Gardening is a Science

Hello Everyone,

Well, the snow did arrive! It did not stop snowing for over 24 hours and it has stayed all week due to extreme freezing conditions. The area we live in - “The Shire”, does not expect to have a visit from the gritter, resulting in our roads being a skating rink. Once we are just beyond The Shire the roads become clear of ice. It is just a matter of getting to the edge of The Shire.

A while ago we bought a set of wheel snow chains for this very situation. We have never had to use them until the snow and icy conditions of this last week. We are now converts to snow chains! They are a bit of a hassle connecting and disconnecting, I am sure practice would help, but not something we would like to put into practice regularly. However, a brilliant solution.

The Farm

The Crew were due to start back this last week after the Christmas/New Year break. However, the weather put pay to a full week’s work, obviously. Graham the Great and the Lovely Lucy arrived full of enthusiasm. One of the very first jobs was to remove as much of the snow, if not all of the snow, off the polytunnel rooves. If Lucy and Graham were cold they soon warmed up as it is a great work out particularly for the shoulders.

One reason for removing the snow is to allow the light into the tunnel. The snow covering makes inside the tunnel quite dark and as we all know, light is required for plants to grow. However, the main reason for the removal of the snow was weight. We had soooo much snow that the load on the roof did actually damage two of our larger polytunnels. Unfortunately, the metal supports inside the polytunnel have buckled under the weight. As the buckling happened the sides have been pushed outwards. There is nothing we can do until all the snow has disappeared. We had thought about bringing the metal bars in with a little brute force but this may have the opposite effect (the science of physics). The solution maybe to replace the polythene while making good the metal bars. This will be a job for a professional in the Spring. We think it will all hold till then (please all cross your fingers).

The chicken runs also had a battering from the heavy snow, once again. Again this will be rectified in better weather conditions. The chickens are all fine. They don’t even seem to be bothered by the cold. At this time of the year we always place hay bales in the run. The girls can jump, perch and peck the bales. We do give extra pellets and greens as they are unable to peck the ground. Occasionally the girls are given grit in their diet. Grit helps them create the shell part of the egg and they would peck and eat natural grit under normal weather circumstances, we are just giving them a little help.

The Walled Garden

The snow has disappeared from the Walled Garden. We have had no need to visit the garden over the festive two weeks so missed seeing a white Walled Garden.

Although we are not gardening at the moment, work has progressed. The builders are prepping the ground for a path which will be directly in front of our soon to be erected greenhouse. This is so so exciting! The photo above maybe just a stretch of black earth to some but to us it is an indication that we are creating something which will last for years to come.

From this photo the gradient is visible. The red brick wall shows the extent of the incline…for every degree of incline one extra days growing at the start of the growing year and one extra day at the end of the growing year can be achieved. There is a sixteen degree incline which gives us one month of extra growing each growing season. Joe, the first Head Gardener of our Walled Garden, established this system over two hundred and fifty years ago. Clever Joe! We hope to prove Joe and this science is correct over the coming seasons.

It is amazing how much gardening should also be regarded as a science. We have seen here how the growing season can be increased using mathematics. Maths is also important for planning and the placing of our plants in our growing beds. Biology is a huge subject explaining photosynthesis or the underground World Wide Web or the anatomy of a plant. Physics can explain the mechanics of plants growing and also the engineering and mechanics of the equipment used by a gardener. But…Mother Nature is a whole natural science and a surprise to me every day.

It looks like the weather (yet another science) will improve for next week and we can carry on with our reset program here on the farm.

YouTube

Ben and his team from Saltburn are also on the Freyja project and are continuing to document the entire project on YouTube. Check out the latest YouTube to see Chef Alex cooking flatbread.

Take care,

Ann