We have been thrilled to see the emergence of wildlife in our pond. We’ve already noted the frogspawn and toad spawn – these have developed and we have many fat tadpoles swimming around. We’ve also seen newts, water boatmen, water snails, various nymphs and most excitingly, dragons flies laying eggs!
As part of the Coronation celebrations, we offered people the opportunity to come up and help out with our wildflower meadow.
The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust ran the ‘Bee Together’ Programme with us last Autumn. Children from Embsay Primary School plug planted flowers and sowed seeds, all originating from local estates and farms. We were instructed to leave the meadow over winter. Now, in Year 2, we needed to weed out any small (or larger!) docks and thistles, mow early if required (since we removed the turf initially, this wasn’t necessary) and wait with baited breath.
Marian, our very knowledgeable neighbour, agreed to come down to help us identify the emerging plants. We were all relieved when she told us that a good amount was coming through, including yellow rattle.
Just over the beech hedge, a small team started to build one of our pond dipping platforms.
We have been really pleased to welcome a small group of D of E students to the plot over the past couple of months. They have been a great addition to the team. They’ve busied themselves sowing all sorts, including potatoes, beans, salad, brassicas and flowers. They’ve planted a few trees, weeded the veg beds, planted up tomatoes in hanging baskets, shovelled wood chip, planted rhubarb and some spring bulbs and fed the chickens!
We all had such a good time welcoming lots of new visitors to the plot. The weather was glorious – it was as though we had planned it. The daffodils were in bloom, cakes were baked, plants ready to be taken to new homes and we even had our very cool Holme Grown Eastby tote bags available.
Thanks to everyone who helped out over the weekend, and I’m amazed to say, that many hands made light work of the huge pile of bark chips – the veg patch and soft fruit areas look great.
We have all been waiting to see whether the pond would start to encourage wildlife into its waters. Over the last few weeks, we have been more than a little bit excited by our findings….
After an unseasonably warm end to Autumn and start to winter, the cold has now hit us. A week of freezing temperatures has left the pond frozen solid. Dave the Doodle has been enjoying his new skating arena. The moors above us have enjoyed bright blue skies, and beautiful frosty scenes.
The success of our flowers this year got us thinking about extending the growing period. The flowers were really popular – they just made people smile, especially us! An evening of indulgence with some nice wine and bulb catalogues, got the three of us, pretty excited. We ordered plenty of daffodils and tulips, and decided to plant them in one of our no dig beds in the veg patch. We cleared it of weeds and set about planting in lines, to maximise space.
Daffodils: Cheerfulness, Thali, Tahiti, White Lion and Winston Churchill
Tulips: Belle Époque, Ronaldo, Jimmy, plus orange, pink, red and purple blends.
Hers’s looking forward to Easter time next year.
We’ve been busy harvesting our pumpkins. We loved the Crown Prince and Marina di Chioggia varieties last year, so we have grown them again. In addition, this lovely Porcelain Princess….
We are getting ready to ‘winter proof’ the plot. Despite the very dry summer, we still expect the field to get wet and a bit boggy underfoot in the next few months. Thanks to a contribution from the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund, we have been able to dig, line and fill a number of paths in the main plot – extending right the way down to the bottom of the field.
