Author: ARB76_HolmeG

August 2022

July and August have been the most productive months on the cut flower plot so far. Annuals such as Cornflowers, Scabious and Amaranthus have finally enjoyed the warm weather.  Sunflowers and Dahlias started half way through August and will hopefully be still going strong into September. My periennal Achillea and Astrantia are some of my favourites. I hope they will be back bigger and better next year (if they survive the winter wet!)

I loved helping some of my floristry friends in Skipton prepare wedding flowers at the end of July. The brief was homegrown blooms so I took along a few buckets from the plot and garden. It was lovely seeing some of my flowers end up in bouquets, buttonholes and table decorations for the big day!

We were thrilled to see some new residents arrive at the plot….. two hives of honey bees. Monty and Karen are well know around the area. They are the ’Bee Keepers of Embsay’. I don’t think there’s anything they don’t know about looking after bees. Anyway, it was with much excitement that we all watched them drive the bees down, in their car!!!!!!!! Apparently, this is perfectly safe. They were hopeful that the bees would enjoy their new home as we are just within flying distance of the heather on the moors.

A few weeks later and Monty and Karen were really happy with the progress being made. They were able to separate the queen bee and get the workers, working.

Just yesterday, we learned that the bees were thriving and producing honey already. I’ve seen them enjoying the borage in the veg patch and we were given some honeycomb to taste.

What a lovely day we had out on our stall at the village fete. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting lots of interesting and interested local people. Val’s flowers bloomed on display and a bumper fruit and veg box was raffled off. The main difficulty for our winner was how to carry it home!

This year, I decided to set myself a new challenge. Over the past six months, I have completed a Level 2 City and Guilds Floristry Award at Craven College. I also wanted to combine my love of gardening and floristry by growing my own cut flowers in a sustainable way. I feel very lucky to be able to grow on a small slice of land at Holme Grown Eastby. I’m keen on planting as many perennials as possible and plugging the gaps with annuals. This is my first year with a cut flower plot and I’ll try to share honest updates of the highs and lows along the way.

June update:

Although my perennials are still getting established in their first year, many are also busy flowering. The Geums; Mai Tai and Scarlet Tempest are particularly floriferous at the moment. Lines of Feverfew, Oxeye daisy and Shasta daisy are all about to burst into flower. My Purple Sensation Alliums have just gone over but I planted Alchemilla mollis alongside them to hide the tatty allium foliage as it dies back. I can’t wait for the Allium Sphaerocephalon drumsticks to have their turn soon.

Some annuals are doing well and I picked some fragrant Apricot Stocks for a recent bouquet. To be honest the slugs have devoured many of my precious annuals grown from seed; cornflowers, snapdragons and umbellifers have all succumbed. I’ve tried wool pellets, layers of grit and beer traps; it’s a steep learning curve in the battle against the slugs! I’ve been planting out my dahlias this week. By waiting until now they will hopefully be big enough to tolerate some slug damage. Time will tell!

Seth, and his beady bird eye, spotted something in one of the nearby trees. After much excitement, the ball off fluff, it became apparent, was actually a baby tawny owl. Visitors came and went as it perched there, calling to mum. A few days passed, and we found it nesting in a few other trees, including the silver birch by the veg patch. All seemed well….

Another few days passed by, and the friendly owl began to make more noise – again, calling mum to come and feed it. It got braver as it decided to come down to a lower level. It spent a whole day on our fence, allowing people to walk past with nothing more than a silent twist of the head.

We called a bird specialist at the YDMT who advised that the owls, upon first leaving their nest, do something called ’branching’ and in all likelihood, it might have fallen and then struggled to get back up. It can definitely fly though, as I found it amongst my brassicas this morning, in the middle of my veg patch!

We will keep a watch out and keep you updated….

Many months ago, the idea for a cutting garden at Holme Grown was shared… So when Jack arrived with his digger, he was asked to create some flower beds at the same time.
In January, Abby and Val visited Natasha who has a cut flower business in Linton, for ideas. They came away very impressed and with plenty of ideas plus the realisation that sowing in the autumn really can help get things ahead for the spring.Natasha’a seedlings were looking great even at the beginning of the year!
Undeterred, plans were made; seed catalogues studied; seeds ordered and generous offers of seeds and plants gratefully welcomed. It has been really fantastic to have had so much help and support from fellow gardeners. Seeds have germinated, seedlings potted on and plants now fill the beds.
We’ve learned a lot along the way and have ideas already for next year. Today though we were delighted to harvest our first little bunch of cut flowers. Blooming marvellous!

When we took over the land from the previous owner, the walls were in a poor state of repair – we patched up some areas quickly and used stock fencing to plug gaps – mainly to keep dogs from roaming over neighbouring fields. However, the art of dry stone walling is not something to rush and we have Tim to thank for taking the lead… below are his comments.

Dry stone walls are a beautiful feature of the local landscape. They do, however, need quite a lot of maintenance.
Repairing the walls that have been damaged by livestock or rainwater is quite a task. Tim, Paul and Ernest began work on the section of wall near the stream earlier this year when they cleared silt from under the bridge sleepers.
Before the wall can be repaired, quite often large sections need to be taken right down and a foundation prepared. Stones were sorted according to size in order to facilitate the building process. Larger ‘through stones’ were placed in the wall to provide stability and, as the wall gained height, it was built narrower and infill of smaller stones provided structural integrity. Finally, shaped ‘top stones’ were aligned along the top.
The challenge is to select stones carefully so that they fit together – a bit like a three dimensional jigsaw. It is strenuous work but rewarding as the structure starts to take shape.