A couple of weeks ago it was nice enough at the weekend to get out in the garden and assess its condition. We pruned and cut back the fruit bushes and trees that needed it, and discovered that most of the strawberry plants had made it through the winter - even the ones in the trough that fell off the fence in the bad weather and had been sitting ( Read more... )

Took some more photos in the garden today...

( Lookie here! )

Someone linked to this on a beekeeping forum I've joined - seems like a really cool idea!

Landshare - connects people who want to grow their own but don't have the space with landowners who are prepared to share. Also offers advice on legalities and has template agreements etc. Seems to cover the whole of the UK although some areas have more folks ( Read more... )

We thought we were going to have to artificially swarm the bees, because they were building queen cells (i.e. rearing new queens) which generally means the old queen will sod off with the majority of your flying bees, leaving only the younger bees who aren't flying yet along with a new queen once she hatches. This is generally considered to be a ( Read more... )

I've decided it would be fun to do a sort of photo journal of the garden - all the fruit & veggies, the chickens, and of course the bees. I'm starting with a big introductory post here, and I'll update as things grow and as we do stuff from month to month ( Read more... )

Our bees are here!

The hive is installed in the veggie patch section of the garden, and the colony is being left alone to calm down after being shut up in the hive and driven from Rotherham in a van settling in ( Read more... )

I suck at the whole 'posting more often' thing!

Good things that happened this weekend:

• New shower (hooray for plumbers!)
• Hot water tank that fills up all the way (extra-super hooray for plumbers!)
• Compost bin was delivered - this makes me very happy! Now I just need to determine the nearest recycling facility for tins and foil & we'll hardly be ( Read more... )

went to
( Read more... )