It may be the Chinese year of the Rat, but 2020 kicked off at The Secret Acre with a distinctly horse’y theme.

Before Christmas, fellow smallholder and gardening author, Kim Stoddart, reminded me that we could take a first light harvest of horseradish, just over a year on since we first planted it.

And as well as the obligatory horseradish sauce, Emma was inspired from a visit to Dalesford Organic Farm to try her hand at horseradish vodka, which fuelled a high octane Bloody Mary hangover cure on New Year’s Day.

Possibly as a result of the vodka, we also agreed to finally put our paddock to use this year, to provide a retirement home for a neighbour’s very elderly Welsh Pony called Ted Bear.

After many years of giving pleasure to small children, and due to overcrowding at the stables, Ted Bear finds himself in need of a quite retirement spot from March. So we are currently busy moving various garden machinery out of one of the stables, and putting up some electric fencing etc. ahead of his arrival. So watch this space.

In return of course we are looking forward to less mowing this summer, plus a good supply of manure to turbo charge the compost heap!