Achies Farm

That’s not a veg bed, it’s a pond.

After a couple of years battling with very soggy starts and ends of the growing season, which just batter my veg plants, I decided to build raised beds. I started last year in the large poly tunnel with lovely gravel pathways. This has transformed the swamp into a beautiful growing area.

Excuse the mess, this photo was taken just as we finished re-covering the poly tunnel.

So now to move onto the outside veg beds. I managed to get two beds done right at the end of last year, just leaving 13 beds to go.

Today, the timber arrived. Hooray. Luckily I have two very large compost bays ready to be used. I foresee a busy few weeks to come.

Trying a bit of science

For those of you into your veg growing you will know that covering a veg bed in black membrane for a few weeks before planting can raise the temperature of the bed and give the seeds a better chance of germination. And that putting black containers filled with water in a poly tunnel or green house can adsorb the heat from the sun during the day and slowly release it during the night to help prevent the temperature dropping so much overnight. Well, working on that theory I decided to try and experiment.

I had to paint the concrete floor of my small poly tunnel to give it some extra protection from wear and tear. So if I paint it black will it work on the same principle of adsorbing heat from the sun during the day and release it at night. Time will tell.

Bee…utiful day

Today the sun has been shining and our bees are starting to fly. There favourite flower for the months of March seems to be our hellebores. Whilst doing the end of winter tidy of the short flower border I spotted them buzzing round the flowers having a mid morning snack.

Later in the month, on warm days, when the willow starts flowering they will be gorging themselves on this to provide pollen and nectar for the hives as the queens start to accelerate their production of new brood. It is a hungry time for our bees and we are very fortunate to have both willow and gorse for them to enjoy.

First flowers of the gorse starting to show.

The short border is now looking tidy ready for the year to come. Just need to dig out my extra thick gloves to give the roses a prune. Ouch.

Propagation preparation.

Now that the large poly tunnel is completed I had the opportunity to set up my propagation area. Just in time as March tends to be a busy sowing month where the seedlings still need some tlc. I have my heated propagators on a shelf below my heated bench. This gives me a range of temperatures to work with and I then have my little poly tunnel to move the young plants onto before they progress to the cold frames.

Being on the north coast of Scotland means we can never tell what weather in going to hit us next. When out working in the sunshine today it is hard to believe it was in the minus figures just a couple of weeks ago and so easily could be again before we get spring proper.

But keeping me ever cheerful is the happy little faces of my snowdrops. They seem on a mission to take over areas of the fruit garden so I grabbed a quick snap to share when out walking the dogs.

The next on my list to keep my eyes open for is my hellebores. Another great plant to give your day a boast. Mind you, I have a feeling some tidying of the borders may be required to find them. No rest, maybe the weather will be kind to me this weekend.

A day of ends…

I love a day which is spent finishing off projects. Today was the completion of the re-covering the poly tunnel project, which just involved raising up the hoops and then tidying up all the mess produced during the work. How is it that so much mess results from these types of jobs. I feel a bonfire coming on to get rid of the old wood. Also finished rabbit proofing the new fruit trees. Good luck to the pesky rabbits if they try chewing off the bark now.

My joyful moment was planting out some of the radish and spring onion seedlings into the first poly tunnel bed. There is something so uplifting about the very first planting out of the year. I wonder what tomorrow will bring…

How many fruit trees does an orchard make?

Well as far as I am concerned the answer is 7 as that is how many I have just planted. This includes Bramley Apple, James Grieves Apple, Merryweather Damsons, Czar Plums and William Bon Chretien Pear. I have them spaced out 8m apart, staked and have started organising wire meshing around them to stop the pesky rabbits chewing the bark off them and my dogs deciding they are a stick to be chewed off and ran round with. Tomorrow I will finish off the rabbit proofing and mulch well round them to give them a good start in their new home. I was delighted to spot the willow rods I planted a couple of weeks ago for the orchard hedging and some wind protection have started sprouting. Now I just have to cross everything and hope they survive the unpredictable Caithness weather.

Putting a new cover on the large poly tunnel

We have been making the most of the nice spring weather to put a new plastic cover or the large poly tunnel. We spent the weekend fitting new base rails and have now started fitting the plastic. Sides and one end done so far, so just one end left to go. Hooray. It was a pleasant early March day today but got up to 35 degrees inside the large tunnel. Toasty.

Transplanting the Dahlia seedlings.

The first set of Dahlia seedlings were transplanted today. I germinated them in my heated propagater, and then moved them onto the heated bench in the large poly tunnel. It is supposed to get cold tonight so I have popped an extra layer of plastic over the top of them to tuck them up for the night.

Sowing more flower seeds

With my propagators working well, the tomatoes, chillis and peppers were ready to get moved onto the heated bench in the large poly tunnel. The freed up some space so naturally I had to sow some more seeds. These things just have to be done. I am in the planning stage for building a bee friendly garden this year to give the hives some extra forage which naturally means I will need more plants. So today I sowed: Nepeta Cataria (True Catmint), Centaurea Scabiosa black top, Aster alpinus albus (white beauty), Perivskia atriplicfolia Blue Steal (Russian Sage) and Dahlia (showpiece double mix). I have also popped some Eryngium Caeruleum (Sea holly) in the fridge to cold stratify. I am pretty sure that last time I grew Eryngiums, which still give me a lovely show every year, I didn’t cold stratify them but that’s what the packet says so who am I to argue. And I still have a whole load of seeds stashed away for my next propagator free space. I wonder how long it will take me to fill up the small tunnel as my little babies grow.

What I have sown so far.

I have hit the growing season like a tornado. I think a very long, cold, snowy winter here in Caithness during a lockdown has given me itchy feet to see some new life emerging. So I dragged out my heated propagators, fired up my grow lamp and broke out the seed packets. So over the last month I have sown, Aubergine, onions, lettuce, radish, spring onions, coriander, parsley, tomatoes (orange queen, craigella, rosella and Black Russian), peppers (citrina and lunchbox mix) and chillis (de cayenne) for my edibles and Dahlia (mignon mixed and sunny reggae), hollyhock roses (Halo white), kniphofia (traffic lights), Echinacea ( Large flowered), Foxglove (summer king) and Rudbeckia (rustic dwarfs mixed). Lots of little plants to look forward to.