The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: K2 on March 02, 2015, 05:35:06 pm
-
My lovely wife, aka Kimbo, is already on the forum so I won't repeat everything she has already said. To be honest, I wouldn't presume to call myself a smallholder quite yet. As Kim has explained, we've moved into a tiny converted barn with grazing so that we could have our horses, Boris and Milo, on our own land. Anglezarke (an old Norse name meaning "By Odin, it's cold here") is only a mile east of the M61 but there is fantastic riding on the doorstep. That was really all we had thought about. One thing is, however, leading to another: the chickens arrived a few weeks ago and then, because we have too much land for two horses, sheep are due to take up residence.
By and large, Kim is animals and I'm fruit, veg, fencing, hedging, groundworks, drainage, buildings. land management and tractor maintenance. Of course, we help each other out and so I get regularly de-loused in the chicken run.
We've planted 100 poplar and willow cuttings on the eastern boundary within a little certified camping/caravanning site. None of the land had been cultivated. It's on the heavy side with clay beneath quite a decent depth of top soil. The site we've chosen for fruit and veg slopes a little to the west but is very exposed to wind so I'm not sure how things will do.
Here is my first mistake. I'd thought about buying fruit trees and bushes from the local garden centre (which I hadn't at that time visited) but opted for one of the well-known mail order companies. The plants that came were tiny, bordering on the microscopic, and significantly more expensive than the same varieties at the garden centre which have, so far, done much better despite incessant rain. I won't get caught like that again.
Anyway, I look forward to chatting and picking up some tips.
-
Hello K2,
I do hope that people quickly come to understand your unique sense of humour :fc:
-
I'm sure we will Kimbo ;D
K2 - you might in fact find that your tiny fruit trees do better in the long run, provided you protect them with spirals and keep them weed free at the base. We certainly found that with hedging. It's probably that when they are tiny they have less top growth to support so can get their roots properly into the earth, and well spread out.
I don't do horsey stuff, but look forward to seeing how you get on in the veggie and fruit sections :garden:
-
Thank you, Fleecewife. I shall report on progress but I am preparing myself emotionally for the demise of the mail order gooseberry.
-
You sound like my other half :) although he only does potatoes I am in charge of the rest of the veg. We are at the start of our journey as well and moved in 3 months ago. Busy planning out my veg patch at the moment. Good luck with yours
-
Thanks, Caroline 1; hope it all goes well for you. Cambs must be a pretty good place for growing veg.
-
Hello and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
I think I'm going to enjoy your contribution ;D
-
Hopefully this new patch will be as good as my last garden. It appears to be quite dark peat where I am. Having a couple of bee hives means I normally get bumber crops so hope they like it in a bit more of an exposed location.
-
Thanks, Rosemary. What a great forum! Bee hives, eh? I'm not sure what Boris and Milo would think about that.
-
:wave: Hello and Welcome from Bodmin Moor K2. We are new to lambs but have had pigs and chickens for a few years now and grow most of our own fruit and veg so might be able to help on that front!
-
HI K2 from over the border in Yorks.
I've been disappointed with mail order stuff as well, some has been OK though, I think I prefer t see before I buy.
Hope they come round OK. spring is nearly here, things should look better then. Did you repot your gooseberry?
-
Hi B3a5tie and penninehillbilly,
Thanks for the welcome; what a nice forum this is! I may well pick your brains, B3a5tie, if my fruit and veg don't behave. The gooseberry came bare-rooted so it went into the ground. I bought a rhubarb from the same source, Ken Muir, and it is absolutely miniscule.
-
Maybe its a new miniature variety :-J
-
Bought rhubarb is always tiny when you buy it and takes a couple of years to get going. Shame - I've got masses I could give you, and it's the perfect time to divide the plants.
-
:wave: from Shropshire.
-
Hello K2 from Devon :wave:
-
I'm sure you are right, Fleecewife, and it may come out of intensive care eventually. But I'm still miffed. For £9 or whatever it was I don't expect to have to resort to my glasses to see it.
And hello to you, Mad Goatwoman of Madely. Shropshire is a lovely county, I think. I used to have to travel to Telford regularly from Manchester. Whilst Telford itself is a little short of olde worlde charm, the drive there was so nice.
-
And hello, devonlady! Whereabouts in Devon? I think Kim has mentioned that we used to have a holiday cottage in Northmostown, 3 miles north of Sidmouth. I used to have friends who farmed at Start Point; fabulous coastline.