It’s shaping up to have been a pretty good year at The Secret Acre, despite the very dry weather.
Where crops simply failed in last year’s unseasonable rain, at least the gardener has the chance to water things, especially, if like us, you live in a well-managed area like Severn Tent Water, which rarely needs a hosepipe ban.
So most things are back to growing reasonably well, even if the fruits are a bit undersized from the lack of rain.
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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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As Christmas edged ever closer, and with the British Larch cladding and roofing membrane now on, it was time to battle November’s almost constant rain and wind to get water tight before the snow.
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Last Spring we wrote about the popularity of swales in our local farmer’s fields. These temporary winter ponds help work with the water to provide natural flood regulation as well as important wildlife habitats. Continue reading
While the other side of the World burns, here in the UK we have had constant rain and flooding for well over three months now.
The fires are an immediate threat to life, while the crops lost to flooding speak of the future food shortages we can expect as the extreme weather events of climate change accelerate.
Away from human hubris, at least the mushrooms have been enjoying it, with boom in rare mushrooms are appearing across the country. Continue reading
Has The Secret Acre gone to rack and ruin since our last blog 5 months ago?
In short, no.
What has gone to ruin, we’ve realised, was our resolve to only work part-time since moving to the smallholding. Both our hours have slowly crept up again over the last two years, almost without noticing. Continue reading
The Secret Acre 