February On The Farm

If it hasn’t been cold this month it’s been wet. Neither has been particularly conducive to much outdoor activity on the farm.

High winds took down my greenhouse which was really upsetting given it was the replacement greenhouse for the one that storm Eunice comprehensively destroyed a year ago. I wasn’t going to lose this one too – so we spent some time straightening out all of the bent parts, improvising bits to replace those that were broken, and putting it back together again. It’s slightly wonky – but never mind, it’s useable and that’s the main thing. Not much growing in it yet – there’s some broad beans but aside from that I’ve mainly been sowing flowers – my big plan this year is to dedicate two of the beds in the veg patch to flowers as I want a cutting garden. I have visions of being the sort of person who has rooms full of blooms – but to be honest if I manage a vase or two of sweetpeas I’ll call that a success! Having said that – I’d better not dedicate too much space to flowers – given the fruit and veg crisis in our supermarkets right now I think we’ll need to grow as much veg as possible.

The ‘keep sheep’ (those who belong to another farmer but graze here over winter) have now been collected and taken back to their home farm for lambing time. Given the weather that’s forecast over coming weeks, I think the fact that they lamb ‘indoors’ (in barns) rather than out in the fields will be somewhat of a relief. With the departure of the ewes we get our wildflower meadows back, and so begins the start of the new growing season. The meadows must be grazed over winter as part of the natural cycle of reseeding – the sheep pass the seed and tread it back into the ground. Everything will now start to grow and we’ll follow progress week by week – with the main flowering season being mid May to mid June.

But when it comes to flowers – the next blooms will be the wood anemones. Hopefully in the next few weeks when (if?) things start to warm up a little! Meantime at least the snowdrops are out and looking cheery!