Spring cultivations for field vegetables

The first jobs was to use our sheep to graze the grass and mow removing the tough grass not eaten by our sheep. Then we broke the surface using a set of deep tines.
They will go deeper but we aim for 6 to 8 inches giving aeration and a key for the Rotary Cultivator.
Then cultivate to about 5" using the tractor mounted cultivator. I like to limit the depth to a minimum, in an attempt to reduce water loss.
For the first time this year we rolled the whole area to compact and loose less soil moisture and hopefully make it easier to lay the biodegradable mulch.

A Radnor Flock

I was checking hives in one of my Herefordshire sites, they have a pedigree flock of Hill Radnors so I thought a photo would be of interest.

Leek seedbed prblems

Seedling raising in cold frames is fraught with hazards, we have come up against the short tailed vole yet again. there we were thinking we have the leeks nailed for a another season. Sowed 5,000 seed and covered three days ago and hey presto vole city.
The next thing we do is buy in 5,000 seed for sowing in modules where the lights will hopefully bring the seedlings on to catch up with the ones destroyed by our friends the voles.

Sowing

It's a root day on our planting calender, so today we have sown golden and Forono Beetroot, and Fennel also Leeks not a root plant but we're not working to a council of perfection. The germination room is still in use but as the weather improves we will be sowing more in the tunnels rather than under the expensive heat and light of the germination room.
For seeds that still need that extra control over temperature we have a small cabinet which gives some light and bottom heat, it's kept in the germination room so we can control temperature. Useful for lettuce that need a cool germination temperature even in full summer.

Garlic

Last winter we planted our first Garlic in one of our raised beds. They protected by a mesh giving virtually no frost protection but does serve to keep the chickens and pheasants etc off.
Took this image yesterday to check progress. There has been reasonable growth despite the longest cold spell for many years and very little foliage damage despite being covered with snow for weeks on end.
Tough stuff that garlic

Ongoing seed sowing

We are continuing with seed sowing we plant using the Biodynamic diary by Maria Thun. This helps organise our sowing schedule and does in my opinion have a small affect on germination and growth rates.
So a leaf day yesterday we sowed Spinach, Coloured Chard, White Chard, lettuce heading and loose leaf. Also Brassicas, Purple Sprouting and Brussel Sprouts.

All the onions are sown and have emerged Leeks are sown in trays, tunnel and frame but only the ones in trays are up. Carrots are sown in the tunnel and given a delivery and dry weather I am hoping to broadcast the green manure that follows our Brassica crops.

The season is the latest we have seen here, so I'm guessing that when spring does arrive everything will happen at once.

Weather patterns over the past 10 plus years leave us either wondering if the rain will ever stop or panicking that we will be in a drought for the season. In addition to the late spring this is the driest march I can remember.

Millie

A couple of pictures of our trainee sheep dog, seen here holding our Hereford flock in the corner ready to be loaded. We collected and loaded the sheep, we wouldn't have won One Man and His Dog but we got the job done


Millie proving she can concentrate when needed, showing "eye" on the ewe and lamb.