Favourite things...

Borage, Heartease, Malva Sabrina, Roses, 'Night Sky' Petunia, Bee Friendly flowers

Raised beds and Bee ing friendly!

Much of the early Springtime was spent preparing new areas of the Seedlings Woodland Garden. We cleared the old chicken run and moved it to a new location next to the walled garden. The soil is very fertile now and so in it's place, we put up a new veggie raised bed and a row of canes for climbing peas. In June, all of the Bee friendly seeds that were grown and watered in the greenhouse have been transplanted into the raised bed. There is a variety of herbal plants including: Borage, Clarysage, Bergamot, Heartsease, lavender and Poachers egg flower(named so for it's yellow and bee friendly appearance). The Bees love Borage flowers, which continually flower over the summer and also host medicinal properties such as alleviating depression and an natural aphrodisiac! There is a large healthy area of purple brocolli - which we are keeping an eye on as it could do with thinning out a little, but is growing large and well at present. In order to give the Summer a real bloom, we planted over 100 summer bulbs in the raised bed, a varity of Anemones, Gladioli, Lillies and smaller flowers.

Open Farm Sunday 2016 at Brattleby Farm

We were happy to have bright skies and good weather on Sunday 5th June. David took local children around on tractor rides, much to their delight. This is proving a main stay of our annual event that is part of the NFUs campaign to invite local community and schools into farms and rural education. Ruth made teas & coffees and provided Willow craft workshops, using a variety of willow. Our friend Pat O'Carroll (Greenheart) brought his woodcraft skills and set up tent with wood lathe and tools for families to enjoy learning new woodcraft skills. Local friends and neighbours contributed to the day: Derrick Bowser provided hot food and Caroline Moore provided carrot cupcakes for the children. All in all it was a friendly afternoon with around 70 local visitors. We will be repeating it again next year and working with schools for Open Farm School Days.

Sunshine on our faces!

Continuing the work from last Summer, we have spent the Springtime 2016 getting underway in the Seedlings Woodland Garden, we have put in tomatoes, planted carrots and climbing peas and nurtured the herb bed. Nothing makes me happier than having the children in muddy wellies, feeling the sunshine on our faces. We've contined to work on the wildlife area that included planting calendula, poppies, cornflowers, wildflower seeds and hosts a fantastic Bug House made by artist Julie Driftwood Dunlop! The chicken run has been moved into a bigger space and in place of the old one, our good friend Andy has helped build a raised bed for veggies such as our purple broccoli and surrounded by Bee friendly flowers and summer bulbs. The Greenhouse is our daily stop off point, watering the seedlings and watching how magically nature works. Every child should have the opportunity to enjoy such delights.

Busy Bees

June has been a euphoric mix of marvellous exhaustion. We have taken part in Open Farm Sunday - an NFU initiative. They gave us much support in running our first ever Open Farm Sunday, they got us on Lincs FM and in the Lincolnshire Echo. We recieved 150 plus visitors on the day! David spent the afternoon giving joyous children many tractor rides, we had woodland crafts for the 'Off The Grid Kids' project with Greenheart woodworking with Pat O'Carroll, Pottery Bee Tiles with Andrew MacDonald and making a Bug Hotel with Julie Driftwood Dunlop. We had curious visitors to our Woodland Yurt and we have plenty of workshops planned in the summer there... Then we took part in the two day Lincolnshire Show, hosting an Off The Grid Kids children's yurt with similar activities, promoting the work we do on Brattleby Farm and Woodland Workshops at the Yurt. The Seedlings Allotment has grown along fine amongst all of this activity. We have the pumpkins and squashes out of the greenhouse and in the raised bed. The peas are growing and climbing around the maypole, the herb garden is lush with golden sage, white and french lavender, parsley, chives and coriander...The greenhouse is brimming with a variety of tomatoes and cucumbers are growing on the shelving. I'm still fascinated by the idea of a forest garden in the greenhouse, different layers upon layers, but for now we are concentrating on the veggies and keeping the weeds away, We have planted an area full of poppies and wildflowers that sits next to the Bug Hotel. We spent a glorious afternoon identifying all the different Bumblebees, from Red Tails to White Tails. Bring on the sunshine!

Outdoor fun with the Seedlings crew!

We celebrated the start of May with several outdoor skills. Our good friends Matthew and Louise came along supplied with bread to toast on sticks around the fire! We also made Nettle & Potatoe soup - yummy! My lovely other half Dex gave me a Ghillie kettle for Christmas and so we made several cups of camomile tea out in the woods!

Glorious Greenhouse (Apply Self Regulation & Feedback)

Little hands have been helping me in the greenhouse. My littlies have been getting their outdoor education planting seeds in compost and watering them daily...Roots and shoots are appearing and we have a indulgence of pumpkin plants as well as a variety of herbs for making remedies. It is important to regularly take a step back and assess how things are growing. Patience is a virtue when it comes to waiting for seeds to grow. Sometimes they seem to take forever to germinate - but don't lose heart! Those tiny exciting shoots appear and before you know it, the seedlings are growing beautifully and the next step is to harden them off on a table outdoors.