There's more!

So far in our story we have two ewes, Mary and Jenson pregnant and two one-year old lambs looking on in bemusement. Mary has given birth to a set of twins, a ewe lamb called Athena and a ram lamb called Aries. That was very early Easter Sunday. It is put a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘having lamb for Easter’ but we had a three bird roast. I was reminded after the birth of Mary’s lambs of the dangers of walking around our smallholding in the dim light of dawn, carrying a hurdle and not noticing where the rabbit holes are when I put one foot into one. Clutching the hurdle and grimacing with the pain, I hobbled on to finish the construction of the nursery pen. Mary had been moved into the shed which already housed a marvellous sheep pen which has a heat lamp mounted in one corner. Checking the ankle later, it was badly swollen but I had an Easter dinner to sort out. Once that was done, it was first aid time for the ankle which resulted in a sickening click as it realigned itself. But that’s enough about me and my sufferings .... back to the sheep. 

Now we were waiting on Jenson to give birth. Jenson (ear tag 22) is one of our very first members of our flock when she arrived two years ago with Philippe and Ronald (now residents of the freezer). She was a very small lamb who struggled through her first few days but survived. Now two years later, she was going to give birth to her own lambs. She went into the thoughtful pose at 7am on Wednesday. Feeling like an old hand now, I gathered my stuff including a coat and a mug of hot chocolate and camped out in the polytunnel where I had a good view. Jenson had also watched the videos because she was displaying all the typical signs of nesting and restlessness. Despite my best efforts to move her back towards the pen, she was adamant that the best place to give birth was the other end of the paddock near to the polytunnel. By 10am she was lying down and we had a waterbag and a hoof ... just one hoof ... so recalling my training provided by the East Essex Smallholders Group (thank you guys!!), in I went like an old pro. Found the other hoof, checked they were front hooves, found the head and gently pulled with the contraction - around and down .... job done. Cleared the membrane and brought it around the front. He was a big boy. I went back in to check for more because we thought she was carrying one being much smaller than Mary. Yep, there was more so I left well alone. Seconds later a tiny ewe lamb was out. Again I cleared the membrane and presented it to Jenson. I checked that there was nothing else lamb shaped to come and when she was up on her feet, moved them to the now vacant and cleaned out nursery in the shed. Job done! She had given birth to a big ram lamb named Apollo and a tiny ewe lamb called Artemis. 

 Being totally obsessed with weighing our lambs, we have weighed them all and Mary’s lambs were virtually the same weight at around 5kg each. Jenson had a big ram lamb 5kg and a tiny ewe lamb  4.1kg at 4 days. All are doing fine and gaining weight and both ewes are good Mums with plenty of milk and showing their protective side. So in about 4 days we went from four sheep to eight. We have had a pile of lambs in the paddock and the rest of the flock munching away on grass. We have marked Jenson’s lambs with the same red spot to help us to identify them. 

Phew!

A much needed update!

I used to be one of the first to complain that people don't keep their blogs up to date. I have been meaning to do this but it has taken for someone else to notice and have a gentle moan for me to do it. Thanks John. I have had some ideas sketched out and hiding on my computer, so it was only a copy and paste to get them onto here.

Dot and Dash, our bottle feds of 2016

So we left our story with us having four sheep of roughly the same age. Two ewes – Jenson and Mary, and two castrated wethers – Philippe and Ronald. The plan was to send the boys to the freezer, fatten two more bottle-fed lambs and mate the two girls with a borrowed, unrelated ram. The new lambs arrived in the April, a castrated wether and another ewe – so we named them Dash and Dot. By the September, the Philippe and Ronald were in the freezer.  On November 6th we separated the lambs away from the ewes and brought in the ram. He didn’t come with a name so we called him Romeo, then later Rambo as there didn’t seem to be much romance going on. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anything going on. Were they just shy? Frantic internet searches followed to check if the ram (actually a spring lamb himself) was up to the job being so young ... and apparently he was. Perhaps he didn’t fancy our girls. Anyway, the plan was to keep them together until the new year and the day arrived in early January for him to go back. Whilst filling in all the paperwork associated with shifting animals around the countryside, our sheep expert noticed Dash and asked if he had been castrated. Yes, of course, why? Apparently he may not have been as a result of an ill-fitting castration band – not of our doing. Although he didn’t have all the necessary equipment visible, he could still be fertile. This could mean that he may have already mated with all the girls in the flock, including our Dottie! So what does that mean practically? It could mean three pregnant ewes, each possibly producing two lambs. For Dottie, it could be difficult birth being so small and so young. It could mean birthing of lambs towards the end of March and it could also mean that we have our own ram already helping himself whenever the girls come into season. We could send him to the freezer but he is hardly big enough to fill a sandwich. 

