Tag: fruit cage

Children, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Sustainability, Working the land

Smallholding Sunday

Ellie

A little update on the holding! a little of what we have gotten up to this summer!

We have…. Giant courgettes, hoof trimming the sheep, honey harvesting, plum picking, a grape harvest, some beans and a new little chap hanging about more and more!

A Sunday dinner completely made and grown and raised by us, bottled rhubarb gin, the starts of a Holly run, an onion harvest and LOTS of berries.

All sorts of lovely stuff growing in the veg garden and Polytunnel!

We have baled, both big bales and hand baled small bales, we dropped the fleeces at the wool mill, made fire bricks from sawdust and paper…

And all this, as well as having summer adventures with the boys, dyeing yarn, forest school and so much more!!

Such a fab summer!!

Food and drink, Fruit and vegetables, recipes

Scrumptious Saturdays – Pear Clafoutis

Ellie

A while ago a dear friend sent me a recipe for pear clafoutis and I thought I’d share it with you!

We have made this a fair few times and substituted different fruits in at different times of year or supplemented dwindling pear supplies with blackberries or apples etc etc!!

It’s quite simply delightful!!!

Fruit and vegetables, Garden, journal, News, The tin hut, Working the land, yarn

So plans for Tyddynbryn!!

Ellie

Social distancing smallholding style!! We have an absolute load of work to get on with here on the smallholding and with the nice dry weather that has started we have made a start!!

Moving the chickens and ducks to new turf. Wood chipping paths and flower beds and around new raised beds!

Having cleared the Polytunnel a while back, we have started some seeds in there and in the house. Today we have started in the veg garden, turning the beds from an absolute weed ridden state into something we can actually plant into!! So we have seeds ready for starting in successional sowings there!!

We have started a few projects for the boys for play, including a bean teepee…

These times are going to be difficult, but I am certain, no determined that we will come through it and be more organised, sorted, prepared and ready to face the new world head on. We are using this as an opportunity to finish projects started, start new projects, action plans we’ve had on the back burner for an age it seems.

So as for plans….

  • Weeding (there is always weeding)
  • Growing veg and fruit
  • Dyeing all the yarn
  • Clearing and sorting first the house, then the barns (I’ve started this as a wet day job and am part way through upstairs…. slow work with two small helpers though)
  • Finishing the new cottage
  • Building a tree house (if W gets his way it will be two storeys!!)
  • Making a garden or lots more garden areas
  • Gates, trying desperately to keep the errant hound in and the free range children!!
  • Processing the giant log pile into useable stacked logs ready for next winter

And there is likely to be more but I’ll add them to the lists as I go along!!

Food and drink, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Livestock, News, Plans, Podcast, Wanderings, Wildlife, Woodland, Working the land

A few little videos

Ellie

I’ve added a few new videos to the YouTube Channel!!!

Some tours of the animals and I’m planning a weekly ish….. vlog about the happenings on the smallholding!!

Here is Episode one!!

Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Livestock, Working the land

A few updates!!

Ellie

Things are starting to grow in the Polytunnel and the fruit cage has a heap of green strawberries!!

James has built the majority of the first long raised beds!! Just awaiting delivery of the blocks for the rest of this bed and the second now!! But we could wait and started to plant!!! Beans this end…. ran out of canes but had a heap of branches!!! So for now we use those!!! Broccoli, cauliflower (any suggestions for deterring cabbage whites gratefully received!!) celeriac, some pumpkins and courgette so far!!!

The hay meadows are looking glorious following the spell of hot weather we have had!

The hedgerows are growing amazingly now!! Fingers crossed that they’ll now be a bit more Wanda proof!!! But I’ll still check on her each day to make sure!!!

We have had some seeds sent from the seed share project from @croydongardener on Instagram!! Some really unusual squashes etc all heirlooms too!! Can’t wait to get those planted!!

Last week was half term so my sister and the children came to visit. They enjoyed meeting the tenants in the field currently!! Such beautiful little foals and their gorgeous mamas!!

They had fun building some of their own toys for bits from the barn and building dens!!

My niece turned ten also so I made a cake and she helped me ice it!!! Mmmmm chocolate orange cake!!! Yum!!!

I cant remember whether I included the bee hive in the last update or not but James has built a bee hive and we are now awaiting our first bees once he has it sited!! So exciting!!! We shall have our own honey next year!!!’

Lots of things happen here each week it seems…. time flies and it won’t be long before we will be looking to get our hay cut and baled up!!

Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Plans, Working the land

All around the holding….

Ellie

So….. deep breath and here goes…..

Back at the end of April…. the Polytunnel finally had its skin put on!!

We almost immediately started planting and moving some of the seed across that we had started in the house off into the tunnel….

Spring finally arrived after the seemingly relentless winter!!

The small boy found more vehicles to sit on and press all the buttons….

The fruit cage planting was finished and now it’s just a case of weeding, watering, mowing and mulching at regular intervals…

The chicks, born on the first of March, got new digs and moved in!!

With the advent of spring the endless grass and weed management begins!! We are fortunate in that we have been gifted a field and brush mower in previous years and that mower chimps through long grass, brambles, weeds etc like they are butter!! And then to get the lawn effect in certain areas I am using the little old electric mower from the old town house!! (I am going to start saving for a normal Petrol lawnmower just so I don’t have to run an extension lead out each time!

Look at the little faces!!! Grandad bought the boys a new toy!!! Look!!!! It’s a fabulous tractor!!!!

There is a plethora of blossom in our orchard!! So we are hoping for plenty of apples this year!!!

