Messing with Hops!

Meanwhile, this week saw the annual hop replacement in the kitchen. Hop petals EVERYWHERE!! It just rained hop petals. Luckily, I had Janine helping me. Good job it's only once a year! We returned to The Haven Farm where they sell them. Try to imagine the smell of a granary full of hop bines! I usually have some home dried contributions as well. It all adds a bit of colour on a dark winter's day.

Winning against the Weather!

Our new Japanese tripod gardening steps arrived and so we were looking forward to test driving them whilst picking the last of the apples. We unpacked them with much excitement but were very disappointed to find that they had been damaged in transit. It was a double disappointment as the couriers: Tuffnells lost the first order and so had to wait ages for a second order and delivery to be processed. A real pain when fruit is waiting to be picked - sigh! Remind not to use Tuffnells! Not be be outdone, I managed to do all of the mowing before it rained and then retreated indoors to make soup from the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Making hay while the sun hardly shone at all!!

Meadow hay in a coffee bag!

I think my favourite triumph was 2nd prize for meadow hay. Not only was I up against seasoned farmers with tons of the stuff but; it was Rob and Sally-Ann who gave up a few precious hours and helped to cut it. It was only turned 4 or 5 times as we had less than 48 hours of sunshine. Because rain was predicted, I bundled it all up, lugged it into the garage and spread it out on the floor and opened every door and window! It smelled glorious and, still does! before you ask, 'Who's going to eat it?' It will be used in the chickens' nest boxes inducing them to lay even more prize winning eggs!

Prize Winning Eggs!

The girls really came up trumps! They won a clear first in a very toughly fought class. Apart from strong shells and a prominent yolk of a good colour, I'm never quite sure what else a judge looks for in eggs. You will see that one of each of every 4 shown was cracked open into an adjacent saucer. We won a 2nd a few years ago (and with less competition) but have struggled until now. Well done my little egg layers! Of course, we ate the winning eggs for breakfast the following morning!

Chutney Success!

How exciting to get 2nd at Stoke Bliss for a chutney made from home grown excesses! Just because we have been really enjoying eating it doesn't necessarily mean that a judge will like it and the competition was pretty fierce! The ingredients were our Bramley apples, yellow & red tomatoes from the greenhouse, grated ginger, onions & spices. Instead of using malt vinegar which I think is always rather harsh; I opted for cider vinegar. I reckon it was the cider vinegar that nailed it!

Our grand total for 2017

Another BIG thank you to all who helped achieve this amazing record breaking total!

Filming for The Shed of the Year Competition with Will Hardie & George Clarke

Will admires Lionel

A seriously big camera!

George 

The runners up with George!

Its Official - The Pear Hut wins Runner up!

Many thanks to all who voted!!

Shed of the Year Competition 2017

The changing views of Woodbury

...And the jury's still out! All thoughts & comments welcome.

September Saturday Slog!

Not much tree but lots of hill!

Despite a distinctly autumnal feel, there's been quite a few things going on the garden this week. The last of the Yew got its annual haircut.  Last week, we did the random Yew hedge which Chris hates doing! Teetering around on the top of a pair of steps whilst wielding a pair of shears isn't the easiest but it's good for my pecs!

Random hedge trimming

This week, he trimmed the Yew tree by the greenhouse alone but only because I was busy making the bacon sandwiches! Next on the list was revisiting the Tibetan cherry which was pollarded a few weeks ago. There has been so MUCH debate about this tree which was obscuring Woodbury Hill in its entirety. I knew that it didn't enough space for growth before Woodbury would again be obscured in no time at all so; this time, we've done a more radical pollard - more in the French style. If after regrowth, it looks too awful, we'll remove the remaining trunk. After all there's a Witch Hazel behind it and we've planted over 35 trees in this garden which is surrounded by a further 24,000 apple trees! Incidentally, summer pruning is meant to help prevent silver leaf.

The afternoon was spent picking half the apple crop from our trees and Chris made a start on power washing the flag stones as the algae makes them deadly when they're wet at this time of year. I made a start of Geranium reduction and waged war against whitefly in the greenhouse. Another typically varied Saturday!