Getting Started

I have a day off work, the weather is not great and my better half, Steve, suggested I started a blog. Not entirely sure what a blog was, I agreed and now find myself sitting at the laptop typing away my random thoughts.

I live on a smallholding on Bodmin Moor and its a place that since I moved here in January I want to be. I enjoy my job but don't want to leave here in the morning and look forward to returning to when the days work is done. Unusually for me I haven't wanted to go away on holiday this summer I have just enjoyed being here and pottering around, picking some of the fruit and veg we planted in the spring, that the local wild-life have rejected!

The spuds have generally done ok but some varieties have done better than others, the broad beans got off to a flying start but most of the earliest ones had their flowers destroyed by rain and rotted but we have had a reasonable crop from the second planting. Steve's lovingly planted seeds of carrots, parsnips, celeriac, fennel, peas, onions, radish, lettuce and beetroot have been eaten as soon as they got above ground. Cucumbers, courgettes, peppers, grapes and tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing well, but the aubergines are rubbish with just two fruits on about ten plants. My gooseberries bushes have been attacked by caterpillars, raspberries have been slow to fruit(but are an autumn variety so I'm hopeful), the strawberries have grown loads of leaves but little fruit, cranberries nothing, blueberries nothing. So disheartening after all the hard work but this was always going to be the year we learned about our land, soil and pests! Next year we will be ready for them and we are determined to win the battle!