sustainable garden

Brand spanking new!

2024-12-16T19:04:00.002+00:00

Thanks for your support of this blog over the years…

We’ve moved to a brand spanking new website….

Join us at http://sustainablegarden.co.uk

for blog and photos

National Garden Scheme garden visits

and more to come..

I become a boar..

2024-12-01T09:25:00.002+00:00

30 November 2024

Expectant males

Frogs last bred in our George’s Pond in 2021 - and successfully too as the photo of spawn shows. And so does this photo of expectant males in the mood for love - eyes staring unblinkingly back at me on a warm March evening in that year..

After that success there has been no further successful spawning of frogs.

We scratched our heads.

Could predators be the problem? My trail cameras picked up no major culprit.

Possibly a disease? There was no evidence of diseased animals.

Frogs, it was said, sometimes have fallow breeding years. Perhaps this was the reason..

We could find no explanation in that year or in the spring that followed when, once again, there was no spawning. We were getting concerned.

During this time, friends with garden ponds reported bumper years while no successful spawning took place here.

Could the difference be that pond vegetation had grown and filled ‘the beach’ where the frogs had previously gathered? Garden ponds often don’t have the same issues of encroaching vegetation. So, perhaps frogs need an open area of pond edge unlike their toad cousins who were frequently coupling ‘in amplexus’ in all of the vegetated areas around the pond. My 2021 photos certainly seem to support this as the frogs and their spawn were in open, shallow water.

Toads in amplexus 2024

Before humans despoiled natural processes, ponds such as George’s Pond would have been visited by large herbivores like deer, cattle or boar. They would have trampled the pond edge and grazed on encroaching vegetation that continued to grow in winter when other sources of food may have been exhausted. In doing so, they would have prevented ponds becoming engulfed by a succession of first low-growing water plants until eventually sallows and other water-loving trees would have grown and the pond would have become a muddy hollow..

'Beach' cleared ready for spring

There was nothing for it but for me to become a boar - or other such large. pond-visiting mammal. Armed with my brushcutter scythe I entered the pond to near-booter depth and cut away vegetation to create an open area. Continuing the role play I stamped about the pond edge to replicate the hooves of ruminants. By doing this, I also hope to open the seedbed to enable wider germination of native wildflowers.

Other open areas will be created for frogs before spring whilst still leaving vegetation for amorous toads.

I will have to wait until spring to see whether the mystery has been solved.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk very soon.

Joy in nature

2024-11-24T09:12:00.007+00:00

24 November 2024

Yesterday an emotionally-buffeting day with mum and quite probably another to come.

A necessary pre-breakfast walk to reenergise and load with serotonin and endorphins. Outside is now a warm 15C.

Heavy rain in gusting wind. I’m a North Sea trawler-man and the wet penetrates my waterproofs. I cut my walk short and head back to port.

Trees now bare and ground thick with their leaves.

High tide in George’s Pond.

In ‘Joy’ Nick Cave tells us “We’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy.”

Lives these days can feel over-burdened with negativity. For ourselves and others we must all find a place for joy - and nature is a great place to find it.

The warmth and dry of the house awaits.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Snow

2024-11-19T09:00:00.003+00:00

19 November 2024

Early snow, moving us with a click of the dial from autumn

to winter.

Eight skylarks above calling in easterly flight.

Greenfinches in swaggering control of the bird feeder.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Months and years ..

2024-11-17T16:56:00.006+00:00

18 November 2024

A day we’ve worked towards for months, indeed years, came today.

In April, John from Notts Bat Group set up a static detector in the garden and recorded:

Common pipistrelle
Soprano pipistrelle
Brown long-eared
Daubenton’s
Noctule
Natterers
Leislers?
Whiskered/Brandts?

.. and possible serotine bat when he monitored the

garden again in September.

We were amazed by this. We’ve worked for a decade opening up our woodland, encouraging native trees to thrive, building up the stock of deadwood throughout the garden as well as creating meadows and ponds.

All of these measures create food and a nurturing environment for bats but our trees aren’t

sufficiently old with enough fissures to provide lots of roosting and nursery sites for bats.

We wondered whether our garden is attracting bats from further afield and then wondered how we can provide opportunities for bats to breed in the garden..

To provide more places for roosting and breeding we successfully applied for funding from Severn Trent to provide Schwegler nursery bat boxes for the garden. NBG consider that these boxes are the ones preferred by bats.

Today, members of the NBG joined us and put eighteen bat boxes up onto our trees. We recorded which tree species, height of box, orientation and grid reference for each box. We also relocated two other unused boxes because they were positioned in a tree where branches restricted bats access.

We are entering the quiet time for bats but hope that, when spring comes along and bats become active again, that our boxes will start to be used.

NBG must have enjoyed their lunch because they offered to come back and help monitor the boxes in 2025.

