Nice little harvest for a local event tonight. We’ve not got loads available at the moment but we do have some exciting seasonal produce. Today it was wild garlic and sprouted kale tops.

Well this is an exciting find! Right on our front driveway we’ve now got a patch of morels. We’ve been loading on the woodchip and wood ash over the years, partly in the hope that we’d be creating a habitat for them. Who’d have thought they’d actually turn up!

Time for a move. Our small propagator is premium space and we’re working it hard. Today the pepper and aubergine will be repotted and installed under box lights, being replaced by newly sown tomato and tomatillo. After that it’s melon and cucumbers. Phew!

The polytunnel has been prepped with a new layer of woodchip and mulch for the new season. In this space we will be taking a break from tomatoes, cucumbers etc this season, instead planting a break crop of onions, spinach and lettuce.

Our newest willow coppice is showing signs of growth. We have over 200 rods of 8 varieties planted at close 30cm spacing. This will encourage tall, whippy growth, ideal material for baskets and similar projects.

We’re nearly ready to cut back our fertility building cover crop. In September we planted a mix of vetch and annual rye, we can’t believe how well it’s done. Well strim it to ground and cover to terminate before planting our tomatoes etc into it in early May.

Trying to decipher what went before. We took on a site that had been derelict for over 20 years. We know little about how the place was run, bar snatched conversations with neighbours and objects we find. These plant tags give us a glimpse of what was grown in the farms heyday.

Trip down to Sussex today to collect chestnut poles and douglas fir boards, all harvested to order from local coppice and woodland. We’ll be using this over the coming months for fencing, structures, furniture and work surfaces. Lots to be getting on with!

Today we’re making a dead hedge using wood from pruned fruit trees and a downed elder. Dead wood habitats are extremely important for a whole host of species. We never burn wood or brash or take it off site; it gets turned into dead hedges or log piles.

This probably deserves a longer thread, but a few days ago we spooked two red-legged partridge, which then flew into the new panes of our glasshouse. It was a quick death. We took the opportunity to harvest the meat for dinner, showing our kids the process. They were fascinated.

Elder cuttings in our tree nursery seem to be establishing well. If we’re in luck we’ll have 40 of these to plant into our boundary and hedgerows later in the year. These are the only trees we’ve attempted from cuttings; other species we’ve sown from seed.

A woven fence from start to finish in a day. Not too shabby!

Started weaving our first section of woven willow hedge. It’s been a few years since we last did it, but we seem to be remembering ok so far!

We were very kindly gifted some staging and seedling trays from a local farm who have been clearing out an old glasshouse. In a blink we’ve trebled the amount of propagation space. Roll on the sowing season!

The almond tree in our garden is putting on quite the show! Lots of signs of spring here; blossom, bumbles, bulbs and brimstones!

A shout out for Apios americana, or hopniss. It’s a climbing vine that produces edible tubers. Starchier than a potato and with a higher dry mass, they fry up really well. The yield isn’t as high as potato but they’re perfect for scrambling up a high boundary fence.

We’ve started constructing a new woven fence. We’ll be using willow rods from our coppice to weave between hazel uprights. It’s been a while; pinning our hopes on remembering how we do this as we go!

Chilli, pepper and aubergine seedlings getting pampered under the grow lights. Next up we’ll be sowing the tomatoes.

Trip down to Sussex today to collect timber harvested from woodland coppice. Chestnut posts, hazel stakes and Douglas fir boards.

Before and after the digger. Feels bare but a necessary job to remove large volumes of accumulated farm junk On this section of yard we removed two skips of waste (mostly glass, metal, treated wood and plastic) This area will be planted up with fruit and nut trees & wildflowers

We’ve been finalising planting plans for our new glasshouse beds. This season we’ll be growing tomato, aubergine, pepper, chilli, tomatillo, cucumber and melon with an understory of herbs and flowers. This is the first time a crop has been grown in this space for over 20 years!

We’ve planted 30 willows on an area of field that stands wet. Our aim is to pollard these in a couple of years time by cutting the main stem to shoulder height. This will keep any new growth out of reach of grazing deer. We plan to use the pollarded rods for woven willow fences

Is it that time again already?! Our first sowing of the year; chilli, pepper, aubergine. Plenty more to come over the coming months.

