After our weekend plans were thwarted by our expected visitors getting sick, we took the opportunity to plant out our newly-arrived sloe bushes. We’ve wanted to grow our own sloes for a little while now, as there aren’t many in the hedgerows around here, and had ordered some bare-rooted bushes back in the summer, expecting them to arrive late November/early December. In fact they arrived early – along with two cranberry plants replacing the ones that we managed to kill – and so the free days were put to good use.
We’d decided to use the bushes to fill the gaps along the side of the orchard where we’d added the beds earlier in the year – one between the pumpkin/potato bed and the asparagus bed, and the other gap where the bank was at the other end beside the wood. Both areas were overgrown with weeds and full of stones and clumps of mortar that annoyingly breaks up when you hit it with a shovel – all remnants pointing to it having been an old ancient wall long ago. We also found a toad hiding in the soil, which was a bit of a surprise!
It took us a good day of digging – first clearing the areas to make them flat, and then digging holes and trenches to plant to sloes in – the latter which the pickaxe came in very handy for! It also gave us an opportunity to use some of the bark mulch left from when the yew tree was cut down. Hopefully the bushes will grow to form a nice hedge as well as provide us with sloes, instead of looking at a mess of weeds!
We also took the opportunity on Saturday morning to walk up the side of the valley and into the woods that run along the top – it’s sometimes hard to stop when there’s so much to do, but the autumn colours around here are simply too beautiful to miss. It was such a lovely clear day too, with great views across the valley. A good reminder of why we moved here!
Ley Farm Cottages 