Wild Flower Garden outside the bakery

Hello

What a beautiful summer we have had so far, with balmy sunny days and warm moonlit evenings it has been glorious here on the farm.

The birds seem to have been doing well, with doves, wrens, sparrows, blue tits and woodpeckers ( to name but a few) all raising their families in the safety of the nature reserve. Although there don’t seem to be as many swallows and martins this year.

We have also noticed butterfly and bee numbers are down, possibly due to the harsh winter.  The setaside areas have come in to their own providing a mass of thistles & teasels for the goldfinches, with plants such as yellow dotted loostrife, coltsfoot & cut leaf cranesbill flowers also spreading nicely.

The team veggie patch is now highly productive, we’ve been enjoying courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot’s, new potatoes and fresh herbs for our team lunches. With squash and pumpkin plants on the way on the dung heap we should have a fresh veg  supply through the winter too.

We decided to dig up the fruit patch ( as the fruit bushes had suffered from a long dry April!) and plant the seemingly hundreds of tomato plants that we successfully grown from seed in the poly tunnel. Also and a couple of bags of seed potatoes that our local garden centre were giving away – waste not want not!

We are very excited that plans are now under way for our new community resource centre, we are recycling an old mobile classroom that is retiring from a local school, this will house our office and mail order shop packing area, meaning we will then have an extra room to turn into the centre, we’ll then be able to invite local schools and groups to visit the farm, learn about local food production – with info about local food producers and a tour of the bakery, tour the nature reserve and contribute to our nature table and wildlife log book, enabling us to teach them more about nature and conservation.

We are keen to show how Bee Green is linked to everything we do – so for example all of the cardboard we use is shredded and turned to horse bedding, this is transferred to the dung heap where it rots down, then ends up on our raised bed to fertilise the veg plants, which we then serve in the Bee shack cafe.

In June we visited the Green Scythe fair at Thorney lakes, Nr Langport in Somerset http://www.greenfair.org.uk/ This wonderful event happens every year and I would highly recommend it, with live demos, a scything competition, local crafts, lovely food and a fun packed kids area complete with ‘ Play Hay’!  It was a brilliant day out.

We are looking forward now to visiting the Oak fair in Aug http://www.stockgaylard.com/oak-fair/oak-fair-at-stock-gaylard.html which has similar stalls, an art exhibition and food tent. With a conservation area, with a wealth of information from all of the wonderful local conservation organisations and charities.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, Thanks for reading

Charlotte

Lovely Veg

Plentiful veg in the poly tunnel

Hello Again

We have had some glorious weather here again and the vegetables have come on a treat, I seem to have over done it on a few things so we now have tomato , courgette and beetroot plants coming out of our ears! we hope to re home them this Saturday and have a little plant stall at the Bee shack cafe.

A few weeks ago Em & I and some friends went on a little inspirational day out in Somerset, exploring the levels. We had a brilliant day we went to John Leach’s pottery gallery, there he also has a beautiful nature reserve with a large wildlife pond, a short walk from the gallery in Muchelney.  It is a truly magical place, it was a hive of activity with ducks, swans and moorhens nesting on the pond and hundreds of wildflowers on the banks. If you are ever in the area we would highly recommend a visit. See www.johnleachpottery.co.uk for more details.

We also popped in to Burrow Hill cider – and had a few samples ! This is another wonderful place, on an old farm with beautiful old farm building containing the cider and brandy making equipment. You can take your own vessels and have them filled with Cider from the oak barrels in the cellar. They had a lovely apple orchard there with foot paths leading through them, a really nice place to visit especially when the blossom is out. www.ciderbrandy.co.uk.

We have another day out planned soon, we are going to visit Monkton Wyld Court near Bridport this is a Centre for sustainable living. They run courses, residential if you wish, on things like hedge laying, Bee keeping and how to plant a coppice as well as forgotten rural skills, dancing and singing. They also host nice seasonal events so again well worth a visit if you are in the area. www.monktonwyldcourt.co.uk.

Here on the farm things have settled down now we are out of the tree planting season, just focusing now on growing wildflower plugs in the poly tunnel – ready to plant out in the setaside areas. We have purposely left the setaside areas

for a few years just to see what would grow naturally - unfortunately now we are getting a little over run with stinging nettles and docks which we will now start to pull up to make room for flowers and grasses.

