White Out

Whiteout in the garden

The snow and freezing temperatures last week left us scratching our heads for outdoor tasks, but despite the white-out we still managed to keep busy. Last Tuesday, before the snows came, we stirred and sprayed our Three Kings Biodynamic preparation. Made from gold, frankincense, and myrrh, this special preparation is stirred with water for an hour and sprayed along the boundary of the farm or garden— in our case, the boundary of Sheffield Organic Growers (SOG)—by growers and farmers all around the world on January 6th. It is believed to welcome good spiritual forces into the land and repel the bad. It’s also a wonderful way of surveying the farm or garden in a manner we don’t normally experience. For us, it offers a special reminder of all the great growing work our neighbours on the SOG site do, as we get the chance to cast an eye over their plots too (albeit in winter dormancy!).

We also made a start on our winter orchard jobs (see volunteer request below): strimming under the apple trees, pruning them, and placing woodchip around the base to encourage beneficial fungal activity in the soil. Of course, alongside the preparation spraying and orchard maintenance, we had the small matter of 180 veg bags to pack and deliver! Thankfully everything went to plan, despite the sub-zero temperatures and icy rounds.

This week has seen our growing year start off properly, with the sowing of our first seeds—lettuce and other salad crops destined for an early harvest in the polytunnels. There really is very little let-up in tasks on a busy market garden! But we still find time to enjoy nature’s delights; this week we discovered two baby frogs sheltering under crates in one of our polytunnels—if you look closely, you can see them among the woodchip in the picture below.

From Snowing to Sowing

White Out