Tree Removal, Vegtable growth and The Walking Festival
A brand new green house, ready to be assembled, arrived this week. Craig, our Estate Steward, and Jacob, his Assistant, quickly took this on. It was up in couple of hours and is more like a green tent than a glass house, but it is quite big and will serve its purpose. Craig has now planted it up with tomatoes and cucumbers and also a vine at the far end. The cherry trees in the walled garden are showing a bumper crop and this year we are not going to let the birds get them first.
Meanwhile the vegetable patch is thriving, and we have already harvested radishes and strawberries. Jacqui was tasked with finding radish recipes. The most popular was radish soup which she tried out on us. We all thought the soup tasted fine but was perhaps just lacking something …we just couldn’t quite work out what!
Beans, potatoes, onions, lettuce and beetroot are all doing well, but the peas are a bit straggly and need resetting. Colin, our visiting gardener, has set us up well but in his absence the weeds are quick to surface. He has planted up some lovely hanging baskets for the courtyard and also prepared growing areas for both cut flowers and wild flowers near our vegetable patch. So far, the chickens are leaving everything alone. They are happy to be out in the walled garden but are fair weather birds and go inside as soon as it starts to rain. They are quite good layers for their age and we are currently getting about 18 eggs a week.
We haven’t seen the barn owls lately but Paul Barnes, Estate Manager, was recently out and about on the Estate when he spotted two tiny pheasant chicks in the grass.
Nettle strimming has also been on the agenda –we are trying to hit a balance of being tidy but still encouraging insects and wildlife. The cattle are doing a sterling job tree trimming as well as grass nibbling. They tried to stake their claim on the car parking area during the Walking Festival but reluctantly moved off when asked.
The Walking Festival comes to a close on Sunday, but we managed to attend a lot of lovely walks. We are hoping that the Festival’s launch might be from South Ormsby next year.
Andy Bonnett has been busy cutting the grass on all parts of the Estate, and as we can now collect the grass cuttings following initial stages it is looking neat and tidy especially up at the Rectory.
The huge fallen tree on the North entrance path finally got rolled on Sunday morning and we can now get it chopped up and taken away. The cattle will miss the old beech -they seemed to be drawn to it and we have some great images of cows, calves and bulls with it.
The winning photo for the competition we recently ran on Facebook has now been chosen. Congratulations to Tina Ainsworth who has won a place on the Photographic Workshop this coming Saturday (9th June). Tina, along with others attending the workshop, will get the chance to learn about their cameras while capturing images of the stunning Lincolnshire Wolds. There are still places available should anyone else wish to come along -see our Events page for further details or call Leanne on 01507 311 446.