Ewes are pregnant for five months during which they don’t tend to show any signs of pregnancy until the final month. If we feed them as pregnant ewes they will be ok or they may not be pregnant and they will just get fat. In a commercial flock, the ewes can be ultrasound scanned to work out how many lambs they are carrying and their feed adjusted accordingly. This isn’t viable for such a small flock but if we over feed them they could end up with BIG babies and again, difficult births. If we under feed them, they could abort their pregnancies or produce small underdeveloped lambs. I had a cunning plan. If I sprayed a blob on the back of Jenson and regularly measured her girth, if she was getting bigger week on week, she could be pregnant. Setting that against a condition score to make sure that she wasn’t getting fat, we decided that she was indeed pregnant.

Into April and we noticed the development of the girls ‘udders’. Convinced they were pregnant as planned, I set about watching youtube videos of ‘signs of labour in sheep’. Sure enough during the Saturday of the Easter weekend Mary stopped eating. She had been quite an enthusiastic eater but I noticed that she wasn’t really engaging with the idea of eating. I called this her thoughtful stage.

At 3.15am on Easter Sunday I was awake. Lying in bed and wide awake I convinced myself that it would be a good idea to go and check on Mary. It was very cold and dark but sure enough, there was with a ‘water bag’ hanging from her rear end. I scurried back inside to get some more clothes on and grab my well equipped birthing box, I returned to hear a tiny bleating sound. She had given birth to a ewe lamb. We were convinced that she was having two so managed to isolate her into a smaller area of the sheep pen where she could be away from the other sheep. Her first lamb was up on its feet and seeking some nourishment whilst Mary continued to strain for lamb number 2. 

Mary and her lambs at about 5.30am Easter Sunday

It was a bitterly cold morning and I was soon joined by Warren which gave me the chance to go inside for even more cloths, check the temperature outside, 5C feels like 2C and I returned with gloves and a heavier coat. I was noticing that the ewe lamb was getting cold and shivering. I was reluctant to remove it from Mary and it had snuggled down into the straw whilst Mary strained on. We decided to construct the lambing pen inside the shed which would provide us with the heat lamp.  Warren set about this job whilst I kept an eye on Mary. She was still straining but I could see a pair of hooves. By 5am, lamb number two had finally slithered out onto the cold straw. I could see that the birthing bag was still intact and having strained for an hour and 40 minutes, Mary was now lying down and not taking much notice of either of her new lambs. I decided now was the time to intervene and quickly removed the birthing membrane from around the lamb’s head and nose. The lamb started to kick and shake his head and then finally bleat. A boy! I dragged the soggy lamb around to Mary’s head where she promptly stood up and started to lick him. Lamb number 1 was getting quite cold by now but the shed was ready. We grabbed the two lambs and encouraged Mary to follow us into the shed. The ewe lamb was placed under the heat lamp in the corner of the lambing pen and we watched as Mary continued to lick her babies. Eventually the ewe lamb was revived by the extra heat and stood to feed from her Mum. Phew! Thank goodness for youtube videos. We could have come down to find one suffocated lamb and one dead from hypothermia. Instead we had two healthy lambs with Mary safe inside the shed. 

On Easter Monday we fitted the docking bands to their tails and a castration band to the ram ewe, having named the ewe lamb Athena and the ‘ram’ lamb Aries. 

That was one ewe done, just one to go.

A review of 2015

Blogging is a funny old thing. You don’t know what to say or you save it all up until you think you have enough, or you have so much to say, you desperately trying to not make it sound like the rantings of a crazy cat lady. Having said that, I originally wrote this blog in November and stashed it away in my drafts folder for a future posting .... two months later!! But it does mean that I can add a bit more to it.

Having gone through a new year, this blog has to be a review last year. The polytunnel has been a HUGE success. It is a steep learning curve but built upon what we already knew from our meagre vegetable plot in Tillingham.  We have had a few failures and certainly there will be things we will do differently this year.

Polytunnel in early construction.
In February, if it's sunny - it's cold too.

