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Liz loves September on the smallholding

8:00am Saturday 28th August 2010

I love September with a passion. Really I should hate it as I was not a huge fan of school but despite those gloomy memories, the excitement of harvesting from the garden and from the fields, the warmth of the days compared with the slight crispness of the nights and the dramatic changing of the countryside all combine to make it one of my favourite months together with May. Both these months herald a change and that in itself is exciting. Make your winter plans in September and you can look forward to a warm and comfortable season, make your summer plans in May and you can confidentally expect to have a good harvest. This autumn and winter we are planning to plant a cross between a permaculture forest garden and a traditional orchard on our smallholding. Our large veg patch has gradually been moved (albeit smaller) closer to the house to raised beds and a more controlled situation – with a poly tunnel also awaiting erection. So we have decided to utilise the previous garden area to experiment with ideas such as a fruit hedge, a ‘grow your own” foraging area, nut trees, apple trees and even to introduce funghi. We are going on a course run by the Eastern Apple and Orchard Project on how to start an orchard which I think will be very helpful and are keenly viewing a DVD on Forest Gardens. In this month’s Smallholder we continue to follow the fortunes of a reader who is using home grown willow to heat their house and also examine a grant scheme to plant more woodland.

The advantages of being a smallholder

5:30pm Friday 6th August 2010

Much has been written and broadcast on the so-called austerity Budget and the myriad of details plus the on-going implementations are still to be totally understood. During all of the recession, the price of buying a smallholding has not really changed and this month our property article looks at whether its still a good time to buy a smallholding. In the light of the Budget, I’d say that having some land and the ability to be in some part self-supporting has to be a good thing. You feel a bit more independent of Government intervention when you know that you are about to eat your home produced veg and your hens are providing eggs. But I think its important too not to skimp on the input to your self-supporting – hens for example need a balanced ration to lay and to maintain their health so scrap feeding (even if it were not against the rules) and cheap corn are not an option for economy. Finishing livestock to freezer weight is also not a time to cut costs though with all livestock it is time to pay attention to the most basic of feeds, grassland and forage (hay, haylage and silage). If you are overstocked it will cost money to put weight on the animals to bring them to slaughter or you will have health problems in over stocked chickens causing welfare problems, losses through death and vets bills. So do your sums and make sure that you have the right number of livestock for the facilities and that they are produced to a high standard nutrition wise and in management. The increase in VAT will have an effect on all of us when buying equipment, it might be a good time to review your needs and work towards some bigger purchases. The other effect for smallholders is that there may be less money around if you are selling specialist products and you may need to review your marketing – on the other hand local produce on a stall outside your gate at reasonable prices will be snapped up.

Editors Welcome in July

1:00pm Thursday 1st July 2010

Summer time, and though all is busy on the smallholding, it’s great to have long days to fit in everything that needs doing and (assuming that we don’t experience torrential summer downpours) not be clad in boots, coats and scarves. Though I do nearly always wear a hat in summer as it saves me looking like a boiled beetroot in the evening.

Bees, bees everywhere – but where is the honey on my smallholding?

1:43pm Friday 4th June 2010

I’ve just read half of Bill Turbull’s book “The bad beekeepers club” in one sitting. What a fabulous, truthful book from a man who I am sure is a much better bee keeper than he claims to be. I winced as I related to his accounts of what the bad beekeeper does compared to the good beekeepers view. I, for example, have just been down to the bees and forgot my hive tool How can you forget anything so vital? Let me recap. At the weekend my friend Richard (a very good beekeeper) came over and we approached with some trepidation the hive that last winter we had fed and closed with the words, “we’ll sort it out in the spring!” It seemed such a long way off in October.

Ducks and the Ice Cream Van - on my smallholding

9:59pm Thursday 22nd April 2010

A typical evening here on my smallholding. Look around to see where the Abacot Rangers are and cannot find them. I mentioned to one of Smallholder magazine’s esteemed contributors, Mike Ashton, that these were the “thickest” ducks I had ever had. Previously it had never occurred to me that ducks would not return to their house at night as in many, many years of duck keeping this had always happened. Runners, large commercial ducks, Bali, Crested and my beloved possibly Rouen type Duckle and family all returned at night – if indeed they had left the boundary fence.

One Swallow on the smallholding still

1:10pm Wednesday 14th April 2010

It's now the 13th April and still only one swallow on the smallholding. He sits hunched up at night in Jade's stable, glaring at us. If anyone else has swallows or swifts, please do leave a comment or email me on liz.wright@smallholder.co.uk - I really would like to know. Also have you seen a hedgehog yet?

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