Preparing for next year

Coriander seeds harvested from some of the plants we grew this year, more than enough for next year and far cheaper than buying from a garden centre.

Common Frog

All of a sudden we've started finding these all over the site again.

Wrens at nest

Apologies for the lack of regular Updates

Things have been crazy for me of late and I'vealso had internet connection issues but hopefully this will bring you all bang upto date. Busiest time of the year for everyone is spring and Duke St is no exception as we try to develop more beds whilst planting seeds and dealing with one or two issues along the way.

Its not all been hard work as Sheba insists that we have some playtime although sometimes she doesn't quite understand that we are trying to clean up at the end of the day.

The frog spawn has now hatched and the ponds are wriggling with tiny tadpoles.

I always enjoy my first day of the week at Duke St as I'm always surprised by how much things have grown in the days I've been away.

Now being a keen naturalist I always knew that growing crops and keep live stock (yet to arrive), would bring me into conflict with wildlife. Most people will revert to poison and traps and try to erradicate the problem, I believe that if we are truely the superior species then we either use our intelligence to humanely solve the problem or you accept that these things will happen.

And so it came as no surprise to find that mice had been enjoying our lettuce.

Fortunately Jon shares my views on this and had come up with an ingenious method of keeping them away from the pots.

By raising the trays up on to large pots the angle of the sides and the lack of grip seems to have foiled our rodent friends for now. 

The above picture is of a Willow warbler which is now serenading us as we work having returned from it's African wintering grounds.

Just some pictures of spring and our little helper

The first bluebells are coming out soon a carpet of blue will cover the woodland floor


Parts of the woods also have fields of daffodils adding early colours

Sheba trying to look cute with her favourite toy.

Told you she'd be making more appearences.

First Green Shoots

The picture below not only shows the completed second bed but also the first bed being planted up with onion sets. The first things to be planted outside on the site, certainly a big moment for us that makes all the hard work worth while.

In the poly tunnel Jon gives some tlc to our tomato, cucumber, and courgette seeds which as you can see have pushed through in the last week.
Lettuce shoots, more of Jon's good work during my absense bring results.

More progress on the beds

The above picture shows an overview of the area of the site we're converting surrounded by a yew tree hedge, with the polytunnel in the background beyond which is where the hen coops are. To the left is a hawthorn hedge beyond which is an orchard, any spare areas will be used to grow herbs, radish and other crops which don't require a lot of space.