Water shortage?

Up to the farm this morning to check the plot and the plants in the polytunnel and to pot up some lettuce seedlings.. We came up Wednesday night to water the potatoes and to have a picnic-a beautiful evening.

A decent glass of white.

The water situation in the north-west of England is getting a bit desperate at the moment, with warnings of imminent hosepipe bans. The stream where we usually get water on the farm has all but dried up.

John.

Everything is growing really well; potatoes are looking good, the cabbages, leeks and onions are coming up and the beans, carrots and sweet potaoes in the polytunnel are looking good.

The beans.

Sweet potatoes

Also planted out a rhubarb plant at the top of the plot.

And here's today's duck picture.

Mike x

Weeding and more planting out

Time to look after the potatoes today-they were beginning to disappear beneath  a lush carpet of weeds. I started to rake them, but ended up pulling most of them out by hand ( the weeds that is). Bought some organic fertiliser on the way up to the farm and gave the plants a good feed when I'd finished.

Meanwhile, Jo was putting the sweet potatoes in some bigger pots, watering the rhubarb, and sowing some swedes up at the top of our plot. We then rolled out the mesh a bit more and cut a couple of wire supports and pegs to cover over the seeds.

Ady brought over one of his giant lettuces for us to take home; have you ever seen anything like it!

We might go up on Wednesday night to check how everything's growing-hopefully England will have won and I'll be in a positive mood!  Anyway, here's a picture of the ducks to finish off today-I like the ducks and their eggs make fantastic omelettes.

Mike x

Planting out...

Up to the allotment on Saturday morning-fine day and a good chance to plant out some of the crop we had been growing in the polytunnel. Because of the mix of fine weather and rain we have had recently, our plot is covered in a carpet of weeds; before we could plant anything out, we needed to get rid of them. John suggested I jump on the back of the tractor and rotivate the plot again, but I fancied a bit of good honest toil, so while Jo potted up some sweet potato slips (see, I'm learning the lingo) we'd bought on the Net, I set to work with a hoe and rake. 

We borrowed John's handy planting board-three notches either side, staggered, so you can measure the distance between plants and rows.

Once everything was planted out, I built a plastic mesh cover and stood back to admire our work.. Not counting the two rows of potatoes, we have barely covered an eighth of the plot. So a lot of work to do.

We also planted a blackberry bush next to the apple tree at the top of the plot and some rhubarb. The beans in the polytunnel should be ready to plant out next week.

The ducks enjoying themselves

We have now started some seeds at home as well-lettuce in the bathroom, sweet peppers and radishes in the window box. There is also some wild chocolate mint from the farm growing there-smells amazing.

The forecast is good for the week ahead, so hopefully when we go back up next weekend our crops will be established and growing well.

Mike 

Things are growing!

After our break in Bordeaux, we went up to the farm yesterday to see if there were any signs of life in the polytunnel or on the plot. Much to our surprise and delight, some of the seeds we had had germinated and started sprouting: we have onion, bean and carrot plants! Not only that, but most of the potatoes had sprouted too.

We picked up the green netting we had ordered from one of our fellow landsharers so we need to come back in the week to cover them up and maybe to plant the onions out as well.  The second polytunnel is now covered and up and running, which means people wil be able to spread their planting out a bit.

World cup fever also seems to have hit Hilltop, albeit in a low-key way...

Finally, we stopped to pick up our allocation of free-range eggs from Val - some interesting colours going on!

All the best,

Mike G.

First steps...

Well in the few weeks since we joined the Landshare scheme at Hilltop Farm, things have moved on quite quickly, despite neither my wife Jo or I knowing the first thing about growing anything really, but there a plenty of people around to give us help and good advice whenever we need it.

First thing to do was to get the plot ready for planting; luckily John has a mechanical rotivator which did away with the need for any heavy spade-work!  After that, he hitched a potato planting machine (don't know the techical term!), I jumped on and fed the seed potatoes down the tubes as John drove. The instructions were to drop them every twelve inches; I don't think he was too impressed with my technique, but we shall see what happens...

We also planted some seeds in the polytunnel: beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower and some herbs.

Recently we had a barbecue; this video was taken just after the chicken ate my hamburger...

We also lent a hand as the new fencing went up to keep out the rabbits and chickens.

We're off to France for a few days at half-term, so I'll write another post then; fingers crossed that something will have grown..

All the best,

Mike G.