Sh*t shovelling

Last 2 days I've been clearing up the horse poo in Dr. Hosker's field. We now have a small hillock of dung weighing about 600kg. I have another half day's worth of raking and wheel barrowing to do, probly another 100kg.

Began earthing up the indoor potatoes

Helpers

Today, Nicky and Janet turned up to help us. Nicky and I dug a new bed outside while Chris was carrying horse manure to pile up. Janet put finishing touches to a new bed inside which looks great. I planted out Komatsuna into this bed straight away. Courgette, broccoli, sweet pea and Japanese snap pea are coming out in a cold frame. I am hoping it will be warm enough to plant outside soon and should be careful as it was frosty this morning.

more and more sowing

Junka
I sowed more seeds, courgette(Nero Di Milano), cucumber(styx F1), tomato(Sungold), sweet corn(Golden Bantam) and melon(cantalope).
Cleared yukina and planted out more lettuce and rocket, still wondering if it might be too hot in a month time for those who don't like heat. Actually, marquee was too hot to work long hours today although outside was chilly. I also tried to make a new bed for komatsuna but gave it up half way.

more sowing

Sowed more lettuce(paris white cos), pumpkin, pepper, basil and santona. The cold frame is full of seedlings.

Outside salad bed

Sunny day! We made outside bed for salad, composted thinned yukina, mizuna mixed with kitchen waste and covered by blacksheet. Lettuce and roket are pricked out from modules into pots and are going to be planted out in a couple weeks in the bed.

sowing

Today was chilly, hailing and blue sky appeared in turn every half one hour. I sowed tomato from Dyfi Sead Savers, My Girl and Welsh Farmer Law in a cold frame. Also sowed courgette(Albarellodi Sarzana), broccoli(corvet), karashina, climbing french bean (Lazy Housewife), dwarf french bean(Xenia field), Japanese snap peas (from Peter) and sweet pea(Tamar Mix). Chris made a new bed near the entrance and planted out lettuce, roket and radish.

New salad mix

Salad bed in the marquee became too messy. I tend to avoid weeding unless they don't take over the crop or cut only top bit and leave the cutting on the ground as mulch. However, overcrowded crop and weeds althgether create too humid environment for crops. They still taste all right but don't look good for market. Of course, they were anyway too old though, they should have been tidy up to get fresh air and sun. We finally started clearing mizuna & yukina and put corn salad in the salad bag mixing with the surviving Japanese leaves, named 'Lamb Japan Mix'. Hoping the new product will be popular.

Flower bed

I planted out lettuce and rokket in the Marquee, worrying it might be too hot in a month time. Actually today was so hot to work inside (28 ℃) that I planted out flowers outside, worrying it might be too cold. The floweres such as geranium, lavendar, colombine, gangi lily and etc. in the middle of veg patch will hopefully give beautiful coulours in summer.

last fuyuna

Finished sowing onion, carrot, beetroot and parsnip outside.
We cropped last fuyuna, some of which are giant.
Actually in Japan local people where they are grown like to eat bolt, though, - Fuyuna is called tona, which means bolt- we decided to clear them and start new leaves.
I sowed komatsuna in a module for the next Japanese mix.

onion & carrot

Today was the first sunny, still day in a while. We sowed onion(set) and carrot outside.

a customer visit

Today, a man visited our garden. He said he bought our salad at the local shop and loved it.
It was great to hear from a customer, especially such a positive comment.
I' d love to create a pretty and productive garden where people want to stop not only buy vegetable but to enjoy watching and hopefully eat or drink in the future.

The Japanese salad are bolting and changing their shape and taste.
I'm taking out fuyuna and yukina gradually to plant new things.
The next is lettuce, rocket and radish. I sowed leek in a module and planted out marygold on the border.

Spuds done

95 Orla
29 Colleen

Spuds are go!

Chris:
Planted 40 Orla.
Trenched Cde ready for Colleen

New seedlings

Chris:
Continued trenching the outdoor spud patch ready for planting Orla in the large bed (ABde) and Colleen in (Cde)
Planted 150 Lettuce (cut and come again)
Planted 150 Rocket (Rocula)
I used the new seedling compost for both of these trays.
Also planted out some Rocula directly on (D3)

Apple wrap and Mouse!

