Gate Expectations

We’ve been meaning to repaint our gate sign for a couple of years now, but it’s never got to the top of our priority list. This weekend we finally started – and it turned into a much bigger job than expected. Once we’d sanded down the sign, we realised we’d have to sand the entire gate – both were covered with dirt and algae and looked like they’d never been cleaned before. It must have taken about 9 hours and 10 sheets of sandpaper – well worth it though as now the gate and sign look fresh and new. We’ve repainted the gate sign too so people can actually see the name of the property – another positive impression on guests when they arrive.

We also finished renovating the cold frame which has been a job ongoing for a few months. We had to replace two panes of glass after one cracked and I dropped a pumpkin through another – since then we’ve puttied the windows into place and sanded and painted both inside and out. It looks like I didn’t allow enough time for the putty to dry annoyingly as the black paint has started to crack a little – turns out it can take up to 6 weeks for the putty to dry! At least we have plenty of paint left. We’ve already moved plants into the cold frame as we’ve completely run out of space in both greenhouses – it’s given a good opportunity to move some things around and start to harden plants off in the plastic greenhouse.

John also finished two odd jobs that have been waiting a while – sanding (again) the brick path we built between the Farmhouse and the orchard which looks so much cleaner now; and filling the gap between the New Barn and the original barn wall with the gravel dug out of the kitchen garden so far. The plan is to store the fruit tree covers here once we take them off, so raising the ground means both avoiding a deep step down and an opportunity to get rid of the gravel from the kitchen garden as we gradually replace it with brick. A win-win situation!

Spring is definitely here – along with all the jobs that brings. We only got through half of this weekend’s job list so we’re looking forward to an extra couple of days next weekend to catch up! This week John mowed all the lawns again, starting with the farmhouse to make sure it looked nice for our new guests who arrived on Friday. The grass has really enjoyed the damp mornings and hot sunshine.

We then repaired the fruit cage which houses our blackcurrants, redcurrants and raspberries. Every year someone chews holes in the plastic netting and sneaks in to steal all the fruit before we get there – the blackbirds usually get stuck in the cage and I need to let them out each morning. We found three holes this year so have covered them over with more netting – hopefully that’ll keep the mice and birds out for a bit longer!

We’ve planted the first set of potatoes (both first and second earlies as we’re a bit late in planting them) and caught up with more seed planting. We’re still only planting out March’s seeds so it seems crazy we’ve run out of space already. This year though we’re planting a lot more flower seeds than normal – we usually only focus on vegetables but with the Farmhouse being rented out we’re trying to fill the gardens, and supply our own fresh flowers for our guests, rather than buy them each week.

With Spring comes the first blossom in our orchard. The trees all come out in different stages – first are the stone fruit trees and then the pear and quince trees. The medlar, apple and mulberry tree don’t blossom (or even show green) for a while longer. This year the pear trees are full of blossom so hopefully we’ll get a great harvest from them. The plums, damson and greengage trees are looking less promising – one of the jobs we didn’t get to was to feed them all and mulch the quince tree. Definitely top of the list for next week…

This Friday saw our second Easter holiday guests and our first same-day changeover for a while, which we just managed to finish in time! We weren’t helped by various odd DIY jobs needing to be done – why do they only happen when you’re short on time… We’ve added a few new things to the Farmhouse too following guest feedback – we’ve added a cute door stop in the kitchen and bought a baby gate as previous guests fed back that our doors are wider than normal and ones they brought didn’t fit. We also left a tub of bird seed in the Farmhouse – we’ve noticed that recent guests have been filling up the bird bath by the kitchen and leaving bread on the bird table by the conservatory, and since it’s coming to nesting season we thought guests might like to attract birds with the seed and watch them from the conservatory. It’ll be interesting to see how much of it is used each stay. And finally we’ve added a bar stool into the Games Room – we should have added two but as one came without the necessary parts, it’s sitting half-built in our house for now!