 The Tunnel
When we purchased our tunnel from First Tunnels around this time last year, we got the smallest commercial tunnel available to get the heavy duty ribs so that it would better take the rigours of the extreme weather we have here. Whilst we haven’t had that much in the way of extreme weather yet, I feel it in my bones that it is only a matter of time. We have had high winds of around 50 mph and that was definitely a worry for the tunnel’s expose location, but it has held up well. I have confessed to having pierced the covering plastic with the edge of a seed tray but it was quickly repaired with the tape supplied and it hasn’t given us any problems.

One of my favourite scenes in the polytunnel.
The overhead watering system in action.

We also purchased the watering system with a supply coming from the outside tap at the house. This has been a god-send as it quickly waters whichever area of the tunnel you select. Owing to the low water pressure, we can only water one quarter of the tunnel at a time but with the use of a timer, we are able to regulate which areas are watered and for how long.

The vegetables We have grown everything we like: chillies, carrots, onions, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, chard, squash, cucumbers, beans, courgettes, herbs, aubergines, lettuce and included new residents such as figs, lemons, peaches and olives. We have also had complete failures in the form of garlic. I don’t know what happened. All the garlic – inside and out failed – a bad batch? 

The cucumbers suffered  from the vast swings in temperature, so probably this year I would be looking at some outside varieties or leaving them completely to someone else here who can grow them better than me. The brassicas probably would be better outside as they take up a huge amount of space and then get eaten by caterpillars. They have recovered now that the caterpillars have gone but probably better outside.

The pests In addition to the caterpillars, we have been visited by rabbits, rats and the occasional bird. We were able to shoo away the rabbits but the rats are far more cunning. The very last straw was when my favoured aubergine plant looked a little peaky. I decided to dig it up and put it into a pot, only to find that it had no roots! I invested in some rat bait boxes and have been quietly winning the battle ever since. We have also had a collection of birds visiting the tunnel and I have no objection to them other than making sure that they weren’t shut in overnight. They were attracted to the tunnel by the feast of bugs that have pollinated the various crops and all have been welcome (except the caterpillars). I did wonder if the chickens would like some caterpillars and set about collecting about 50 in a very short amount of time. Upon being presented with the little green monsters, the chickens didn’t think they were very appertising – it was probably the green ‘blood’ oozing out of them. It was a shame as I had a plentiful supply.

Fabulous fresh vegetables picked from our polytunnel.

This year We should be able to get started sooner as the beds will be already in place. I have managed to clear one the bed of crops and we have set about improving the soil. This was the first bed that we constructed and it was filled with basically garden mud, hence it is called the mud bed. Whatever we can put into that soil will make it better. Beds number 2 and 3 (in the order they were constructed) were filled with some very expensive bought in compost. They have performed quite well and will probably get a different dressing each once they are clear. The rest have Maurice’s Marvellous Muck, the plentiful mountain of compost that was brought in by a friend. This was used in just about all of the rest of the growing areas, including outside. It has fared well and will just need a little bit of attention when the beds are emptier. Last year I hastily constructed a cold frame within the polytunnel to bring on the plants until the beds were ready. This might be an idea again if the weather is too cold to plant up.

Hopefully we should be able to continue to grow ‘something’ all through the winter but it really all depends how severe the winter is. The watering system will be disconnected soon as we are down to watering once or twice a week. As the beds are cleared, I could probably manage with a watering can but I am concerned about the hose getting frost damage.

Sheep We have increased our flock with the addition of another female lamb, roughly the same age as our existing flock. The plan is to fatten up the boys and have them processed while the girls get more mature, possibly get in two more orphaned lambs (definitely boys this time) to fatten through the summer. Then in the autumn get the girls pregnant for the following spring.

The range of coloured eggs from our flock.

Chickens We currently have 15.5 chickens, with the half being a bantum cockerel called Nugget. He is a lonely boy who needs a flock of his own so we might get him some suitable girls  and set up his love shack in our spare house and run. We are currently averaging six eggs a day with the possibility of 12/13 eggs a day in the spring!!  

To worm or not to worm .....

Being first time flock owners, we have sought a lot of guidance from books, magazine, videos, online and friends and most of them seem to say that worming your flock should be a routine part of their care and we were up for that although it is apparently quite tricky – getting the weight and therefore the dosage correct, getting the sheep to co-operate, actually getting it down their gullet not their windpipe  – it wasn’t going to be an easy task. The worming liquid is quite expensive too and getting the correct one for our small flock was going to be expensive as the minimum amount we could buy would be a litre and we only have three sheep. And then there is the debate of drench over injection ......

