the same reason.
One thing to think about is whether to get a cockerel. Unless you intend to breed you don’t actually need one. Chickens don’t need impregnating to happily lay eggs. There are other advantages though. A cockerel immediately establishes a pecking order so the chickens fight less. He will also fight off predators. Our last cockerel fought at least two foxes – and survived, although his tail feathers never did grow back. Our present cockerel, a very handsome Light Sussex, wanders around the farmyard like a 1970’s nightclub bouncer looking for a ruck. Yesterday, for example, we heard a terrific din in the hen house. The cockerel shouted “rumble” and shot off in the direction of the commotion. No sign of danger by the time we arrived and I swear he shrugged with disappointment.
We have also trained our cockerel to repel Tory canvassers during elections. A task he seems to relish (employing minimum use of force naturally). Totally effective – we didn’t see a single Tory during the last election!
One thing to bear in mind if you are a light sleeper or live with close neighbours - at this time of year he starts crowing at about 4.30 in the morning!
On the Wild Side:
We have just discovered a large wasp nest in one of our stone walls. I find it extremely difficult to like wasps. I know all about the research on the important part they play in pollination and destroying garden predators like caterpillars and aphids, but as bee-keepers we find our general philosophy of trying to work with nature, rather than against it, sorely tested. Last year we watched helplessly as wasps systematically destroyed one of our hives. It was swift and brutal. The guard bees heroically threw themselves on the invaders but to little effect. The hive was decimated in about two days. The other hive must have been healthier and successfully resisted attack. No sign of trouble so far this year, so we will stick to first principles and leave the wasps in peace. A decision I hope we won’t live to regret.
Tip of the week:
Move to somewhere warmer, drier and more sheltered – like Spain.
Only joking. This week’s real tip: try to build in routines. Early each morning I let the chickens out, collect the eggs and then try to make a point of visiting each and every plant on the patch. Sounds a bit obsessive and sad, I know, but it’s surprising how many problems you can nip in the bud (pun intended) if you catch them early enough.
Happy gardening and may your plants grow strong.