Happy New Year Everyone.
I trust everyone had a fabulous winter break with snowflakes, snowmen and snowballs but I am now back to working off my expanded waistline due to sherry, ale and turkey, a whole stone has been added! Those who went to the meeting will have seen me, hiding in the corner, out of sight, trying to avoid any public speaking! My name is Guy Cunningham and I will be working on the Promised Land with the aid of James and Katie Genever. We all felt that it would be a great idea that a diary should be written, keeping everyone up to date with what is going on, the joys, heart ache and comedy moments. I hope you enjoy….
October 2009
We marked out all the plots, with 3 roads and made a start on the rabbit fence. The fence on the Casewick side goes about 10 inches underground to stop them burrowing under, with the rest of the fence curled out ten inches for the same reason.
We collected the brassicas (spring cabbage, chard, spinach, broccoli, calabrese) and the cloches and started planting.
This coincided with the high winds, any eagle eyed walkers would have either seen the cloches flying across a field or wrapped round a cow! Needless to say, much of my time was taken up by chasing these cloches.
A special thank you to the Ekins family for their assistance with the planting of brassicas.
November 2009
The brassicas were completed and the perennials (raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, etc.) were next on the list. Four varieties of strawberry and 3 varieties of raspberry were planted all with different fruiting times, the plan being that there will be a more constant amount of produce over the summer. The gate was also erected, old railway sleepers were used which give a lovely old rustic but stable gate.
December 2009
The very start of December saw the planting of some broad beans and garlic. This was one of the colder experiences of planting with 5 layers the norm and the Genever’s kettle got a good hammering from me! We also tried to stem the flow of rabbits entering the Promised Land from the spinney next to the grain sheds by placing new rabbit fencing around that field.
Guy’s diary continues here