Posted on Fri, Sep 25, 2009
Its that time of year that you really get to put your feet up, admire the work done and reflect upon the coming year....... unless you decided to order 10Kg of over wintering onions and you have garlic and broad beans to plant before the end of October. All of which I did, there's nothing like keeping yourself on your toes...
The new students are here and will start the week after next working with me in the biodynamic garden again, I can't wait. It'll bring the social back into the work and there are some great projects i'm planning to do with people. These include building a new home for our Biodynamic Preps, digging up the CPP that Colyn and I made, building a lean-to for the tractor we'll be getting soon (hopefully :o), replacing soft fruit posts and re-building the frame for the netting as well as all the pruning, fencing, gate building that needs to get done, we won't be short of a thing or two to do.
The ducks are settling in well, they are familiar with me now and come and greet me with a chorus every time I come near (I think it would translate into 'feed us more, feed us more') so I tend to walk past and tell them to eat more slugs.
Posted on Wed, Sep 09, 2009
I've just got a duck house today. I bought it through the internet from a man called
Jim Vyse who makes ready build houses. Buying one like this still gives me the satisfaction to build my own and the oppertunity to make mistakes while i'm building it. But it doesn't involve cutting up a whole load of timber....
So the next thing is to get some ducks. They are waiting for me down the drive; a neighbour has offered me them for free, I just have to pick them up and hopefully that will happen early next week.
I'll get some pictures up ASAP
Posted on Tue, Sep 01, 2009
The holiday season is over now, and this often means the end of the summer season. We've been feeling the wind and rain for the past two days and there is definitely a sense that autumn is in the air. Some annuals are coming to an end and the production of new fruits such as beans and courgettes has certainly gone down since 3-4 weeks ago.
So the biodynamic gardener can take a breath and contemplate the year of what is done, what is to be done and how can it happen... Colyn (who finishes his biodynamic agriculture placement with me tomorrow) and I have talked over the year and what we felt were the positive and negative sides to the season. I certainly feel strongly that I there are areas to be improved on and that the biodynamic garden can increase by at least 25% next season, both in diversity and production.
The kitchen has been closed for two weeks now so we have had produce sitting around without a home, at first we tried to preserve what we could and give away the rest but it was taking up too much time. Time which was simply not available to spend on such tasks. The second option was to sell, sell, sell, and that is what I did, under the advice of the Rachel Carson team I contacted the local vegetable store (The Seasons) in Forest Row and advised them that we had certain produce which we could supply to them. To my surprise I got a very prompt reply requesting large amounts of the biodynamic produce, more than I could supply in fact, so we agreed on quantities and set about picking what we had. It was funny doing this for a biodynamic garden that was meant to supply the college direct but also felt very good to be providing to the local community. I picked all the best of what we had to offer cleaned and washed it all and drove it off early in this morning to the shop. A most rewarding task for any grower to see their produce being sold in a shop.
The first students will be arriving again in the middle of the week after next which I am sure will bring a new life to the college after such a busy summer of conferences and short courses.