News Feed
You can keep up to date with the day-to-day goings on on the farm here, or by checking out our Facebook page or Instagram.
Runner beans and sweetcorn will be planted out soon.
Chilli plants have grown well and have now been potted on. Watch out for the Carolina Reaper ‘the hottest chilli in the world’.
We have installed an irrigation system to cut down on the use of mains water for the plants. Rain water is collected from the roof, filtered and stored in IBC’s . The rain then trickles out by gravity to water the plants.
Spring was beautiful here at Holly Farm
Despite a few setbacks with the weather the greenhouse is really starting to take shape now. The roof is on and all the window frames are in place.
Now we have received permission to build the greenhouse work can really get going. We have removed all the existing collapsed building, levelled the site and built the end wall.
As soon as the weather improved we began our veg plot. Removing the turf and spreading compost on 3 large beds. The other 2 beds we have left the turf and covered it with membrane and bark chippings with a view to planting squashes and courgettes.
The weather has caused us a few headaches but we keep being reminded of the beauty around us.
One of our first jobs was to clear years of growth of nettles, brambles, and holly. We began to wonder if every plant on the farm was painful to pick up! We even discovered we had two buildings we didn’t know about – completely covered in ivy.
Having lived all our lives in suburbia, we have a drive to develop a more sustainable lifestyle. We are looking forward to creating a productive orchard, veg garden and introducing chickens. This month we have taken a significant step towards planting our orchard and making a home for our first two-legged livestock with the installation of 150 m of fencing.
Hopefully, this will stop the deer, rabbits, and foxes eating our produce. Now that the fence is in, it feels like we have reached a milestone where we can finally start planting!
With the help of Philip (our friendly local farmer) we have cut back the hedges on the farm and cleared the ground under a collapsed barn. We are now waiting for planning permission to build a greenhouse in its place.