Its going wild and .....

   The weather has been ideal for the garden. Warm and wet. Everything is growing including the weeds. This will be the last blog for at least four weeks. I am taking a trip with my best mate to New Zealand to see the British Lions rugby union tests. Bit of a trip of a life time. So what have I been up to? Planting out more lettuce, tying up tomatoes which are doing really well, weeding (always!), transplanting vegetable spaghetti and finally pruning the vine! You will note that grass cutting is not in the list. I should have. I know I should have but I did not get to it. It is going to be a jungle when I get back! Just for fun I counted up the number of different plants I have in the vegetable garden including multiple varieties of tomato and potatoes and the total came out at fifty six. My small sowing of broad beans has produced a worthwhile crop and I have had several helpings of nice young beans and parsley sauce.
   On the animal front we finally got to finish the shearing of the sheep for this year.  Two ewe lambs have also been born and the flock has made a few attempts at trying to get into areas they are not supposed to. The female duck continues to lay and all three really enjoy the pond when the water is changed. On the chicken front we lost a Limousin chicken to fly strike, not a nice way to go. She died as I was trying to clean her up. Guess it was just too much for her. Our broody hen, Mrs Chick, failed to hatch any of her eggs. Not really surprised, however, another hen, Mrs Sussex, is now sat on a batch of eggs. When she gets to her hatching time we are going to introduce some day old chicks.
  Well that is it for now. Back in four weeks!

Steady as she goes!

  New arrival! First lamb to be born this year. Ewe and lamb doing just fine. We are now in the middle of shearing our Ouessant sheep. This ewe gave birth the day after she was sheared!
   In the garden the never ending round of tying up tomatoes, weeding, grass cutting, edge cutting, transplanting and cursing chickens continues. Added to this mix were sheep! The little blighters broke down a gate and got into the garden The worse damage they did was to eat three out of five of my celeriac plants and they ate all the tops off the carrots not to mention leaving foot prints over the beds! Could have been worse. The best thing they did was eat the weeds around the apple trees. First picking of broad beans has been done. Very nice they were too with a bit of parsley sauce. I have been fighting the Ambassador peas. They are not germinating well, least that is what I think. Could be mice I suppose but I am having to resow into gaps. The mangetout which is next door to the peas is doing just fine! I have now transplanted 5 dessert melon plants into an outside the poly tunnel bed. It will be interesting to see how they do. I also transplanted Provence thyme plants and should have a nice bed of thyme in time (pun?). Where allowed to by chickens and sheep vegetables are more or less growing well. It looks like being another disappointing season for the Gigante runner beans. Potatoes are thriving! Sprouts are thriving . Never grown sprout plants like them. Still a long way to go though. Parsnips and summer cabbage looks good as do the next lot of lettuce and the beetroot. Outdoor tomatoes are looking better than the ones in the poly tunnel! Now that is a turn up for the book!
  On the chicken front we now have two broody hens both sitting on eggs. Mrs Chick if she is going to hatch any it should have happened by the next blog. Mrs Sussex has only just started so she has a few weeks to go.

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

   Oh boy! So much to do, so little time to do it in. I am off to see the Lions play in New Zealand in nineteen days time and I need to leave the vegetable garden in a reasonable state otherwise it will be just one mass of weeds! So, I have to get on top of the weeding and stay on top until I depart!

Beetroot

Tomato set in the poly tunnel

   Vegetable spaghetti. Tried to grown it in the UK a number of years ago without success. As I was given the seed by my youngest grand daughter I thought it was beholding on me to try again! Seed sown, germinated and three leaves all within a week. Scary. "5 Dessert " melons sown to pots and they are up also. Wautoma cucumber transplanted to an outside the poly tunnel bed. These are an American style cucumber which does well outside. "8 ball" courgette transplanted and are well now well established. They are a round variety. The remaining Nigel's Outdoor green chili and Basque chili plants have been transplanted outside the poly tunnel. I bought some polish seeds, yes polish, and discovered that they were a type of chive. I have also sown more lettuce, butternut squash Sank Martyn pumpkin and Justnyka pumpkin directly outside. Transplanted Blacktail Mountain water melon to my prepared melon bed. More carrots, more spring onions and haricot buerre sown! Its go, go, go. Grass cut, tomatoes tied up. In the poly tunnel Marketmore cucumbers have been transplanted to a bed. Of course grass has been cut and weed weed weed!

    On the animal front we have finally got around to starting to shear the sheep. Always fun and games. Mrs Chick continues to sit on her eggs and fingers crossed we may get some chicks. 

Transplant, transplant and yes transplant!

