British Summer Time, Hooray for longer days!

Hello and welcome to all new readers and Hi to our regular friends. This is the first week where the Journal will just be placed onto our fresh and revitalised website…freyjagarden.com You will receive a notification each month, regarding the Journal, rather than each week. We do hope you all continue watching and reading our progress. 

Well, this has been a really busy week. Bob continues progressing the Freyja Project dealing with electrical and mechanical engineers, architects and builders. Oh…and he also made time to direct sow seeds. The big push has begun and the seedlings have been moved from the greenhouses to the growing beds. All hands to the pump (or trowel).

The Farm

So, the lovely Bob directly sowed the seeds of Carrots, Kohl Rabi, Spring Onions and Radish and the seed potatoes into the polytunnels. These are crops which grow quite quickly, we should see signs of growth within two weeks.

Carrots do not like being transplanted, which is why we direct sow. They are also susceptible to carrot fly as the flies do like the smell of the carrot foliage. The fly is not able to rise above a meter which is why we have a netted gate at the doorway of each tunnel. The door not only prevents entry to carrot fly but also those pesky rabbits! 

The radish and spring onions germinate quickly and grow very quickly. Radish are a great veg to introduce children to the art of growing. Our chef really enjoys both as a garnish and as a dish. 

As mentioned in a previous Journal, we are experimenting growing many potatoes for Chef Alex. The first earlies have been planted into a polytunnel…Bambino and Casablanca. They should be cropping in June. 

Lucy and Graham have started the big plant out. This starts now and continues over this season and throughout the Summer. Along with the Broad Beans last week, we now have Mesclun, Lettuces, Spinach, Cauliflowers, Kohlrabi and Peas shared between outside and inside growing beds.

Mesclun and Lettuces are grown throughout the year here on Freyja Farm. They grow slowly during the colder months but as the days are longer and warmer, the speed at which they grow increases dramatically. Once planted it is a matter of just over a week or two before they can be harvested for Mesclun and just weeks as a whole Lettuce. 

The Kohlrabi has been placed into an outside bed with a fleece over to protect from cabbage root fly. We should be harvesting these “satellite” like goodies from May. 

Spinach has a bed inside a tunnel and in an outside growing bed. This should extend the growing season of the Spinach…always a great addition to menus. 

The Cauliflowers are in an outside bed, covered with fleece. Another reason for covering many of our crops growing outside is to protect from pigeons! They have a habit of pecking out the newly planted greens, sometimes to eat and sometimes just for fun. 

The Peas…always sweet and tasty…are inside a tunnel. We generally grow these outside. But this is our first Pea crop of the year and slightly earlier than normal. Once again, we are trying to extend the growing season and have Peas now and some later in the Summer. 

All the re-set and bed prep now makes the planting out more organised. The crops, literally, just need planting out as all the fresh compost has been placed and the re-sizing of the beds makes it simpler to plant out as all the beds are geared up for the distance measuring of each plug plant. 

The re-set has continued into the soft fruit cage, which is right at the back of the Green Field of polytunnels. This is a designated soft fruit area of Raspberries, Strawberries, Loganberries, Blackberries, Rhubarb and the cage of Blackberries and Gooseberries. 

The fruit bushes within the fruit cage have had an annual trim and a mega thick layer of wood chip to act as a mulch. This will mainly help to retain moisture around each plant but also to reduce any unwanted weed growth. It also looks pretty neat and tidy as we go into the blossom and fruiting season. 

Still more work to do according to our white board of duties. But it is all going to plan. 

The Walled Garden 

The plan for the next phase of the Freyja Walled Garden is progressing even if a little slow. We are at a little impasse as we await the greenhouse to be erected. In the meantime…more work has been completed on the greenhouse plot. The breeze blocks are all in situ. The earth has been placed back along the front and back of the interior area of the greenhouse. A soon to be paved path will be created between these two growing beds of earth. We will be placing fresh compost onto these beds. It is exciting to think that we will be growing in this ground, which will be very hot in temperature during the Spring and Summer months. Wonder what we will grow? (Don’t worry…Bob has a plan). 

In front of the greenhouse, as you can see from the photo, there will be a path. All the hard core has been levelled ready for paving. 

The trees and bushes in the soft fruit bed have all established with beautiful buds popping on a daily basis, which is wonderful to know that we will have crops from the walled garden this year.

The grass around the Orchard has had its second cut of the year. Luckily, I do not suffer (toooo much) with hay fever as freshly cut grass smell is a joy. I do sympathise as I have that hay fever head the first and second week of July…which probably is due to grass pollen.

As little rain is forecast over the coming weeks we will watering the fruit bushes and also giving the fruit trees a drink. We all do wish for lovely sunny and dry days. But, for a gardener a huge duty of care to all our crops is to ensure they are well watered during the Spring and Summer months. The watering habit is slightly forgotten during the wet Autumn and Winter months, so we do all encourage each other to "check the watering" till the habit returns.

YouTube

This week’s YouTube Channel offers the best edition yet! Graham and Alex have a chat. Graham informs you of the Big Plant Out while actually planting out crops. "Snax" (Graham’s trusted Black Lab) even gets in on the act. Click on the photo below to go to this week's episode. Enjoy!