The seedling slaughter, or, death by over-ambition

March 21, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

I am known, amongst those of my close acquaintance, for occasionally over-reaching myself. I’ve always felt that if I’m going to hit a brick wall in any of my endeavours, I’ll do it at a run. Some of the time this attitude has served me well but horticulturally it’s becoming something of a problem. My […]

Auditing the new orchard

March 15, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

When we planted our small orchard over the winter, we did so with no knowledge of how to do so. Luckily for us, the amazing Monty Don had made a short video on how to plant bare-rooted trees which we watched the morning we decided to make a start. It took us several weekends to […]

Getting our fruit trees FIG-ured out

March 10, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

You may remember that a couple of years ago I was utterly baffled by a little Brown Turkey fig that I grew in a small pot on my London patio. After a year of doing nothing interesting, this small but determined fig tree suddenly started to fruit over the winter and then promptly died for […]

10 things I’ve learned since moving out of London to the countryside

March 8, 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

I was delighted to be asked to share our experience of leaving London to move to the country by the wonderful Life after London team, who are well worth a visit if you’re planning your own River Cottage exodus. I chose to try to be brutally honest about how we’ve found it so far, and I’d love […]

Snow joke: cold weather is for the birds

March 3, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Life in the UK has recently been brought to a standstill by the revelation that we on this Northern European island have had some snow fall on us. It was admittedly something of a shock for us ex-Londoners to see just how deep snow falls out in the rural countryside and we woke yesterday to […]

Planting an edible boundary hedge

February 25, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Our little smallholding is surrounded by very appropriate but rather ugly stock fencing. We needed something that would fit in well with the rural nature of our village, but that would keep our livestock safe (and, frankly, would keep other people’s dogs out). However, the stock fencing that was in existence when we moved in […]

Sowing seeds with a toddler

February 22, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Ever since my oldest son was born, I’ve always tried to interest him in the outdoor world. We go for walks whatever the weather, we look at trees and plants and birds and investigate animal holes and tracks and calls. We also mess about in the garden, and he’s joined me in the garden since […]

Would that our wood would dry!

February 2, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

My paternal grandfather was a very clever man but one who despaired at the state of the world he lived in. As he grew older he regularly told my father and his siblings that he fervently believed that society would collapse in my father’s lifetime, and that the best thing any of them could do […]

Planning a traditional country garden in the front

January 28, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

We tend to focus on practical (read: food producing) parts of our smallholding when prioritising projects. But one thing I did want to do when we moved in was to fence off the back garden and paddocks from the front. This wasn’t just to make it more secure for the children and various pets that […]

Location, location, location

January 18, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Chickenopolis has moved. That is to say, we’ve moved our tiny flock of hens from one paddock to another. I am actually rather astonished at all that we’ve done to our smallholding since moving in October. But there’s still so much more to come. It’s our intention to build up a kitchen garden and a […]