Self-Sufficiency in Style
february 2004 diary
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Self-Sufficiency in Style february 2004 diary |
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| The early part of February brought some unusually warm weather, before settling back to night frosts again. | |
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At this time of year, the weather determines everything. When working in the walled garden, you see the signs of spring long before anyone else. Even the first crop of 2004 shows: Rhubarb. This is an early variety, but has been given no special attention. Forcing to bring an even earlier crop is possible. We will probably try that another year. |
Timperley Early.
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Neglected pear. |
Pruning is a massive job, unpleasant with frozen fingers, but nice on a
warm day. Some of the trees show signs of neglect. Somehow this wall trained pear, never gets enough attention. It is on the north facing wall, and there is always a good excuse for staying in the sun. However, a real session with the pruners, and it will be OK. |
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Pears, apples, medlars and quinces are dealt with first. The cherries,
plums, apricots and peaches are left till last. A huge pile of prunings starts to accumulate. This will all be burnt at the end. |
Ready for burning. |
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The tunnels and greenhouses are pleasant to work in at this time of year. |
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The peas are in bloom in the tunnel. |
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The greenhouse is getting full with propagators full of seeds. We start most seeds in the greenhouse. The only exceptions being root crops such as carrots and parsnips, which started to go directly into the ground this month. The propagators are heated with electricity. It is cheaper than heating the whole greenhouse. As soon as any sensitive plants get too big for the propagators, we will have to heat the whole greenhouse. |
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Work with the animals continues, but we did have a disaster. |
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Saved, but not enough. |
Because of the drought last year, our hay was not worth cutting, so we
bought a trailer load from across the road, carefully stacked it, and
covered with a bright blue tarpaulin. Alas, the wind blew, and the tarpaulin blew off. The rain rained whilst the wind still blew and the hay got wet, very wet and mostly went mouldy. So we saved what we could and bought some more. You can't keep cattle and sheep without hay. Pigs don't need it, although they do like some grass from time to time. |
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The pigs are being moved from paddock to paddock, leaving a nicely
prepared planting area behind them. We have got plans for potatoes, maybe some maize and perhaps sunflowers. The pigs do a good job, just a pass with the cultivator later and the paddock will be ready for a planting. |
No back-breaking digging. |
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Although, we have many small paddocks with good fences, nothing will stop a pig destroying them - except an electric fence. All animals quickly learn to keep away from an electric fence. They are an enormous help in controlling livestock. |
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The excitement of the pigs when moved to a new area is simply delightful.
Mother and daughter bucket around for hours, honking at one another and at
us. Instead of spending a large part of the day lying about, they become very active, especially if the sun is shining. The fences would last five minutes with a sow in that mood, they would be through it and indoors with us, if there was not an electric wire strategically placed where the snout would make the first exploration. Anyway, the grass is eaten, then the area is very thoroughly dug over. |
Happy sows.
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Grazing pigs and porcine tractors at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