Years ago I really wanted to be a vet. I was quite enthused so my Mum took me along to have a chat with our vet. It soon became clear that I was not academic enough to get the qualifications that were needed to get me to vet uni so that idea fizzled out into the ether. It has occurred to me that being a flock owner will actually give me the opportunity to look after animals in a way that would satisfy that longing to be a vet albeit in a very small way.

Can you spot the rabbit?

We struck upon the idea that what we needed to do with our sheep was a faecal egg count. OK. I found a nice laboratory online that would sell us the kit and included in the price was the egg count. An egg count is where a small poop sample is examined under the microscope and the number of eggs from parasites are counted and therefore determined whether to be a problem or not. The kit came as two zip lock bags and ten (yes, 10) blue plastic gloves. I eagerly read the instructions that were included and established that I needed to collect 10 samples from the sheep, pop them into the bags with the gloves (5 in each bag), fill the paperwork and put it in the post. Marvellous. Timing was everything here as I could see that putting the samples in the post after the last collection on Saturday (around lunchtime) could mean that they would be festering in the post box until late Monday. So come one Monday morning I summed the courage to do this collection. Was this like being a vet? I completed the paperwork first, something which turned out to be a good idea as it meant that I could get them away to the post quicker. I wrote on the bags first, again something which would have been trickier once they were ‘full’. I put 5 blue gloves in one pocket, one on the left hand and 4 in the other so I knew when to change collection bags. All was good and away I went.

Possibly a different rabbit or the same one

Luckily we only have sheep in the field and the occasional rabbits. It is amazing how similar everything looks when you are searching for a fresh sample. How much was a sample? A handful? Just a few ‘bits’? Sheep poop has been described in our household as chocolate raisins and we have been blessed with sheep that have had good digestive habits so I was collecting chocolate raisins, but finding ten lots?!? It then occurred to me that I should try to get a fresh sample from each sheep even though it was to be tested as a group. Standing around in a field in late September waiting for a sheep to poop is not such a bad way to spend an hour and it occurred to me that it probably wouldn’t be a vet who would be doing this job but his student. I was duly rewarded eventually by each sheep getting the urge but as I lurched towards them with an outstretched blue gloved hand, they do have a tendency to run for it, leaving a trail of precious fresh poop lost in the long grass. I found that it was distinguishable from the old stuff because it was still warm. I know, its all in the details.

Realising that collecting ten samples by this method was going to take me beyond the post time, I set about collecting from their sleeping area, a rich source although not necessarily all sheep. Very quickly one bag was full and so I switched to another pocket. The second bag started to fill up until I had just one glove left ... I could have done with a spare so that I didn’t have to do everything one handed. Two bags full and zipped, I was back inside as bemused sheep looked on and I was eager to get my bounty into the post. I then had the idea of double bagging the samples with a bigger zip bag and stuffed the lot into the pre-paid posting bag along with the paperwork. Hand cleaning took on a whole new meaning that day. I had identified the best (earliest collected) post box and posted my samples with just minutes to spare before the collection. Phew!

To my surprise and delight the laboratory didn’t ask me about any rogue rabbit readings that they may have found or about the amount of each sample that I managed to collect. Instead the email that arrived the next day said that they had a very low infection of all the expected parasites, so we concluded, no worming necessary. We will monitor the situation (do another one in a few months) but this time I will have eleven gloves.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Our orchard of apples and pears

I LOVE autumn although some would still call this late summer, there is definitely a feeling of it being a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. The mornings are cooler and darker and we are generally being greeted now with the sunrise as I am seeing my better half off to work.

In the polytunnel the cooler evenings have put paid to the cucumbers although they haven’t been a huge success. They are difficult to grow and the temperature swings tend to play havoc with the tender plants. We have definitely used this year to experiment with the plants in the tunnel and have already drawn up a list of ‘mistakes’ or learning opportunities (being an ex-teacher) that we can put right next year. 

Rampant squashes

Desperate to grow brassicas, the cabbages were devoured by caterpillars in the tunnel. The purple sprouting and the brussels have all been stripped bare by the fuzzy monsters but I have been assured by others that the plants may come back as the colder days see an end to their life cycle. They could also be grown outside next year. Also facing eviction next year are the squashes. With just 3 plants, we have seen one bed turn into a matted jungle of leaves and yellow flowers. We appear to have an abundance of male flowers, something which following some rapid research is quite normal and patience will bring the female flowers in due course. I have hacked back the foliage to reveal the flowers and in an effort to restrict their growth to just one bed but it is an uphill battle. Once the female flowers appear, I can tailor the plants even more to their space, or at least that is the plan.