Graham and I are now set to work on creating information boards to place around the farm at certain points of interest, made up of a combination of photos and illustrations.  We’ll be compiling data this year and recording what plant, insect and animal species are taking advantage of the nature reserve .

We are very much looking forward to our first group of kids coming to visit our nature reserve, they are coming from the Honeypot Charity, this wonderful charity offers respite care for child carers. A small group are coming to visit the farm in July to have a picnic in the meadow and tour of the bakery. See www.honeypot.co.uk for more info about the Honeypot charity.

Bye for now, thanks for reading

Charlotte xx

Birds nest in Blossom

Apple Blossom and our wildlife log pile

Hello All,

What a beautiful spring we have had so far, be it a little late but now it is here it has suddenly all come at once. The trees are all covered in beautiful blossom and  the  hedge plants and trees Graham and I planted are out in full leaf.  We are now in a lush green oasis here at Naish Farm with the joys of Spring all around us.

We have seen a huge increase in wildflowers around the nature reserve this year, the setaside areas and meadows have come in to their own so far we have spotted celendines, bluebells, lords and ladies, wild garlic, primroses, wood stichwort, dotted yellow loosestrife, pink champions and wild forget me nots to name but a few.

We have discovered an excellent guide to help you indentify wild flowers, see the link ;http://www.judywoods.dial.pipex.com/British%20Wild%20Flowers.html it has a really useful guide with photos of all the flowers in colour coded sections.

The veggies are coming on very well in the poly tunnel, with all the seeds we planted now up and ready to be potted up and planted out. We picked the first spinach and salad leaves last week for the Bee shack , it’s such a lovely reward to have delicious fresh home grown leaves on your plate !

The nature reserve is really taking shape, the coppice areas we have left ungrazed already have young saplings growing, we hope to add to them by planting more fruit trees this year creating a mini orchard.

This is where we will house the new chickens, the run and house is being delivered tomorrow and the chickens are coming next week, we will feed them scraps and peelings from the Bee shack and in turn use their dung as a fertilizer on the garden!

After a huge succes in my own garden I have asked my hubby to make us some Bee boxes, the idea is to provide solitary bees – leaf cutter bees, mining bees, mason Bees etc a safe place to lay their eggs.

The best thing to use is garden cane cut to different lengths, set in a wooden frame to keep them dry that you then hang on a warm wall at about eye level.

The bees then create little chambers with an egg and pollen in each one, blocking the end with mud or leaves. So having plants and flowers to attract Bees and provide them with a good supply of nectar and pollen is very important. Trying to have blooms from Mid March to August is ideal.

The bird life has been incredible too, we have a blue tit trying to nest right outside the office door! We have seen an increase in goldfinches and as I write this I am watching a greater spotted woodpecker on the bird feeder!

Thanks alot for reading and we’ll keep you posted on chickens – photos to follow as soon as they have settled in !!

Charlotte x

New fruit patch, so far containing strawberries, rhubarb and black currants

Newly Laid hedge and the wildlife log pile

Hello Again

Can’t quite believe it’s April, we seem to have had our fair share of April showers ( or should I say down pours!) already. But the sun is shining today and we are all feeling suitable rested and well fed after the Easter break and glad that Spring is finally here.

We saw around 10 swallows this weekend feeding over a stream near the shire, although as the old saying goes ‘ One swallow doesn’t make a summer’ It’s always a great feeling that warmer weather is on the way when these delightful creatures start darting around the farm.

All the trees and hedge plants Graham and I planted are looking healthy and are coming out in bud, The daffs are all out with smiley yellow faces, we plan to go bulb crazy this year and plant crocus’, gladioli, tulips, anemones etc so that the banks are in bloom all year round.

The poly tunnel is now finished and ready for us to get planting, firstly I need to make some tables from old recycled pallets to put the seed trays on, then the next thing will be to get some seed potatoes into the raised bed. The plan is to plant each row with around 2- 3 weeks in between, then we will hopefully have a continuous supply of delicious new potatoes – you can’t beat fresh new potatoes cooked with mint and finished with a nice knob of salted butter ..mmm…!

We have lots of bird activity around the nature reserve,with blue tits nesting just outside the office door and the sparrows setting up home in the nest box with the camera, we’ll soon be starting our own series of Spring watch !

