Blog

Summer adventures

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