A BIG THANKYOU

I must start tonights blog with a VERY big THANKYOU to Karon at Dream Acres for the wonderful gift i received. This delightful scented Key Ring will take pride of place at home. Karons goodies are all hand made originals from her home in Scotland, and her Dream Country Chat blog is addictive.

Green Fingers

I have been delveing into my family history, on and off, for a while now and having searched the photos i believe this to be my Great Grandma Emily. Having seen the size of this sunflower I am desperately hoping that her green fingers have passed to me. I adore gardening and have visited many gardens, but never have i seen such an emormous specimen. A positive Triffid! It looks like she had an amazing garden and possibly some hens so we have that in common too.

My Silver Grey Dorking who has gone broody is now sitting tightly on a clutch of Bantam Wyandotte eggs. The cockeral is a Buff and his girlfriends are Buff, Pencilled, and Silver Laced (otherwise known as Buffy, HB, and Coco), so im hoping for a selection of chicks. Its her first time going broody so fingers crossed that she is a good mum.

natures bounty

Its hard to imagine a more spectacular time in the countryside when you see woodland filled with Bluebells. Even the hedgerow surrounding the Kitchen Garden is filled with their nodding blue heads. And the fragrance ! ! it just cannot be surpassed. OK, so seedlings of other native plants drift into the garden, so what ! One mans weeds are another mans compost. And if they didnt germinate it would not say much for the quality of our soil.

Talking of soil, we have ousted the Globe Artichokes from their raised bed and moved them elsewhere, and are now re-jeuvenating the soil. Mr Mole kindly decided to dig most of it our last year and the bed has become very low so we are taking the opportunity to incorporate well rotted manure and leafmold by the barrowfull. This will be home to some unusual squashes this year. More about them later.

The large container is our Cider and the Demijon belongs to a friend who is trying home cider making for the first time. We all got together last Autumn and shared in the crushing and pressing of the apples. He then left his Apple juice with us to ferment.

spring flowers and May showers

Its been some time since my last blog, i guess im better at reading others than writing my own!

So whats happening in the kitchen garden? "Everything " would seem the accurate answer, with seedlings popping up everywhere and the greenhouse bursting at the seams. We started cutting Asparagus on 27th April, just a couple of days after the Swallows arrived. Most of the fruit trees have finished blooming and baby Gooseberries and Redcurrants can be seen in the fruit cage. The vegetable beds look somewhat barran but, as we grow most crops in Cell Trays, this will soon change. Magical instant gardening ! Our Happy hens are still laying well, except for one Silver Grey Dorking who has gone broody. We will be moving her to a little ark and setting a clutch of eggs under her. The first Cuckoo was heard on 24th April so the Cider needs syphoning off into bottles ready for those hot summer nights which (after last year !) we are long overdue for.

Welcome to April

What a great week we are having, this weather has meant we have been able to catch up on a lot of things on our smallholding. Seed sowing has been in ernest. Raised beds are nearly all cultivated ready for planting to begin. Fruit cage has new Raspberries planted, all ties on bushes have been renewed, organic feed has been applied along with compost. And last but not least our happy band of Chickens are laying eggs by the bucket load. Hooray for Spring

Fragile Blooms

The fragility of delicate spring flowers never ceases to amaze me. After a few days of sunshine last week the garden is ablaze with colour, including these little beauties which have emerged from no where. Not planted by us but a very welcome addition to the spring show. But this week has changed things completely, rain, wind, sleet, we have had it all. Yet through it all the blooms manage to survive, they are simply amazing.

Daffodills are a special sping flower for me as i carried a bouquet of them on my wedding day, nearly 22 years ago. How the seasons change, on that day in mid April they were the only flower to be seen in our local park where the photos were taken. But today we have Camelia, Cherry, Forsythia, Pulmonaria, Tulips, Muscari, and even a Rhododendron opening its buds. But its still the daffodills that i am picking for the house.