Making Great Progress in Pleasant Climate

Hello Everyone,

Apart from one day last week, the weather has been unseasonably warm and bright. Don’t count your chickens yet as next week we will have snow flurries. That doesn’t mean we do not take full advantage of the pleasant climate…

The YouTube Channel 

Each week a fresh episode is added to our YouTube channel for you to watch. This week Bob models the brilliantly re branded van on a not so beautiful day in Northumberland…dry but cloudy. Our electric van is very distinctive and quite a few of you have messaged to say that you have seen the van dotted around. You may also appreciate some top tips with specific explanations from Bob on how we are doing on Freyja Farm and in the Freyja Walled Garden. Who doesn’t like seeing Bob!

The Walled Garden

Taking advantage of this weather, the grass around the Orchard has had its first trim of the year. We are really looking forward to watching to see when the blossom appears on the trees. It will be interesting to understand which colour blossom goes with which variety of fruit. We have to remember that we also have 252 fruit trees around the walls of the garden. The Spring show should be a sight. With the grass cut the Orchard is smart. 

Our builder friends have made a huge step forward this last week, taking advantage of perfect weather for the job in hand. Foundations for the gigantic greenhouse are now in! The required area was marked up, the trench was dug out, a metal grill dropped into place and concrete was poured in. Sounds soooo easy when written, the actual physical work…not as easy. It is great that big equipment was used for digging and moving ground. When it came to the concrete it was a chore. The big concrete lorry was able to drive fairly close to the garden gate and that was as far as it could go. Out came a very long pipe which the concrete kept getting stuck in! Suffice to say…they got it sorted as you can see by the picture. Well done guys. 

We can now appreciate the size of each ‘room’ within the green house and they are still big!

The concrete slab will act as the base for the brick wall which will hold up the greenhouse. The bricks have been sourced to be as close to the back wall bricks as possible. As part of the planning consent, the bricks had to be given permission to allow the new bricks to complement the old. The all white wall will help to reflect light and heat into the greenhouse to promote growth of the indoor plants. 

All the work within the walled garden is progressing really well and it now feels that we are gardening. 

The Farm

With all this lovely weather we have been having, we have taken full advantage and continue the re- set. The outside beds seem to be saying “fill me”. However, the weather and timing is still not ideal for planting out the vegetable plants. We will wait another few weeks till it will be all hands to the pump. 

Inside the tunnels and we do have a few spare empty beds waiting to be filled, this will be earlier than outside but still not yet. The overwintering crops have been growing slowly but they are now picking up a pace as they take full advantage of the warm and light conditions.  Great to see some action. 

The greenhouses here at Freyja Farm are now filling nicely with a green haze of seedlings. Some are in plug trays, other seedling will be potted on, eg the tomatoes and others will be transplanted from full trays to individual plug trays eg celery and celeriac. It is all go with busyness…planting, feeding and watering.  

The work continues everywhere. It is exciting to see and a pleasure to be working outside listening to the singing birds. Whatever you are doing this beautiful weekend, enjoy!

Take care and thank you for reading,

Ann