April 2005 - The Accidental Smallholder

Digging at dawn

Friday 1 April, 2005

by Rosemary at 7:38pm in Growing Comments closed

How's this for dedication? For the last two mornings, Dan has been out in the garden digging at 6.30am!!

The potatoes really needed to be planted and the weather is a bit unpredictable, so Dan's been taking advantage of the conditions over the last few days to prepare an additional potato bed for the Robinta and the Pink Fir Apple.

He's got all the Red Duke of York planted in the vegetable garden but there wasn't room for the other varieties, so another area has had to be prepared. It had potatoes on it four seasons ago so it should be OK to use again.

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Humboldt Hens

Monday 11 April, 2005

by Dan at 9:40pm in Poultry Comments closed

We're just back from a fantastic week in the beautiful island of Madeira (more on that later), but waiting in my mailbox was a note from worm guru Amy Stewart with the great news that she and Scott have become proud parents..... of four hens!

They're charting their progress at Humboldt Hens, well worth keeping an eye on. Careful though guys, they'll decimate your worms if they get the chance!

This year's menu

Monday 25 April, 2005

by Dan at 9:16pm in Growing Comments closed

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's nearly May already, and most of our fruit and veg is well underway.

This year I've more than doubled the size of the raised beds, by incorporating one of the pig pens into the veg garden. Strangely enough this hasn't seemed to double the effort required, and for the first time ever I feel almost in control of the veg growing... (Now just wait for some sort of disaster to befall me!)

So, we've got in the ground, or to shortly appear in the ground:

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