The one and only flower bed needs a darn good weeding and I need to start making more flower beds and tackling the weeds on the banks cutting them right back and digging out where I can so I can start designing and planting garden areas!! I harbour a small dream that one day our garden will become one of the yellow book gardens that open for the national gardens scheme!!

I have planted some more willow whips and have more rooting!! I am making a willow tunnel, a willow teepee and I plan to maybe try a few more willow structures around the place! I am using a combination of osier willow and basketry willow so eventually as well as winter colour the structures and other willows will become another saleable crop in both cut willow and baskets or willow creations!!

Can you spot them?! Clue- they are yellow basketry ones here!!

The Polytunnel has started to green up slowly!! We have a multitude of different vegetables starting to grow!!!

And James has been out practising using a topper attached to his tractor to cut the grass!! We have now also been out to see a topper for sale nearby and James’ offer was accepted… we have trailer to borrow and now are awaiting a collection date!!! Exciting!!!

Finally James has had opportunity to start the raised bed walls!! So we will have even more growing space for our vegetables!! (Lucky as we have loads in seed trays starting to need to be planted out!! And we have more seeds to sow for more autumnal and winter crops!!)

Phew!! Lots of work!! Lots of plans and always loads more to do!!!

Food and drink, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Working the land

Planting planting and more planting

Ellie

So now the Polytunnel has been skinned we have been able to get in and plant!!

So far now we have planted mangetout, beans, beetroot, carrots, spinach, leeks, rocket, spring onions and salads….

Then James has moved our two new grapevines into the corners, one red one white…

He has also moved all the baby tomato plants, chilli plants and cucumbers in….

and plans to plant the courgette babies etc out there this afternoon!

He and William have been earthing up the potatoes like fury!!

I have plans to weed the onion and shallot bed and the fruit cage this week in between trips out with William to our usual activities!!

Some of the seeds we planted the other week have started to come up so we shall soon need to plant out small broccoli and cauliflower plants etc!! James needs to build the walls for the raised beds soon!!! Well for at least one of them!!

This year we should be able to produce the majority of our fresh food!! James has even won a competition and we have a mushroom kit arriving soon!!!!

William, our toddler, has been super useful with his new wheelbarrow and has been collecting all the rocks from around the Polytunnel!! Hurrah!!

Building work, Firewood, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Woodland, Woodwork, Working the land

Busy weeks!!

Ellie

So the past two weeks have been filled with visitors and LOTS of outside work….. not much time for crafting except in between visitors and knitting of an evening!!

We started with a few days with my sister and niece and nephew!!

Someone was very pleased with his visitors!! And we had wall building round the Polytunnel!!

Playdoh….. painting…… forest school trip!

Bird box building and painting….

Phew very busy!!

Then last week my parents came for a few days!

It turned colder…. but we have meshed the fruit cage….. planted and frost fleeced a few plants that had been delivered…. blueberries in pots in some good Ericaceous compost as our soil isn’t right for them but we need them as young sir would eat his body weight in blueberries!! Well fruit in general!!

Then we had lots more Polytunnel progress…. just a shame on the final day the wind picked up so we couldn’t get the plastic on….

We had a wood delivery too…. didn’t get as much in last year as this year has required!! It’s all a learning process and bear in mind this time last year we were only able to collect wood every other weekend!!!

Any way all this done plus toddler wrangling…. plus catering…. keeping the home fires burning…. and growing a baby….. phew

We have had a quieter weekend this weekend sans visitors!

Finishing some jobs in the fruit cage….

Using sawdust to make paths…. cable tying the mesh further and pegging it down….

Then today….

Chipping the brash piles we’ve had lying about from hedgerow sorting!! Finally seem to be making some progress in rejuvenating some of the hedgerows and hope we will be able to lay some of them in a couple of years to thicken them up and really sort them!

Building work, Fruit and vegetables, Plans, Working the land

Work around the Holding

Ellie

So since we are here now every day…..

We have started doing some bits around the place other than he workshop and the house!

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Planting some bulbs for some spring colour about the place….. Crocuses, tulips and Daffodils….011012

Mowing the grass …. so we can get at the bed we planted and weed the heck out of it….once this latest bout of storm and rain is finished….013

Oh my poor rockery and bog garden…… this soooo needs attention…..014015016017

But there are now 50 crocus bulbs in the front garden hopefully settling in and getting ready to pop up come spring….018

James has built some composters in the far end of the slurry pit as was…..019

Our bales stacked up in the yard…. plus the mess of the far end of the slurry pit as a before photo…020

I mowed all the grass and weeds…..021022023

Sir played on the gator again!! (we are so going to have to hide those keys!!)024025

James de-baler twined the roto-tiller…..026

We carted some muck from the barn and planted a box and forsythia hedge from some cuttings we took and rooted before we left the old house…..027028029030

and finally I am not sure you can see the rocks but we have marked out for a fruit cage…. which we ordered at the start of the week and it arrived VERY quickly from First Tunnels.

Now to mulch the area marked, build the fruit cage, anchor it FIRMLY in place, order and plant the fruit!!!!

I have plans for gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries etc etc!!! the rhubarb will find itself in a shady spot in the muck the other side of the wall!!

Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Working the land

So….

Ellie

A poorly baby limited our plans last weekend….. *sigh* the poor little man…. So I’ve missed one o my best friends Hen dos…. And there has been no podcasting time for me…. No sewing time….. And realistically not much knitting time….. I’m only up to almost the heel on my second Heath sock….. 

However, at the farm our little man that can has been back!!! 

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And we now have drainage in the pit of doom!!! So it’s going to be able to be planted up with vegetables and fruit canes and bushes etc!!!! 

Hurrah and pass the seed catalogues!!!