Yesterday we caught a mouse in our live trap. Not sure how long it had been there, probably at least 12 hours. We took it home, gave it some seeds and thought about keeping it because it was so cute. But we let it go in a horse field.


Also yesterday, when I arrived the ground covers from the lower field had been blown up into the apple trees, taking the chicken fence with it. Luckily the chickens were too scared by the flapping plastic to escape.
I helped take down the plastic and then fixed the fence and went home for fresh omelette!

Windy windy

Last night was terribly windy. The previous night we had some glass damage to the front of the Marquee. I always fix things as soon as possible, which in this case was fortunate as from last night the wind blew westerly at 40mph (65kph) for around 14 hours. Missing or broken glass causes the wind to get in and rip more glass away. Our greenhouse survived. Joel's greenhouses have been devastated. Not good.

Our seedlings are coming on, the indoor potatoes are coming up and the Japanese leaf veg keeps on growing! In the last 2 weeks we have supplied 33 bags of salad.
We are now looking at finding more places to sell our produce, such as restaurants, cafes etc and maybe even Treehouse in Aber. We would like to keep it local for ease of delivery or bulk collected for further away.
To reach 100+ units per week would be great!

Flowers blooming in the Marquee

Happy Surprise

Junka
I am back from London and amazed to see the change.



Outside beds are finely dug out and prepared. Flowers have come out and salad has grown big.
Elephant garlic turned into mammoth! Here is one next to an A4 book - it's over half a metre tall!! Fuyuna and yukina are sturdy and started bolting. We cropped 10 bags - easily could crop another 10 bags. Need more market.
Disappointingly, okra died. Cold frame was obviously not warm enough for okra. Tomato, peppers are alright. Some were moved out too late from the propagator and became leggy. But I think we've got enough.
Tomorrow looks to be super windy. We gave outside beans cloche protection from wind.

Chop-chop, Dig-dig

Chris
Tuesday evening: Back to Borth , popped to the gardens, cropped 300gms of salad. Shuffled the seedlings from propagator to cold-frame.
Wednesday: Dug outside beds Aa, Ab, Ac, Ba, Bb, Bc, Ca, Cb, Cc ... phew!!!
The 500kg of organic seedling and potting compost that I ordered through Sue arrived coutesy of Liz and her van. Due to Joel's back being knackered at the moment, I ended up carrying over a ton of the stuff from the van...!!!
Cropped 1200gms salad, bagged up 10 lots, made up and printed out new labels.
Thursday: Woke up feeling like i'd been run over!! Too much digging, lugging and riding bike into harsh wind.
Delivered 5 bags each to Family Shop and Nisa. Good chat with Gwenda (Mrs Nisa) about the restaurant opening end of May.
Dug out beds Da, Db, Dc, Ea, Eb, Ec - ready for making potato trenches. Had to give up cos i was knackered and blinding headache causing me to go dizzy!!

I checked out the trailer home in the gardens - it's a bit ropy but with a little care and attention it should be livable. We're hoping to spend half our time there, making it easier to look after our crops. I will go to Borth each day to deliver produce and work on my paintings at Janet's.

It's all go-go-go!!!

1.5 kgs of Japanese mix salad on the kitchen table. We need to streamline our process, such as watering, cropping and bagging in one process, ready for delivery.
Working out unit costs is scary. At present we spend over £3 to earn £1.25. This is largely due to capital investment, learning process and economy of scale. It's early days... :o)

St Pierre

Poor St.Pierre! Although their label is pretty, they became leggy in the propagator. I have pricked them out into pots and put them in the cold frame, hopefully not to shock them with icy air. Actually inside the marquee is still pretty cold in the morning and night - probably 1 to 3℃- although it reaches more than 25℃ when the sun comes. I didn't realized how extreme the temperature was inside polytunnel or how quickly the seeds would come out.

Today I cropped 7 bags of salad with Janet's help. It is nice feeling to supply food to local people. Sometimes the man at local shop to waves me on the street, "Hi, we need more salad!" as I ride a bike on the way to the garden. Our salad is popular now.
I think we can supply more in spring but need transportation. Now I can only deliver 4 bags with my bike. Chris, come back soon please!