Three San Marzano tomatoes and a Roma for comparison

The San Marzano tomatoes are finally showing their class and producing the most enormous red, juicy tomatoes of all time. The taste great and cook really well. We have made sauces and passata out of the them and they are one of the main ingredients in any self-respecting chutney. They do seem to take longer to grow than the Roma tomatoes but it is well worth the wait. The hanging baskets of Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes were a moderate success too as long as they were in the spray of the overhead watering system.

Cluckingham Palace is finally finished

Five nest boxes and a big 'people' door

The chicken house was completed yesterday to the extent that the chickens were allowed access to their new accommodation. This is my husband’s own design which is off the ground to allow the chickens access underneath for shade and shelter from the rain. It has a large people door for cleaning access, five nest boxes and two roosting perches. It has been covered with thicker wood than is normally found on chicken houses and has a corrugated bitumen roof to keep the weather out. It will have a draw-bridge style access ramp when finally finished as the current on is only temporary. I feel that it needs some mesh ‘windows’ but for now, its finished. 

Light Sussex cockerel checking out the accommodation

We have managed to rehome one of our Light Sussex cockerels which brings its own feelings of success as these were my first batch of eggs hatched out at Easter. His brother is currently enjoying being top 'dog' for a while longer. We hope to find him a new home too as our six Araucanas are gradually reaching maturity and there has to be a cockerel among them just by the law of averages. 

 

Many 'Firsts' and a Best In Show!

Oh dear. I failed to blog in July so I had better try to get two done in August.

The sheep are getting bigger, and heavier. They have enjoyed the outdoor life, sleeping under the stars with all the grass they could wish for. The poly tunnel is stuffed to the brim with vegetables and we are still expanding our chicken flock. The final batch of Araucana eggs hatched 5 out of 6 but as with this breed, we have no idea what sex they are and probably won’t until they either start crowing or laying eggs. I have mapped out their age on the calendar and have found that we probably won't know that until next year. But all in all, we should have 19 chickens. That has led to the construction of the BIG chicken house. We saw some interesting designs for chicken houses at the Suffolk Show this year but were generally unhappy with the thickness and quality of the wood used. As a result the construction of the BIG house has begun in earnest to accommodate our growing number of chickens. The current accommodation has 9 (including the two cockerels) with a potential additional ten still in the ‘pipeline’.

So many lettuce

In July this corner of Essex has 3 consecutive village shows and our local one (prior to the move) was the Tillingham Handicraft and Horticultural Show. This is a grand event with two marquees, one for handicraft and one for horticultural, a parade, tug of war, grand prize draw – all the usual stuff. I was particularly interested in entering our produce from the poly tunnel into the horticultural competition, but for the first year, as an outsider. Tillingham boasts many good growers but the outsiders class isn’t usually too well supported, so I might stand a chance. The schedule was feverishly pawed over and numbers of items duly noted. The entrants have to state their intention to enter on the Wednesday and Thursday before the event on Saturday. Those few days can make all the difference to the size or quality of a vegetable so I always enter as many classes as possible in the hope that things will come good by the day. I entered 15 classes but only managed to find enough quality vegetables for 9. It might be enough. As a previous winner of various trophies, I was invited along to help with the entries on the Thursday night and having said that I wouldn’t be entering anything in the handicraft sections, managed to make/find enough jams, chutneys and curds to make a sizable entry for the Cooking trophy. I like making these things as I think it helps to capture the flavours of the summer and brighten the winter months.

Saturday came and I gathered all my entries from the poly tunnel and kitchen. Unfortunately overnight there had been quite a violent storm and the ancient handicraft marquee was ripped to shreds. The remaining structure was deemed to be dangerous and was dismantled before the entrants arrived. Arrangements were hurriedly made and a new location was established to receive the entries ... handicraft in the horticultural marquee, horticultural entries in the village hall. Plans were in place to replace the handicraft marquee next year anyway, but I have fond memories of helping with the erection of the huge handicraft marquee. Shame.

When you want to see a red card

Entries safely installed in place, carefully arranged and labelled, the entrants have to retire from the marquees (and village hall) and let the judges do their job. Then the wait begins. The Show opens to the public at 2pm and I was back in the village around 4pm. First visit .... the horticultural section. Many Seconds and Thirds ... and one First for two lettuce. Hmm. Not enough to win anything but not a bad showing. The winner had many Firsts and I was left with the thought .... I’ll get you next year!!

