So in the midst of Storm Ciara we began our sowing. Unlike my experience of vegetable and salad crops where planting takes place from Spring and through into Summer, tree planting can begin in mid Winter but thankfully can be undertaken under cover! So over the weekend, and obviously in-between watching the Six Nations Rugby matches, I battened down the hatches and made a start using our specially formulated no peat seed growing compost.
I have been very excited to see our first Acorn shoots emerge. This season we sown the acorns in a range of one tonne potato boxes half filled with bales of straw topped off with our home made Organic compost. The point of this being to make hand weeding easier in our no spray system as the growing area would be waist height and so avoids any bending, or so I thought. It was later pointed out to me by a budding engineer that this will only work if everyone involved in the weeding is of the same height (didn’t take an engineer arrive at this but he got there quicker than the rest of us). I was then reminded by the office (also under the guise of human resources) that distributing tasks and jobs amongst the employees based on height is likely to land me in hot water. So far, the hand weeding team range in height from 5 feet 2 1/4 inches (the 1/4 inch is very important) to 6ft 5 inches (the engineer and still growing); clearly there will be dissent amongst the workforce!
Our farm is aptly named Wood Hall Farm and as one would expect we have a considerable number of established trees and woodland. As I write, Storm Ciara appears to be on the way out or at the very least on a break. Tomorrow I will take stock of the damage she has done around the farm. I have already witnessed a few fallen trees around the house and garden but really we have been very lucky compared to some people and businesses. If you have lost trees over the weekend then you might find inspiration from our Woodland pages where there is a huge body of information on the trees and hedging that we have in stock https://www.organichedgingandtrees.co.uk/woodland-plants/. Similarly, we are always here to offer any advice just send me an email sales@organichedgingandtrees.co.uk or give me a call 07711 493753.
