Families Go Wild in the Garden!
Despite the unappealing forecast, we had plenty of family volunteers show up to the farm today. Luckily, most of the rain had stopped by the time we started work in the garden! It was a great morning for plants though, as they needed water after the last couple of days’ heat!
We had a look in the garden and saw that our plants were growing well. There were lots of weeds though, so we started off by pulling up what we could. Once we had pulled them out, we put them in the wheelbarrow, to put on the muck heap later. We tried our best to avoid pulling up plants that had been intentionally planted.
Once we had done some weeding, there was space for some more plants. This meant we could sow some seeds! We sowed Nasturtium seeds in some large modules, and Black Tuscan Kale seeds in small modules.
We then sowed Carrot and Radish seeds straight into the ground, as root vegetables don’t like being disturbed once they’ve been planted.
Once we had sown our seeds, we had to water them in. While we were watering, we also took the opportunity to feed some of our plants with a natural fertiliser made at the farm known as ‘Spitalfields Gold’. This is a plant feed made with comfrey and nettle, whose roots reach down into areas of the soil containing beneficial nutrients. Using their leaves for fertiliser is a great way to give plants a natural boost! The downside though, is the smell! Some of us had to hold our noses when we opened the bottle and used it (diluted!) to feed the garden.
Once we had fed the garden and watered a bit more, it was time to start tidying up. We put our tools and watering cans back in the tool shed, and took the wheelbarrow to the muck heap. As the muck heap is in the farmyard, we had a little wander in the farmyard to say hello to the animals.
We spent a little time with Marmite the ferret, who was a bit sleepy, and curled up on our laps when we held her. After a while, we decided we should let her sleep, so one of the family volunteers put her safely back in her enclosure.