Since re opening the Bee shack in March we have had a couple of very busy opens days with lots of lovely people coming from far and wide to relax on the Bee shack sofas, with all the monies taken going towards to the Bee green fund our projects are really taking shape.

The next idea is to open some of the nature reserve to the Bee shack customers, we plan to open a little trail, taking you past the wildlife log pile, through the willow and hazel coppice down the steps over the newly laid hedge, up the bank the other side to the meadow coppice. We’ll put log seats around the trail so you can stop along the way, enjoy a picnic and watch the wildlife or just simply gaze out across bulbarrow hill and beyond.

Thanks for reading, until next time – Beee Green !

Charlotte x

Our new poly tunnel

Frosty morn, view from Bee shack garden

Hello again,

The Hedgelaying is coming on very well, as Spring has not quite sprung we have a few more weeks yet to get it finished, we also need to trim back last years growth on the hedge we laid last Feb, the idea is to use a very sharp hook, or for larger pieces a pair of secateurs to cut right back to the level at which it was laid, meaning when the re growth comes through again it will sprout out from more areas, thus creating a thicker hedge.

We also ordered our poly-tunnel this week from www.ferrymans.co.uk  they have a wide range of poly-tunnels to choose from, we have gone for one with a thermal cover, we will also get a heater so that we can get cracking straight away and bring on the first seeds. We’ll be using the poly-tunnel half as a nursery and half to plant out salads, tomato’s, peppers etc in the beds.

At home I have taken lots of cuttings from my raspberry canes and black current bushes and stuck them in pots of compost, they all seem to be growing, so I’ll transfer them over soon to the Bee shack garden to create our very own fruit patch.

Graham and I have now successfully planted out a mixed coppice of hazels, willows and dog roses, we now plan to do the same the other side of the hedge, turning our willow bird hide dome into a giant willow and hazel ‘S’ shape, in the summer this will be a lovely place to eat a picnic whilst enjoying the stunning views across Bulbarrow hill.

With more planting, Hedgelaying, grass seeding & filling up raised beds planned for this weekend I think we’ll be busy bees for a few more weeks yet!

Thanks for reading

Charlotte x

Willow archway with apple heart bird feeder

Spring is in the air here at the Honeybuns Nature reserve, a pair of sparrows seem to have claimed the nest box with a camera in!  They have been popping in and out and sitting on top, chirping very loudly!  So we are very much hoping that they will move in and start a family.

We have a TV screen in the Bee shack linked up to nest box cam and Joany cam, so it will be lovely for the visitors to the Bee shack to be able to watch them hatch and fledge.

Graham and I are making good progress with the hedgelaying, despite the fact that in places the hedge is made up almost entirely of brambles!!! We have been lucky with the weather and hope to finish by the first week in March.

This weekend we’ll be planting our hazel and willow coppice and the conservation hedging.

For more information on hedgelaying and courses in Dorset visit www.dorsetcoppicegroup.co.uk or Dorset Centre Rural for Skills ( DCRS).

Progress has also been good with the team veggie patch, the raised beds have been started, the next step is going to be filling them with a mixture of manure, compost and top soil. Then the smaller two will be covered with a poly-tunnel with a thermal cover, hopefully meaning we can start planting seeds in March. Everyone is getting really excited and busily planning what to plant in their plot. We have an excellent reference book in the Bee shack called ‘ Food from your Garden’ by Readers Digest, it tells you how to do just about everything, from making a green house, to planting every type of vegetable and fruit how to preserve them, I would highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading, please Bee Green ! x

The Start of the Team Vegetable patch!

Graham & I making good progress with the hedge.

Graham & I finally made a start on the next round of hedge laying here at the Naish farm nature reserve a couple of weeks ago, it’s been quite hard going as the hedge is about 70% brambles and dog roses!

The process of hedglaying starts with clearing out all of the dead branches, leaves and chopping off the brambles ( not pulling them out as we want them to re grow). Then once you have cleared your hedge, the next step if you have a ditch, is to dig it heaping up the earth & silt from the ditch around the base of the hedge plants you plan to lay.

My gran used to enter hedge laying competitions in her 20’s, she said you had to lay one chain ( approx 66 feet) and dig the ditch in one day, I think Graham & I have just about managed a chain in 1 & a half days! – so we have a little while to go before we reach competition standard!

This photo shows the hedge before we started to clear out the dead stuff & brambles.

