Thank You to our Customers

Hello Everyone,

Firstly can I say a huge thank you to you our lovely customers. Our intention was always to re start the box scheme. However, we were completely surprised while also being delighted and reassured at the response as we sold out in less than half a day.

We apologise to those who were unable to achieve success when ordering. As most of you know, we are a small (yet efficient) team and we would like to remain this way. We want to be able to provide a good service with a personal touch. To provide this we have to know our capabilities. Once we reach capacity we will close the online shop. 

From a gardener's perspective, this is the business end of gardening. The preparation of the Spring months now can be admired and devoured. It is all go in the gardens up and down dale and sometimes we don’t know what to do first as there is just soooo much to do. We have to sow, plant out, tend, weed, tidy, feed, water, tend again and water yet again. But the proof is in the pudding, or should I say produce. 

Summer is a beautiful season with all it provides us gardeners. The taste of the first broad bean then a strawberry, oh! and those tomatoes. Well a kid in a sweetie shop is an understatement. All the toil and back ache slips away when you eat your own. We have been working really hard to ensure that each growing bed is full of brassicas, roots, legumes, onions, leeks, radish, leaves, cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes.

Everything grows at a rapid pace and we must keep up to that fast pace. The sweet and chilli peppers, aubergines, late potatoes and winter crops (such as parsnips, celeriac and squash) are all in situ, ready to be harvested at the back end of the season. It has been all in the planning. 

Mother Nature dictates to us all, particularly to gardeners. She has been throwing curve balls lately and climate change is the proof.  Here on the farm and in the walled garden the climate plays a huge role in deciding our tasks. From the early Spring we have been sowing all the organic seeds which are now planted into the ground and will provide bountiful supply’s of organic vegetables and herbs. All our established fruit trees, bushes and canes burst into life from spring where we watch the blossom become summer fruit. Mother Nature has provided us with all the ‘tools of the trade’ to create the perfect conditions for each plant to survive and flourish. She gives us daylight, giving us more light than dark, and heat, which has been beating the records for all time high temperatures.

However, she has not been providing the required amount of water as of late. Watering then becomes the gardener’s duty. At both of our gardens watering is a near full time job!

We have to ensure that all our crops are kept moist. We are lucky that a watering system has been established throughout our growing areas. We have ground irrigation and overheard systems in place. We have two systems as different plants enjoy differing watering, either direct to the roots or just like a shower above. We do try and limit the amount of water we use by ensuring that the water we use isn’t wasted and goes directly to the plant and not the field or hedges surrounding our fields.

Home gardeners and allotment holders will, no doubt, spend each evening watering. This is a great time to look. Just look. Look at how your flowers and produce are growing.

 Checking to see if there are aphids or caterpillars or pesky critters are enjoying your goodies before you get a chance to take them into your kitchen. It is also really relaxing. A time to switch off and contemplate. A wander around your garden, no matter if it is big or small, and just look, take in the sounds and just listen, watch and ponder. 

 Enjoy, Ann