Haven't been up today; it's blowing a gale again, even down here in Whitelands!

Sweet Peas are go go!

Phew that's a relief..it's been quite a task to get to this point. Apart from having to erecting the polytunnel frame in January and putting on the polythene a fortnight ago we've also had to put in drainage channels under the two paths and out of the tunnel linking to the ditch because I was fretting about the sweet pea beds becoming soakaways for this part of the field. They do like a deep root run do Sweet Peas and wouldn't appreciate being waterlogged. Then the paths needed laying over the top of the drains so all in all about four tonne of aggregates had to be barrowed up the field during February.

Still slightly fretting about drainage I collected another three tonnes of composted bark chippings from Greenman in Bath and rotovated them into the beds. Not the best preparation for the crop but at this stage the best we can do. Next autumn we can prepare the trenches carefully with lots of lovely compost.

Putting up plant supports is always one of my more favourite jobs so I thoroughly enjoyed tying up the 250 7ft canes although was very wary of piercing the lovely new polythene on the tunnel. Planting took a couple of days and I'm sure they were relieved to get their roots into some soil space instead of being squashed in the pots and I tied them in with some plant rings. Sweet Peas grown as cordons are quite time intensive, 250 plants will probably average an hour a day of tying in and pinching out but I think its worth it for the extra stem length and number of blooms per stem. We'll see..I might be eating my words in two months time when I'm having to get up at 5am to find time to look after them.

The last thing I need to do with them at this stage is to put in some seep hose, I just need to order some hose attachments to connect it all up. This will save hours of watering over the season and also is the most effective use of the water applied.

Can't wait for the first flower!!

22nd March 2008

Found While Rotavating

1,2,3 . . . . .

Sweet Pea tunnel skinned and cultivated and ready for planting on Friday.

You've made your bed, now lie in it

It's up! Polytunnel No. 2 = Saturday Morning, rain and mud (but no wind)
Tom & Finn, ably assisting!

Germination, germination .. . germination

These were the ominous clouds skimming over Whitelands (Tyning) last Sunday afternoon, just hours before the gales came in to play for real. The low, racing stratocumulus were bubbling ahead of the winds, like foam on a racing tide. It didn't bode well . . . . . (Jon)

Today (Friday 14th March) was the first sniff of Spring I've had. Walking the dogs along the cycle track (NCN24) this evening, it was seeping out of the mud as it warms, Hawthorn and Ramsons; it comes so suddenly. Everything's raring to go, particularly the poor pot-bound, newly fed and sheltered sweet-peas. Jo's desperate to get them in the ground, so tomorrow morning we've enlisted Finn and Tom (one half of the mighty, mighty Chevrons) to come and help us have a go at skinning the remaining tunnel. It's a gamble, but will it work?! . . . . . (Jon)

The Polytunnel Team

Hold on tight polytunnel!

Today had Jo cowering under a duvet on the sofa trying to hide from the wind. Frankly it was just too scary to go up to the farm first thing this morning, we were convinced that the polytunnel wouldn't have survived what the weather forecasters were calling "the worst storm of the winter." Thankfully, it seemed intact, although I noticed that one of the corners of the frame seemed to have lifted by about 6 inches. Sure enough, further investigation revealed that one of the screws holding the frame together has sheared off under the pressure from the overnight battering. It's still too windy to do any repairs so we are just going to have to hope that it holds out for the next 48 hours until the storm passes. I'm not that hopeful though.

Charlie F-B - always eager to help

Why not potatoes?!

It's taken some work over the past year to convince Jon that flowers were as equally worthy a subject for our time and money as would be a vegetable crop. There are a few factors that decided it for me a long time ago.

Firstly and simply although I love the order and straight lines of a vegetable garden, flowers make me happy so what could be better than flowers grown in orderly straight lines. Secondly harvesting...........given the choice would you rather be harvesting carrots or Larkspur? See, there's no choice really. And thirdly seeing as we are approaching this with commercial heads firmly in place there are lots of people out there growing organic vegetables but if you want to buy a bouquet of flowers grown without pesticides and not shipped half way round the world before it reaches you, there are very few opportunities for you to do so.

I love flowers in my home and I never buy them. I love real flowers, the ones growing in our gardens, in our countryside, the ones that tell us that Spring is here or that Midsummer is upon us. These flowers keep us in touch with the seasons and remind us of our cultural heritage. As a gardener, over the years I have seldom had enough flowers in my borders that I have been able to pick without guilt for indoor vases, parties or friend's weddings.

I am convinced that there are so many people out there who feel the same way as me so quite simply I've decided to grow enough flowers for all of us (well at least for a select number of lucky customers) who will be able to order flowers directly from us or from the florists listed on our website. We'll extend the season gradually over the next few years to include Spring flowering bulbs like the beautiful Spring Snowflake Leucojum vernum so that our blooms will be available for a longer period of time.

For this first year however we're going to concentrate on hardy and half hardy annuals as we will also be propagating our perennial stock at the same time. Having Soil Association Organic status means that most of our plants will be grown from seed as there are few organic ornamental nursery suppliers out there. The field's first summer will be full of Cornflowers, Poppies,Gypsophila, Larkspur, Love in a Mist and not to forget the beautiful Sweet Pea just to mention a few..... and not a potato in sight!