Just before Easter, the exhaust fell off the car.
Well, the rear silencer to be precise. A turn of events that leaves a sizable hole in your bank balance, with no discernible silver lining, beyond no longer sounding like Jenson Button is driving down the road.
But on this occasion, Emma had other ideas.
So we returned from our local tyre and exhaust place, not just quietly (thanks to the new rear silencer), but also with a car full of free olds tyres. Continue reading
And then there were three. I’m still not quite sure how it’s happened. We had always envisaged space for three veg beds. But after the great effort made by an army of friends to get the first one going, I’d assumed numbers two and three would have to wait a while yet. Continue reading
The signs of Spring are breaking out everywhere, and our over-wintering veg patch is no exception.
Just as we feared all hope for the late summer plantings of Broccoli and Cauliflower might be fading, the lengthening days worked their magic. Continue reading
Definitely feels like we’ve achieved more winter clearance this year. The weather’s been less wet for a start. Even if the ‘to do’ list still seems as long as ever.
Top of the list for this winter was tackling the five foot high impenetrable thicket of nettles and brambles behind the pigsties. Continue reading
Spring might officially still be a while off, but the first stirrings of new hope ahead are already in the gardener’s heart.
There’s the new, rotated veg patch plan to draw up, and seeds to be sorted and ordered. Continue reading
“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself” – May Sarton.
Personally I like to think my life so far has fortunately been a series of triumphs set against a few disasters. But the jury is definitely still out when it comes to our new veg beds!
Certainly in this first year, there have been more triumphs than losses, which is nice. But this is probably mostly because we are still easily pleased! Continue reading
The Secret Acre used to have three ponds. Continue reading
Another quick update from the veg patch. Our onion and potato harvests were in recently.
The onions were most satisfying, because they are another of those vegetables that we never bothered growing before, when we were container growing in a small city backyard.
The potatoes were more of a relief. We had always grown a sack or two of potatoes in the backyard. A regular and reliable staple. But now, properly in the soil for the first time, they looked decidedly less healthy, and we were worried they had failed. Continue reading
We’ve been away from The Secret Acre for two weeks on honeymoon. Before we left we took the precaution of picking and eating all the courgettes. But these buggers grow fast, and on our return we were greeted by four massive marrows already the size of torpedoes!
In August’s issue of Home Farmer magazine their advice on growing courgettes to marrow size was simply “don’t do it!” So faced with our honeymoon marrows, anyone else got any good (and preferably tasty!) suggestions?
Half way there
Rebuilding the stables and pig stys in the Yard at The Secret Acre is on the long list of big renovation jobs to get round to eventually. Hopefully before they finally fall down!
But the concrete base that forms the Yard oddly stopped short of running the full length of the outbuildings, petering out into a rather unstable set of York Stone slabs placed on the grass. Continue reading
The Secret Acre 