The rotavator man cometh!
Since moving to The Secret Acre, on the principal of cash poor, time rich, Paul has dug over the veg patches each spring, having never quite managed yet to get our ‘no dig’ act together sufficiently.
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Following our unexpectedly early ‘three seasons’ spring equinox BBQ, the UK weather delivered a prolonged heatwave.
Thanks to the growing climate crisis, after last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet spring and summer, causing England’s England second worst harvest on record, spring 2025 could prove to be one of the hottest and driest on record. We are already suffering the most extreme marine heatwave since satellite monitoring began.
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Last week saw the arrival of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The UK enjoyed an unseasonably warm day, including Wales’ warmest spring equinox on record, as the early impacts of the coming climate chaos continue to make themselves felt.
Naturally, here at The Secret Acre, we took the opportunity for a summer BBQ. Our earliest on record, after none at all in last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet.
We ended up enjoying three seasons in one day! A summer BBQ on the warmest spring equinox, having dug up the last of the winter leaks, to char on the BBQ coals, and eat with an excellent romesco sauce.
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Who’s the thief, who’s the thief?
We diligently put the very last of our Bramleys in a bucket, to make a final few apple pies in the run up to Christmas.
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As I write this, the UK is being battered by the second named storm this winter. Already ground sodden all last spring has returned almost instantaneously. It never really went away.
The year has basically been too cold and too wet. In record breaking amounts thanks to climate change, and the moving, possibly collapsing Gulf Stream.
England has suffered its second worst harvest on record because of the weather. If you think the damage from growing number of storms and floods in bad, just wait until we hit global food shortages.
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There is usually something to surprise you in the garden at The Secret Acre.
Earlier this year, Emma was joined by a very curious pheasant in the Greenhouse.
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And we hope you like jammin’ too… because another thing that seems to have enjoyed our unseasonably wet and cold spring/summer period is the soft fruit. Or at least some of it!
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Readers here in the UK will know that, after the wettest winter/spring on record and stubbornly cold temperatures, finally as we reach mid-summer, we might finally be getting some summer weather.
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It’s been a difficult year for plants and wildlife suffering the stuck weather systems of climate change. A worry for the extremes to come.
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It has been the usual busy summer period here at The Secret Acre, since enjoying the first produce of spring, punctuated by the sadness of having to say goodbye to a beloved elderly member of the family.
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The Secret Acre 