Our snoozing Ouessant sheep flock

Poly tunnel tomatoes

    The weather has been variable with sun and showers. Still, it has not been too hot to work in the garden.
   The last week has been dominated by transplanting. Tomatoes, sweet peppers, (orange mini bell, yellow stuffing, Wisconsin Lake red, large orange) cauliflowers, cabbages (Precoce Louvier, Golden Acre), chili's (Basque, Nigel's Green Jalapeno pepper), basil (Lemon, Mammoth Lettuce leaf, Sweet Genoese) with still more to do. Also Gigante runner beans, Borlotti beans, dwarf french beans (haricot vert), radish, winter squash and more basil sown. Amongst all that asparagus was cut, radishes pulled, lettuce cut, last of the leeks dug up, weeding, fence fixing and mowing the grass! Phew! Busy time.
  On the animal front one of our hens, Mrs Chick, has gone broody and was sitting on six eggs. Unfortunately one egg was nibbled at by another chicken and had to be removed. We will be very fortunate I think to get any chicks. Mrs Duck continues to lay daily and the sheep, well are being sheep.

Country things....

    Living in the depths of the french countryside has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is having bullocks living in the field next to yours and the "gate" between your field and them is nothing but three pieces of vertical wood connected by barbed wire and sheep fencing! It is very common here for entrances to a field that contain cows just have a piece of string across them. Seems to work most of the time, however, these bullocks decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence and they pushed the "gate" over and came into my field and ate my grass! This happened three days running and they destroyed one of my fence lines.I had got in touch with the farmer who came and got them out of my field. Pretty large animal a bullock! On the last occasion the farmer replaced the posts the bullocks had demolished and moved them to a field further away from mine. Oh what fun! In the past I would never have gone near a bullock but when you are mad and trying to get them off your grass ones fears goes out of the window! Alls well that ends well I guess.
    So, what else has been going on this last week or so. "Evie" sprouts, (seed was given to me by my youngest grand daughter for my birthday present) have been transplanted to an outside bed along with Precoce Louvier cabbage. They are now well established and looking good. Over eighty mixed variety tomato plants have also been  transplanted. I am trying a new idea this year. Instead of having one large bed of tomatoes I am planting nine or twelve plants at the ends of various beds. The idea is to avoid blight. If one batch of plants get it hopefully the others may not. In the poly tunnel early purple spouting and a winter savoy type cabbage have been sown. I have also sowed another variety of cucumber, marketmore into pots.
    I have managed to break the handles on my mower again. I am obviously using it in a way it is not designed for! Lol! Fortunately my bush whacker will cut the grass to a reasonable level although not as short as the mower.
     On the animal front chickens are being chickens. The ducks are being ducks and the female continues to lay. The sheep are looking fed up with their fleeces and need to be sheared. The rat population has taken a major hit with our new neighbours cat catching a good number of them.

It went quite...

   This  blog is covering two weeks. The first of the two weeks was very quiet with odd jobs being done, like a little wood splitting (tiring!), fix to a gate and moving sheep from the large field to a paddock to allow the grass to grow for hay making. Other work done that week was changing the duck pond water and I transplanted some Provence thyme to pots! Oh, not forgetting the cutting of a lettuce and mowing the dreaded grass.
   So the second week has been a little busier. I cleared a small bed of weeds into which I think I will put courgettes or melons. Maybe a pumpkin? Umm. I continue to earth up the potatoes to protect against any frost which is now becoming rarer, however, last frost date is not until the 15th May! More sweet peppers and aubergines have been transplanted to pots leaving just a few sweet peppers to do. The various types of basil, lemon, mammoth and sweet Genovese are growing well. A good number of asparagus spurs have been cut although the chickens got on the bed and I think have done some damage to the plants. I noticed that the first lot of carrots have dared to show themselves so it will not be long before I will need to get the second sowing done. The chickens have taken a fancy to the pea bed so I am resowing and trying to protect them Chickens are a double edged animal. Good for bugs etc bad for anything green and succulent.

Evesham Special Sprouts

First lot of outside the poly tunnel lettuce

Jersey Royal Parsnips weeded and thinned out

An uncertain time, take a gamble!

   At this time of year one is always trying to get ahead of the game. Unfortunately there are risks. Frost is a constant danger until the middle of May yet there are many seeds that need to be sown and the resulting plants protected from the potential frost until that time has passed. Still every day that  goes by should and I say should mean a less chance of frost. Currently the skies are clear and the frost comes every morning. The  temperature has been around zero first thing in the morning but once the sun comes up the frost is soon cleared. So far I have had only one or two plants suffer and no losses, yet. There has not been any rain for some time now and my water butts are all but empty. Time to pump water from the well.
   In the outside garden the potatoes were growing well with me earthing them up every evening and I will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks at least .The onset of the cooler weather they have stopped growing so fast.  I have transplanted Brussels Sprouts to an outside the poly tunnel bed and covered them in horticultural fleece. They are the best sprout plants I have managed to grow since being in France. 
  In the poly tunnel melons, squash and cucumbers have been sown and placed in the poly tunnel fleece cloche. My tomatoes are now outside the cloche but well covered up over night. I am cutting lettuce and pulling radish. The lettuce has been very good. Sweet peppers have been transplanted to pots along with Basque and Nigel's Green chili.
  On the animal front the female duck continues to lay and the chickens are being a menace by taking dust baths in my vegetable beds. The sheep are being sheep but soon will need to be sheared.

Ambassador peas