As we sat together, I think we all felt immediately at home with one another, sharing as we did so many things in common including a passion for nature and a determination to make a difference.

Huge thanks to them.

This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon..

Atmospheric

2024-11-15T14:21:00.001+00:00

15 November 2024

The low cloud and mist have woven through the deciduous trees giving us a long, atmospheric autumn that has been quite lovely to walk through. Beech, birch and even sycamore contribute shades of gold. My ‘rake-athon’ continues, sweeping leaves from the drive onto the shrub

borders.

The garden is full of bird movement and calls. Goldfinches are enjoying the big stand of teasel.

A straggling skein of migratory pink-footed geese in characteristic V- formation overhead.

Fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds queue on the empty quince to take rich, red crab apples.

A scratching mouse woke us at five this morning, busy in the roof void.

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This blog moves to www.sustainablegarden.co.uk soon.

Beans ..

2024-10-31T07:30:00.010+00:00

Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled)
and Cobra (black) beans.

27 October 2024

We grow beans for drying.

They climb up our sticks over the summer, flowering and then, when pollinated will grow pods.

We leave the pods on the plants through summer and into autumn until they begin to dry then finish them in the house.

Mulched climbing beans

We sow Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled) and Cobra (black) beans.

You can plant different beans together and they won’t hybridise as beans are cleistogamous which means they are self-pollinating.

The dried beans are reconstituted and cooked during the winter. They make a great contribution to hearty soups and casseroles.

Some seeds are saved for sowing next year.

This year we’re trying something different. We’ve read that climbing bean plants, if protected from frost, can overwinter in the way that other perennial plants e.g. dahlias can.

The advantage of overwintered plants is that they already have an established root system and should, therefore, be quicker ‘out of the blocks’ than seeds.

It will be interesting to compare any overwintering plants that do survive and plants grown in spring from beans.

Leaf fall

2024-10-28T07:30:00.004+00:00

27 October 2024

Leaf fall.

The leaves of our deciduous garden trees are yellowing.

Sycamore. Silver birch. European larch. Beech.

Spent leaves play a huge part in the natural systems of woodland as well as being a treat to scrunch through.

My ‘Forth Road Bridge’ is our drive. We welcome leaves on the grass and beds but leaves make a squelchy

mess in the drive gravel. No sooner have I cleared leaves than more flutter down to take their place.

You’ll find me clearing leaves several times of the week at this time of year.

I clear leaves onto the soil where they will make a splendid mulch ideal for fungi, invertebrates mammals and foraging birds and then nourish spring bulbs and shrubs.

Southern hawker

2024-10-26T06:30:00.000+00:00

22 October 2024

Warm and still.

Dragonflies and damselflies are hunting over the meadow.

An impressive male southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea) in between forays.

A pancheon of soup

2024-10-23T06:30:00.014+00:00

21 October 2024

Busy continuing with the vegetable garden autumn tidy. As compost bins fill, order returns. Much still to do.

In the birch a single linnet in subdued song. A grey wagtail calls overhead.

Parasol mushrooms are impressive stinkers!

I half fill a bucket with big carrots for storage. Early Nantes had been sown, interplanted with tiny kale. Our netting has done the job and all the carrots come up clean. None of the telltale wiggly lines that indicate carrot fly. The once-tiny kale is now in its pomp.

Visitors tomorrow so a ‘pancheon’ of seasonal vegetable soup has been ordered.

Mum spoke of a ‘pancheon’ of soup. I think it’s a dialect word. D.H. Lawrence describes a large cooking pot as a ‘pancheon’ in Sons and Lovers.

Leaks. Carrots. Potatoes. Garlic. Squash. Tomatoes. Fresh rosemary sprigs and dried bay leaves. All from the garden.

Plus a Parmesan rind.

Dried peas are soaking and will be cooked tomorrow for addition to the soup at the end. it’s an old variety we grow called ‘Ambassador’ that is a marrowfat.

If you’re counting that is seven plant species towards your week’s total of thirty - in one bowl.

Home made bread. Of course. Wheat.

Eight.

Beetroot

2024-10-19T06:30:00.020+00:00

16 October 2024

Beetroot harvest, a big one too.

We’ve been growing by mulching the soil surface with our own organic compost for five years. We’re seeing evidence of a cumulative improvement in plant health and productivity.

The head gardener grows a pinch of seed in modules and then plants out clumps of little seedlings into the mulched soil. Each little family bunches together and provides shelter and support as the plants grow.

The wet conditions that characterised the first half of the year probably gave momentum to our growing beets. By harvest, let me tell you that some were huge: certainly the biggest we’ve ever grown. Even those bigger than cannonballs weren’t woody as they hadn’t seeded.