Oyster mushrooms ready for harvest!

First day done of a big week. We have a digger and dumper in and we’re grading and clearing 50 years of accumulated farm junk from our main work areas. Great start so far!

Spent the morning planting up trees These 250 saplings will form a hedgerow to surround a new traditional apple and pear orchard. Thanks to everyone who came to lend a hand!

After a few days of making dead hedges we are shifting our focus to some living ones. We’ve staked out a 50 metre mixed native hedgerow in one of our pastures to provide a more diverse habitat mosaic. We’ll be planting this up on Saturday with a work party.

Our next batch of native tree saplings has arrived. On Saturday we’ll be planting these up with a work party to create 50 metres of hedgerow.

Making dead hedges today using the brash from tree prunings. They’re great for creating habitat. This one is on the edge of one of our ponds and should provide shelter for insects, amphibians and small mammals. No need to be dragging any of this stuff off site or burning it.

Oyster mushrooms starting to pin on our low tech growing columns. A week or so and we should be inundated!

Keeping on planting fruit trees here. This winter we are establishing three traditional orchards planted within a mosaic of wildlife zones, agroforestry lanes, coppice and hedgerow habitat. We are planting apple, pear, plum, gage, medlar, quince, almond, Asian pear & mulberry.

Trees trees trees! Planting up a section of orchard with pears, apples and quince.

We’ve just been informed we have 20 fruit trees being delivered tomorrow so we’re scrambling to get organised. They are mostly local heritage variety apples and gages for our new orchard areas, but also include apricots for inside our glasshouse.

A sodden day clearing our way through old glasshouses and collapsed buildings. We’ve finished filling another skip, this is the 15th one since moving here. It’s by no means the last!

Until recently we’ve made do scrounging glass from old structures on the farm to fix up our large glasshouse. After much searching we found a great supplier of second hand glass. There’s over 100 sheets here, which should be all we need to finish the cladding. Exciting times!

We’ve begun planting up a traditional orchard with trees on vigorous rootstocks spaced much more widely than modern orchards. Long term this will provide excellent habitat while also giving us a harvest. First up its cider apples and russets

Getting on clearing out a collapsed glasshouse in our main yard. Started by picking out the worst of the glass before pulling out the main structure. We’ll likely replant this area with a thick wildlife hedge. It’s a good time of year to be getting on with these tricky jobs

We started the week by clearing the last of the bramble from the inside of our 30x30m glasshouse. It’s been a mammoth task spanning the last 4 months. Still plenty to do, not least glass replacement and clearing the roof, but a huge milestone nonetheless!

-6.4C in the glasshouse last night. Brrrr Stay toasty everyone!

First attempt at spoon carving. Not too shabby!

Spent the morning making some stuff. Here’s a ‘donker’ or a ‘bonker’ (those in the know put me right here on its actual name!) made from an off-cut of chestnut. This year we’re hoping on doing more making things. Learning some new skills and honing some old.

An evening of fire, food and stargazing at the farm. Wonderful to be able to share this place with some lovely people.

A few months ago we took the decision to clear the whole of our derelict glasshouse in one go, instead of doing it in stages. It’s been an enormous amount of work, but now nearly done. Massive thanks to Hannah who has doggedly plugged away at what felt like a never ending task.

Oca harvest 2025! Happy with the yield this year, couple kg off 5 plants. Ground looking great too with loads of worms and soil life. We’ll save the biggest biggest tubers to plant next season.

Kaki persimmon going into the forest garden section of our glasshouse. We’re excited to see how this one gets on. Variety: Rojo brilliante

You probably have to be a certain age to remember these snorkel parka jackets! Proper blast from the past. Found wrapped around an old water pump pipe for insulation.

It’s always a bit eerie cutting your way into an old glasshouse knowing that no one’s set foot in there for decades. This glasshouse should be an interesting one; it’s one of the closest to the house and seems to have more contents in it than others we’ve cleared out.

After a solid morning brushcutting some chill time in the hammock is in order! If anyone needs me, I’ll be dozing in the glasshouse.

Shaping up to be a pleasant day here. We’ll be strimming some access paths and plotting out new hedgerows, paths and dead hedges.

A wet and dreary one out here today. We made good headway clearing the glasshouse and hauling old equipment out of the way.