Once you have cleared the hedge ( and dug your ditch) you start to lay in. It’s a very satisfying feeling once the first trees/ bushes start to go over and your hedge starts to take shape.

The first step is to take your Bill hook take hold of the tree & bend it down, away from the hook, chop out a V section and slowly push the tree over, making sure as it splits down, it doesn’t break off. Then using a small hand saw or bow saw cut off the remaining piece, on a slight angle to tidy it up. Cutting at an angle helps water to run off and helps prevent disease getting into the root. Once you have your tree cut and bending over you can then lay it in. Pushing it over carefully to fill in gaps & weaving in to make sure it stays down & is nice and tight.

This photo shows this stage, several trees have been cut and laid down.

Then as you go you lay more down over the top, leaving a good strong tree every so often and taking out anything that is dead or impossible to lay.

Sometimes you come across a piece that just will not stay down, for this tying down tightly with wire does the trick.

The final photo shows the setion of hedge that we’d finsihed after day one, on a very wet & muddy January afternoon!

Thanks for reading, there will be antoher update on all the latest Bee Green Projects soon.

Charlotte

Another quick update on the Bee green front, having been so busy in the bakery in the last couple of weeks Graham & I have been unable to start the Hedge laying, but finally the day  has come, we are due to start this Friday!

My husband has his been busy with his sharpening stone, preparing the tools for us, just cannot wait to get stuck in now!

We are now all set to get going with the next round of tree and hedge planting.

I’ve ordered from a wonderful local company  www.ashridgetrees.co.uk some  stock friendly Conservation hegde mix,  Dog roses,  Filbert cob hazels, common hazels, Merryweather Damons & Crab apples.

Along with the many willow cuttings I took through out last year – some of which have rooted in our old barrel water butts. We plan to plant a willow & hazel coppice with dog roses and honeysuckles weaved in between.

The damsons & crab apples we’ll plant out in one of our setaside areas at the back of the farm, along with some buddlieas. Providing the butterflies and bees with much needed habitat.

 Graham & I are planning a hedgelaying photo diary to keep you all up to date with our progress, so keep a look out to see how we are getting on. 

Charlotte

We thought this Pied Wagtail was stuck in the sponge, but realised when he flew away that he only has one foot! He's become a regular at the Naish farm feeding stations.

Cherry tree, spring 2009. Planted 2008.

Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren, Dunnock, Crow, Rook, Fieldfare, Chaffinch,Green Finch, Gold Finch (Flock of 17), Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Jackdaw, Starling, Pied Wagtail, House Sparrow, Redwing, Wood Pigeon, Feral Pigeon ,Collard, Dove, Robin & Kestrel.

We are over the moon that we have species of high and medium conservation concern such as House Sparrow, Song Thrush, Dunnock and Bullfinch taking refuge in our nature reserve.

   Goldfinch on Feeder

Stormy Sky, view from the Bee Shack over Bulbarrow Hill

Here at Honeybuns we believe in eating well and wasting very little. The team eat together 3 times a week in the Bee shack and nothing goes to waste, windfall apples are turned into apple crumble, and burnt…… erm,I mean well done! … cookies & cakes are turned into trifles and knicker bocker glory for all to enjoy.

Even the wildlife around the site eat incredibly well, on a chilly morning last week I topped up all the bird feeders with reject pecans & almonds and the ground feeding birds got out of date cranberries and apples. Although I think the ground feeding dog – Peggy, ate most of the cranberries!

Em & I spent a ’ Bee green Day’ a couple of weeks ago, planting out more shrubs and bulbs for the spring and lots of willow,  filling in the sides of our willow bird hide. We got to use our first batch of home made compost, we compost all of our kitchen waste, from fruit skins to blue paper towel. It’s a very  satisfying feeling to  be able to return it to the ground and use it to grow more fruit & veg for the team and our lovely Bee shack customers to enjoy.

Graham and I are all set to get cracking with the next section of hedge-laying in Jan. Graham took part in a coppicing course with the lovely people at Monkton Wyld Court www.monktonwyldcourt.co.uk in Oct, he spent a very enjoyable couple of days learning all aspects of coppice planting and harvesting, he is now raring to go with planting our coppice.

We are planning  to plant a hazel and willow mix  and aim to create an extra wildlife haven as  part of our nature reserve.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte

Remember….Bee Green!

Peggy, The ground feeding dog, fleeing the scene!