Roundup

... haven't used any, but it has been recommended to us for various projects in the last couple of weeks. From clearing under the pear trees, to killing the invasive and tenacious alder buckthorn which we need to deal with in our woods. We won't of course, preferring, as we do, the hairshirt approach to land management...

What else? 100lb of seed potatoes are in the ground in 3 long rows, 3' apart - we spread horse muck to about 4 inches and disc harrowed it in, then I ran the tiller over it with the furrower on, placed the potatoes with at least 18" spacing, and covered them up to a few inches depth. The furrower is also a hiller, so I'm hoping that when the time comes to mound soil on the growing haulms, I can run it between the rows and do two sides at once.

The Queens County Farmers' Market has been running two weeks now and even when it's quiet, can earn a few dollars - we've just about covered the cost of the seed already, but we've been selling our transplants which do seem to sell well - it'll be quiet now until the veg starts cropping properly (nearly have peas though!). We could easily have sold twice as many tomato plants. It's just finding the time to plant and tend for lots of seedlings... maybe next year we take orders. The market is a bind though, and I have a idea of establishing a small self-serve farm shop here. We could sell eggs and veg direct, have a box scheme pickup, I could try some bedding plants and we could even sell some frozen meat of our own, or from friends locally. For the future...

More pressing is the imminent arrival of this years piglets and chicks. Chicks are due on the 11th, pigs are due for pickup week commencing Sat. 19th. The chicks will be indoors for a few weeks, then out - we have a house and fence for the meat birds, but I have to come up with something for the new flock of layers. The pigs will probably go straight out, but I want to create a moveable hurdle fence to restrict them when they are still small.

We had a run in with a fox. I looked down the farm the other night to see him/her wandering off with a hen in his gob. The following night, we were keeping an eye out, but in a flash he was inside the fence! Jane and I plus two clueless dogs hurtled to the rescue. I got to within a few feet of him, before he shook free of the fence and streaked off across the field. We brought the hens back up closer to the barn and electrified the net - he hasn't been back yet.

We had an interesting walk through the woods with a local guy who won the Woodlot Owner of the Year a couple of years back. It's amazing what we have when you take the time to look, and I feel a blog entry coming about the woods.

There's a gap in IT work this morning, so I think I'll take the opportunity to get out and cut grass in the plot. I've been out with the scythe more, but this is a job for the flail mower!