Blackcurrants / Sinks / Courses

Diary

Posted: Monday 6 June, 2022

by Rosemary at 1:27pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 30^th May

Cool, showery.

I was awake at 5am; too many things on my mind. Prevarication is not conducive to a stress free life. Blizzard appears to be coming into season.

Prised Dan away from his desk (not THAT difficult) to go for lunch and to the garden centre. We bought plants for hanging baskets and pots and had a look at water features for the fernery, but nothing jumped out at me. I won’t buy anything until it’s cleared out and I can see the size and shape. My tentative plans include pots with ferns and hostas; a water feature; some sort of lighting; a Buddha head statue and some sort of seating. And maybe a mirror.

Tuesday 31^st May

Looks like were going to have a good crop of blackcurrants. Gooseberries look well too, now Dan’s dealt with the sawfly. We need to get another strip of weed suppressing fabric down and more gravel on the path. It’s looking a bit tatty.

blackcurrants Blackcurrant Ben Sarek.

Wednesday 1^st June

Couldn’t find Gwenna. She’d made a wee den under a shrub in the garden.

Gwenna Gwenna's den.

Brought two sinks in from the fields; I used to use them for salt licks but they didn’t drain well enough and the licks just dissolved. We already had a group of four outside the class room door with grape hyacinths and something else, the name of which I can’t remember. Anyway, they’ve finished flowering so time for a change.

Flaming June hasn’t started yet.

Thursday 2^nd June

Lovely day - warm (at least when the sun was out) and still.

Dan played hookey from his desk and pottered in the garden. My best days are when we potter about together. I finally got my act together and planted up the hanging baskets. I don’t know why I find it so stressful. I did three for the house – six Bacopa in each, with either a geranium or fuchsia in the centre and four petunias in each. The other two are for the patio – each has three dark yellow Calibrachoa and about ten petunias.

Planted up the six sinks with Busy Lizzie, which I hope will do ok in the partial shade. There are two more lurking in the wood that will be retrieved at some point.

sinks Secret sinks.

Dan topped up the bed outside the byre with top soil and compost. It’s never been a good bed – it’s quite stony underneath, so I’ve just gone with what grows there – a fern, Vinca in a chimney pot, and hardy geraniums. Most come from a clear out Linda was having in her garden, but I took out some of the dark purple flowered ones and planted some blue and pink. There’s self-sown aquilegia too. In the autumn, I’m going to add some alliums and seed some yellow Welsh poppies.

bed Middle bed, West Range.

We had a tray of plants – shrubs and some herbaceous – that have been lying around forever, so we repotted them to make them feel better, but we plan to get them planted out, well, soon.

The sheep were relaxing. Love the lamb resting on her mum.

sheep Relaxing sheep.

Friday 3^rd June

Cool start - so decided baking was a warmer occupation than gardening. And I had to bake anyway, in preparation forthe two coursesthis weekend. Then the sun came out, and the kitchen was sweltering. Baked two tea loaves (one for us and one for John & Linda), a malty date loaf (my favourite and improves with keeping, raspberry & dark chocolate muffins and maple & pecan oat cookies.

Dan went shopping but I could hear the strimmer before he went, so I guess some weeds have bitten the dust.

Bronte is in season.

Saturday 4^th June

So, today was our last ever Introduction to smallholding course. We’ve met so many lovely people and today was no exception. I hope that, over the years, we’ve helped folk enjoy their smallholding more.

Sunday 5^th June

Introduction to sheep keeping today – not the last, we have the final one in July. It was the most beautiful day – warm and sunny, just lovely.

I was thinking about the ponies – when Euro goes, there will only be Gracie and Smokey, so I think I might take Sheepfold back for the cattle (it’s two acres) and move the ponies into Near Ditch, which is only about one and a quarter – and it also has the field shelter. No decision, but it seems like a good idea.