Beetroot has tremendous benefits for health - this from the BBC Good Food site:

Rich in protective antioxidants
May have anti-cancer properties
May have anti-inflammatory properties
May lower blood pressure and heart disease risk
May improve exercise performance and support energy levels
May improve digestive health
May protect the gut
May support brain health and reaction time
May be a useful addition to a post-menopause diet
May relieve symptoms of Raynaud's

Let me tell you that it is excellent for turbo-charging the gut. We’ll leave that there.

And to multiply up the benefits to the gut microbiome, use grated beetroot, red cabbage and carrot to make a superb, so easy and super-tasty sauerkraut.

Here it is in preparation. Very tasty too.

Earthstar

2024-10-17T21:21:00.004+00:00

Striate earthstar (Geastrum striatum)

14 October 2024

We are organic, no-dig gardeners.

We apply our own home made organic compost to the soil surface. This means that our soil is rarely contaminated by pesticides or herbicides, giving invertebrates, soil bacteria and fungus the best opportunity to thrive. If these are thriving beneath the warm cover of compost, the plants will too.

We also store a lot of rainwater and so, when we water there are less pollutants added to the soil than if we used tap water.

In not digging we allow worms to burrow and fertilise the soil. The other beneficial invertebrates are also unimpeded. Bacteria and soil mycology too can prosper.

Evidence if you need it was seen this week when we discovered striate earthstar (Geastrum striatum) as we cleared where squash, pumpkins and tomatoes had been growing.

This is a rare fungus although with a wide range in England.

If we’d been digging, the strands of soil mycelia would have been broken and the fruiting body would probably not have grown. We don’t dig, so the earthstars get the chance to thrive.

A threat to all fungi is increased atmospheric pollution in a process called eutrophication, piling nitrogen in and encouraging vigorous growth of competing vegetation.

Congratulations to the earthstar on its arrival and top marks to the head gardener who discovered the earthstar while hoeing.

Waxcaps

2024-10-15T07:50:00.005+00:00

13 October 2024

In the orchard windfalls lie thick and largely neglected. A skittish comma was attracted. And a big hornet came down to munch, unhappy with the company of flies. A poor return for the quantity of fruit on offer.

The orchard grass hides tiny yellow jewels.

Butter waxcaps (Hygrocybe ceracea). Not uncommon but as with most of our national fungi family they are depressingly in retreat. Modern management of grasslands typically sees them fertilised, herbicide & pesticide sprayed, overgrazed or overmown.

Butter waxcaps thrive in unimproved grassland and are connected by a network of underground fungal strands. Disturbing the soil breaks the connections. Fertiliser increases competition from grasses. Herbicides & pesticides permeate the soil reducing the vigour of fungi. Over-grazed or over-mown grasslands prevent the fruiting bodies emerging. Harrowing of grassland can also be destructive of delicate soil surface structures.

It is perhaps no coincidence that our waxcaps are in close proximity to the growing mounds of yellow meadow ants who also thrive in undisturbed grassland.

Locally we have/had a regionally important waxcap population thriving in an unimproved pasture within Bestwood Country Park whose management was annual grazing by sheep. The pasture was remarkable too in these days for being chock-full of the mounded nests of yellow meadow ants.

We fear the loss of these Bestwood waxcaps since Severn Trent drove a new water main through the pasture. We lack respect or understanding of the complexity and richness of life in our soil.

It is easy for us to form an emotional attachment to iconic mammals or birds and invest in their protection or reintroduction. This is not wrong.

It is a great pity that we so easily overlook the treasures of nature at our feet and give such little importance to the soil that nourishes and protects the planet.

Aurora

2024-10-12T06:30:00.014+00:00

11 October 2024

Last night the aurora in the clear cloudless sky. I’ve waited a whole life for this. An awe-inspiring mystery skydance of pinks and reds and greens.

Others have photos that do the phenomenon justice.

Pheasant poults have been released over the hedge. Non-native, unlicensed and released across the country in their millions. Native species reintroduction programmes remain mired in beaurocracy.

Wrens, busy, now sing loudly in the garden. Have their numbers been boosted by continental migrants?

Today a juvenile rat acrobatically in the bird feeders. A cloudless sky again and a raven cronking overhead. Garden work for us. Weeding and tidying. Topiarising. Mindful. Satisfying. Tiring.

In the vegetable garden, a common carder bee resting on a dahlia flower in the sun, sipping nectar with her long proboscis. Taking time. These are her final days - it is only the queens that overwinter.

Moving forward…

2024-10-09T06:30:00.011+00:00

4 October 2024

A garden can’t stand still.

It’s either moving forward or going backwards.

And here’s the chance to work with number one son…

First to turn the stack of stored pine logs into something more interesting …

…. and to create a semi-circle of logs in our own form of woodhenge.

The logs will add to our stock of standing deadwood, contributing to soil mycology and invertebrate populations.

