So much for flaming June this year. After having a beautiful April and May with wall to wall sunshine
June has been more of a trial than a blessing.
It has been quite breezy if not windy, and the sun has been very intermittent and shy this month. We hope you have all coped with the lockdown for what it is although we find it totally over the top for a cold/flu epidemic in that they shut down the economy for it which has caused far more problems than the epidemic itself. And the repercussions from it will be felt by many for years to come. Once the official figures come out I think many will be shocked by the low-level infection rate that was blatantly inflated by the media to cause panic. Time will tell.
For those trapped in small houses and flats, it must have been unbearable to stay within government guidelines and we hope you have all been OK and stayed sane! Having 2.5 acres of fields on our property has meant that we could still walk every day without leaving our land and we inspected much of the fields and have been working to organize it so it can be kept in better condition than it has been, for what we require in any case.
The fields were quite unkempt as they were only used as paddocks for horses and there was very little in the way of maintenance performed upon them if any at all. Because of this, bringing them to a level more suitable for gardening is going to be a big task but things are proceeding well if somewhat intermittent because of the weather.
You can see from the next photo that the orchard is coming on well and the trees are growing very well in spite of the rogue pony attack we suffered over the winter. They are not as big as they should be but they have at least survived and seem to be enjoying their new home.
View of the orchard taken from the hill behind the sand-ring.
Getting the grass under control is taking a fair time as there are holes and bumps everywhere along with big tufts of grass which hinder cutting and the grass is also very long so the cutting is much slower and as it is so bumpy we cannot use a lawn-mower because it would be too difficult and may well break the mower. So it’s a case of softly, softly, catchy monkey…..
Funny thing is that we have 20 trees in the orchard and there is only 1, yes, that’s right, only 1 apple as produce from all of them.
We would have had more but the pony snapped off the growth that would have given us a bigger crop. So now we wait until next year.
Loraine has been hard at work on the vegetable garden and it is now producing a plethora of vegetables for our consumption. From ground to the plate in an hour or so is the norm, and tasty to boot.
Part of the vegetable beds which are in full swing at present, the nets keep out the white butterfly and stop them
laying their eggs on the brassicas.
It is time to order the blocks to build the wall around the plot which will keep out the rabbits and also act as a windbreak to offset the blustery winds we often have here on the hill. Once the various trees we are planting grow they too will change the whole scene and give a much better environment for both us and the plants.
Loraine tending the garden and inspecting the netting.
Over the years we shall expand the gardens to grow many cut-flowers and other vegetables and also provide some crop rotation even though we use the No-Dig method of gardening which we learnt from Charles Dowding. Best decision we ever made to follow this method and if you are going to start gardening, then do look it up and consider following this type of gardening as it is much easier and provides better crops too in a smaller space than you would need otherwise.
Another view of the vegetable garden looking towards the South-West.
We are going to enjoy the summer months now and the harvest has already started and the crops are coming in. When August has ended the work on the new walls will begin and this should change the face of the garden entirely, we look forward to it.