It was a different story in the Cooking section. I won Firsts for most of my entries with the only exception being Four Cheese Scones which won a Second. That’s ok ... I don’t like cheese scones anyway. The real shock was a large white card which said Best In Show for my lemon curd. That was brilliant!! I frequently make lemon curd to use up some of the eggs and have perfected the recipe for just two jars - one normally gets given away and we consume the other one. Sweet!! The Best In Show has its own trophy and I was surprised to see my name already on it from 2002 - having racked my brains I think it was for a jar of strawberry jam, but that was 13 years ago and could be wrong.

So life in the poly tunnel continues – post Flower Show. The tomatoes are starting to ripen and I have constructed a drying rack for the purposes of sun-dried tomatoes. We have grown Roma and San Marzano. We have grown Romas before but San Marzano are supposed to be the best Italian tomatoes in the world. Having done some research, they are what Roma were bred from but they are relatively slow growing and take longer to ripen. But they do produce large, rounded, juicy tomatoes ... if they ever go red. We have also grown cucumbers, blue chillies and aubergines. Long may the summer continue and these things all get to maturity so that real fun of harvesting, pickling, chutney and cider making can begin!

Decisions, decisions

Shade is always welcome

So aiming for a minimum of one entry per month, I had better write something on here.  The lambs are growing and are now off the bottle. They have a fair space of grass to graze on which includes some trees for shade and, although we have had a few escape attempts, they seem pretty content. They are Easy care by name and seem so by nature.

The chickens are growing with two more batches hatched out. In addition to our one Light Sussex cross female with two Light Sussex males (urgh), we have hatched out another Light Sussex cross female who looks very much like the Legbar that was the cross, a maran which is possibly a female and a donated Old English Game bantam which is looking like a male. His future is very much open to debate as he is only bantam we have and might need a step stall to mate with the females in the rest of the flock. He was donated to us as a solo successful hatching that was lonely and in need of company. Then we moved onto Araucanas. We purchased six hatching eggs from a stand at the Suffolk Show but were still a little disappointed that only two successfully hatched. That gave me an idea to hatch a second batch of Araucanas from eBay, then whatever we get from the first and second batch wouldn’t be related and we could breed from them.

Treacle the maran chick, possibly female with
Toffee the legbar chick under the heater

The whole debate about what to do with the male chickens rattles on as our two Light Sussex males get close to maturity. We had a cockerel and the novelty soon wore off as he became increasingly aggressive towards us until he was finally dispatched and processed for the freezer. Should the next two meet with the same fate? Do we need a cockerel in the hen house? The girls will lay eggs regardless, but the two eggs that we hatched both were successful and were females so having a cockerel on site gives you a good chance of hatching out healthy chicks. Decisions, decisions.

 

One of the raised beds in the poly tunnel

In the poly tunnel we had added several more beds with the additional problem of what to fill them with. The first one was filled with garden soil, which is fine but we are limited to how much spare soil we have. The next two were filled with 2 tonnes of expensive compost purchased over the internet. Then a casual conversation with a friend resulted in several tonnes of well-aged manure being deposited on the drive for a fraction of the cost of the expensive internet stuff. It needed some sifting to remove various foreign bodies – glass, brick, plastic, an arrow, a pair of broken sunglasses, a child’s toy, wood and metal. It then had to wheel-barrowed around the house to the poly tunnel to fill up another three raised beds. As fast as that was happening, I was planting out all the seedlings that had germinated and been potted on and on in anticipation of some growing space.

Produce from the poly tunnel

The watering system has been a god send and the hosepipe which has been annexed to it easily caters for any plants which have been placed outside.  Life is good with daily harvests from the tunnel. We have had so far: strawberries, potatoes, lettuce, chard, beetroot, onions, spring onions, radishes, courgettes, rocket and herbs. Thoughts turn to what to grow afterwards and some pre-planning is required to get sowing so that they plants are ready to fill up spaces as they occur. According to the many books we have on the subject of growing in a poly tunnel, we should be able grow something it all year round if we plan ahead. We might not use all the beds during the winter allowing for the rest to be reinvigorated ready for next year whilst just growing things in the central beds.

We are still learning lessons about spacings and pests but with the weather warm and a slight breeze, if we get too hot, sitting in the tunnel with the overhead sprayers on is very pleasant indeed.