Friday 30 June 2017

Rain, rain and more rain - but that's ok!

I think most of the UK has had rain this week.  The ground here desperately needed it.  It's rained non stop for a good few days so all of the water butts are full.  Some of the barn guttering is blocked from downpours and things are looking a bit depressed (my chamomile is squished for example) but once the sun comes it'll right itself.  However some of the animals are loving it:

Some not so much


 The 4 Vorwerk girls and 2 boys sought shelter in the barn, you only ever see them in here at feeding time but looks like they all fancied a trip to the hairdressers together.


After complaining about the pigs not turning the field over as much as we'd hoped - look at it now after the rain!  I'm really pleased.  These 2 will be going within the next month and they will have done a great job by then.  Once they go we will get in there and take out the roots they've uprooted but not eaten, maybe rake or tiller it depending how it is and then leave it until March when it'll be planted up with potatoes then squash later in the year.  We're also growing 2018 pigs fodder in here.




The sunflowers are now heading for 5 or 6 foot and some are really strange looking!  Pretty colours all the same.



Look at the sweetcorn!  This has flew up with the recent downpours!
 

This morning I was outside at 5:30 sowing seeds.  Crazy you might say but there's method in my madness.  Firstly, my back was giving me jip and I needed to walk it off, secondly on a weekend I always seem to get distracted by other jobs like weeding and thirdly I find I get a lot more achieved when I get out of bed and get on with it straight away.  Of course I had to go to work so the only way to get everything done is get up early and crack on!  The seeds I got in were spring onion, pak choi, leeks (second cropping, winter giant 3), perpetual spinach, cauliflower autumn giant, cabbage verbote 3 (which was organic and I'd not realised).

The rain always makes the veg plot look so green so I quickly snapped a couple of shots for you to see from this morning.

Beans intercropped with spinach in this closest shot


Lavender and spuds in this view, plus the obligatory steel bin to burn stuff in!


 Chamomile is what you can see, all squashed in the middle of this pic.

Brassicas with Jerusalem artichokes below.  I wasn't sure if these would be ok together but I am moving the artichokes to a metal bin (with holes in) one this round is done.


That's my round up done, enjoy the weekend.


8 comments:

  1. A lovely early morning visit to your patch, chic. Fab. Pretty sunflowers; mine are not doing too well really but I live in hope when we get some more sun. I love it when they rain as made everything look lush!My sweet corn is coming on but I haven't had a peek inside yet so must do that.x

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  2. I was shocked when I looked at the sweetcorn as only last week I was thinking it didn't do too well! Yes, it was a good start to the day :)

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  3. Lovely looking veg you have! I kind of wish it would stop raining for a bit now...all the rain has encouraged lots of weeds to spring to life...and me being the murderous old witch that I am must venture forth and dispatch them before they turn into triffids! x

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    1. How come the weeds always seem to grow faster than the veg? Simply not fair!

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  4. My sweetcorn already has the male glower and cobs forming it like land of the giants! We didn't get that much rain so I'm disappointed at least it's given me a few nights off watering. You have a lovely selection of fruit and veg.

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    1. Thank you :-) and it's amazing how quickly a bit of rain and sun can bring things on isn't it

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  5. It will be good to see how your growing of animal fodder goes, mine is just a small trial area this year but we are preparing it well for next year

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    1. I hope it goes well, they are getting the left overs this year from the garden and hopefully we can grow what they need next year!

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