Pre Christmas rush?

   Here we are at the 21st December, winter solstice. My thoughts are moving towards January and the sowing of onion seed and a distant thought about seed potatoes! Oh boy! It never stops.
   The last blog was published on the 12th. So what has happened since then? Looking back at my daily log, not a lot! I managed to move my leaf pile to its composting place before the chickens could get to it and the weather permitted. There has been more rain and the ground once again is saturated. In the poly tunnel the sweet peppers have now been removed and the beds they were in tidied up and top dressed. In the poly tunnel there is still lettuce, fennel and radishes to harvest and the spring cabbage (fingers crossed) looks fine. The purple sprouting has suffered badly from white fly and it has also grown tall due to lack of light I guess. In the outside garden I dug up some celeriac, beetroot, parsnips and turnips for stews and salads. There is less and less in the garden now. There are still some leeks, celeriac and beetroot and the rump of a row of carrots that I left in the hope that they might grow a bit with the mild weather. May  get some small ones from that row, you never know! There is spinach which is of edible size. My  nice looking broad beans are now looking moth eaten. Blooming chickens! The garlic is ok and looks like it has now slowed up a little, however, the last lot I planted is now starting to show. With there being no frosts it looks like we are going to get our Christmas potatoes from a raised bed outside of the poly tunnel. I have had the bed fleeced over for a couple of weeks now and the tops are still mostly looking heathly! Fingers crossed! There are probably one or two very small ones in the poly tunnel but not enough for a meal.
    Outside of the garden the turkeys and geese have been processed and are in the freezer. Really looking forward to eating the large goose. Good weights have been achieved with the fowl the largest turkey being 8.5 kgs, the smallest 7kgs. One of the geese came in at 5kgs which will be our Christmas dinner!

Two of four Turkeys in the freezer

    

Other things take up the time

   Well what can I say? In the eleven days since my last blog was published I have not achieved a lot at all! This time of year can be very depressing when there is so much one wants to do yet the weather is against you. Christmas is around the corner so that will also mean little getting done. Man!
   So what has been done? I have started to prune an apple tree. This work is ongoing and will take a couple of years before I am happy with the three old trees I have. Anything else done? Oh yes raked up some leaves only for the chickens to scatter them out again. Next time I will rake them up and clear them away! And that is it! Other stuff has been done, like cleaning out the chickens and processing two of the four turkeys but not garden related.

  A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to any readers!

Weather and short days

   The weather and short days continue to work against getting much done. There are many blank days on my garden log where nothing in the garden was done. Oh yes, made mince pies, cakes and Christmas puddings but no gardening! So, what little has been done? November sown radishes are being pulled and another sowing has been made and have germinated in the poly tunnel. It amazes me that they manage to grow to maturity at this time of year. A lot of tidying up done when the weather permitted, things like taking up the sweet corn stalks, some weeding and forking when the ground has not been to wet. Another bed of violet garlic has been planted as I was not happy with the first planting despite it looking quite good. The chickens did not help with this first bed of garlic. The chickens have also discovered my over winter broad beans and I have been forced to fence them off. I do not believe they have been killed off, just shocked! I managed to get my bonfire lit and I now have a pile of ashes. Horray! Trouble is I have started to build another one! I have also managed to get spring bulbs planted not without incident. I wanted to plant bulbs close to the bee hive. Of course, with my luck, the temperature got above 10C and guard bees started to appear out of the hive and they noticed me. I made a hasty retreat once one got a little to close for comfort. Later in the day I managed to finish planting the bulbs. 
   In the poly tunnel the Nigels Green Chillis have finally called it a day and I have removed them. There is radish, fennel, some lettuce and believe or not sweet peppers that can still be picked. My Christmas potatoes after showing such promise have been destroyed by mould, probably blight. I have some outdoors and as long as there is not a severe frost I might still manage to get some new potatoes for Christmas (famous last words those!).

Planting Tulips