Despite having a four day weekend we’ve had family to stay in the Farmhouse and so not had much time to catch up on jobs. Good Friday was taken up with a same day changeover, and then Saturday we headed out to Charmouth for a walk and some fossil hunting on the beach. We’ve only been to Charmouth once before but several of our guests choose to visit there when they stay – it’s been added as a recommendation on our Guest Recommendations board in the Games Room so we felt like we had to go. The views along the South West Coast Path were fabulous – you had great views of Golden Cap further along the coast – and all the spring flowers are starting to appear, providing very colourful bushes and hedges.
We made the most of having family staying in the Farmhouse to do a few bits in the garden this weekend. We replaced a fir tree in the front garden that died in last year’s heatwave – we’d hoped in vain it would recover. We had to wait for a weekend we could access the garden – it’s quite a hot sweaty job to dig out all the roots and not one you want to do with guests in the farmhouse! We’ve replaced it with a pittosporum and some poppies, and planted some lupin seeds which hopefully aren’t too late to take – now we’ve cleared the weeds around it too the soil looks quite bare and is just likely to attract more weeds if we don’t fill it. John also managed to get through a little more of our bonfire pile – he still has a mammoth job ahead of him though to clear it all!
Our broad bean seedlings have been planted out too – a job that was hugely delayed. This year I’ve sowed purple and wild carrot between the rows – our broad beans got rust last year because I think they were planted too close together. So this year I’ve been reading up on companion planting to see if mixing plants will help create more space and improve our harvest. Although we still need to clear the remaining vegetables from our kitchen garden to make space for this year’s – hopefully a job for next week.
The Cow Shed has seen a little more progress, with the first coat of paint now finished on the ceilings. We have time set aside next weekend to get the second coat done. And we’ve also touched up the front of the Shippon wall where the render cracked and the plasterers repaired it when they did the interior. One step at a time…
Ley Farm Cottages 