In previous years, last Friday would have seen me out on the veg patch planting our chitted seed potatoes.
The ‘Good Friday Potatoes’. I read it in a book way back and the idea stuck.
Apparently, Easter potato planting is a very English thing. The Irish prefer to use St Patricks day. Continue reading
Although it feels like we are well into spring now, it was only this time last month that our local swales were heralding spring’s arrival with the first sighting of frog’s spawn.
Apparently the clumps of spawn (eggs) can be laid in ponds anytime from January onwards in the south-west England, but we’ve never seen it that early here at The Secret Acre. Continue reading
Even as Emma was planting the first of our new seeds in the greenhouse last month, I was still cracking on with some of the winter clearance jobs which we were, as usual, still behind on.
Not just the last of the pruning, and the fencing repairs, but some more taming of the overgrown boundaries too. Continue reading
Pretty much all the stock fencing since we moved to The Secret Acre is in need of repair. We just about got away with putting off replacing the worst section in the paddock last winter.
This March we could put off taking action no longer. Continue reading
As Spring arrives, with the annual slight panic that we still haven’t completed all the planned Winter jobs, our lateness with the orchard pruning once again embarrasses us into action.
But at least this year I have a secret weapon! Continue reading
Thoughts may be turning to Spring and the new growing season ahead, but the Winter veg bed is still providing the last of its produce.
Including this year, Salsify, a Victorian staple now out of fashion. This vegetable even featured in the Victorian classic Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management! Continue reading
The New Year barely seems to have got underway, before the occasionally feel of a Spring like day arrives, and the veg growers cycle begins again.
For us at The Secret Acre that usually means the chitting potatoes gets underway, the rotated veg bed plan is drawn up and the new seed order arrives. Continue reading