The head gardener will decide on the planting.

I intend to put in a small pond behind this area.

Next to hang a small five-bar gate and create a garden feature …

I bought the gate on an auction site and it’s sat, waiting patiently for me since then. Good gate! Sit! Stay!

But it’s eventually worked its way up to the top of the list.

The gate will allow us to close off access to this part of the Cedar Walk if necessary and may hopefully be something for small people to swing on.

Then finally to put a humungously heavy kestrel box in our big

sycamore.

The box is part of the biodiversity grant awarded by Severn Trent as mitigation for their local water main works.

We sited a kestrel box within our garage gable and, although always getting interest from our local male kestrel, he’s never persuaded his mate to nest. Perhaps it’s the north facing aspect of the entrance? Or the disturbance from our neighbours Jack Russell..0

Let’s hope the new box is more tempting. The new gate will be able to exclude visitors and limit disturbance if we are successful.

Has nature lost the war…?

2024-10-06T05:45:00.012+00:00

Grim.

Ours is the most nature-depleted country in Europe. We’ve lost 98% of our meadows. What scraps of land that remain for nature are so fragmented that populations no longer connect.

Pesticides now being used in the UK are more toxic than ever and more toxic than allowed to be used in the EU. Ten thousand times more toxic than DDT.

Climate change is leading to both wetter weather but also a hotter world. The extreme heat of 2019 was devastating for

many invertebrates. Their populations were still recovering when the wet and cool spring of 2024 hit.

Nature is paying the price.

Professor Dave Goulson reminds us that we have been losing 1-2% of our invertebrates each year since WWII. In eighty years that adds up to a staggering loss.

Butterfly Conservation tell us that 2024 is the worst on record for butterflies.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust report the worst-ever year for bumblebees.

The writer Kate Bradbury has found a high proportion of hedgehogs are suffering from malnutrition. We’ve had one record of a hedgehog here this year.

And in the face of this our government chooses to

spend a staggering £22 billion on a carbon capture technology that at best has no proof of working and at worst will increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Man is at war with Nature. And if he wins he loses. Hubert Reeves

Then. Amongst the grim, our little granddaughter (4) is elected an eco councillor at her school.

Perhaps there is hope.

Poignant

2024-10-04T11:02:00.001+00:00

29 September 2024

Another of those poignant days..

Mum and dad moved in with us in 2016 after dad had fallen, incurring what became life-changing injuries. He had dementia by then. Along with mum we cared for dad until his dementia was judged ‘advanced’ and he had to move into care where he passed away. Almost immediately mums dementia became an issue until she was detained under the Mental Capacity Act and she moved into care in June of this year.

Dementia is a terminal disease. Unlike most other terminal illnesses, once you have a diagnosis, there is no treatment. No palliative care. The sufferer and the carers are on their own. Our social services teams are not resourced to
support families like ours.

It is a statement of the blindingly-obvious that being a carer turns your life upside down. It affects every thought and action. My sister and her husband shared the caring. Truth be told that it is the daughter who does the heavy lifting at these times. This was certainly true in our case. And even when shared, caring is 24/7/365. Relentless. Wearying. Unremitting in its demands.

It won’t be surprising to know that it takes months to readjust after the full-time caring role ends. It’s possibly only on days like today that one reflects on this.

Today we chose to have breakfast a bit later. Just toast. Then coffee. We had slept without an ear cocked.

Jill went out to plant bulb pots. I rounded shrubs and mounded leaves. I wasn’t alert for calls.

We defrosted soup for two and had it when we were ready. Then sat.

Onto planting bulbs in the orchard before teetering on a ladder picking apples. Clearing hay. Picking a big box of deliciously sweet Greensleeves apples. No time pressure. Finish when you finish.

No plan for when or what we were to have for evening meal…

We had, in rota with my sister and her husband spent alternate evenings with mum. Our evenings have now been given back to us.

The loss of a loved one is still raw. Mum is not gone. We visit regularly. She is frequently cross, distressed, confused, disorientated. Occasionally not unhappy.

But now that we know she is safe and being cared for, we can, once again, experience days like this..

Sparrowhawk

2024-10-03T17:16:00.002+00:00

30 September 2024

Rain all day.

A juvenile sparrowhawk seen twice, drawn by the bird feeders.

Small and slight. Presumably a male. A superb bird.

On the second occasion it sat for almost an hour, preening and taking a keen interest in a woodpigeon feeding on clover at its feet.

Both flew away.

Apple harvest begins ..

2024-10-02T20:52:00.000+00:00

27 September 2024

The apple trees are now hanging heavily with fruit.

We reclaimed the orchard in 2011 as, over a long seven months we removed decades of choking undergrowth that had completely hidden the trees.

The orchard had

been planted in the years following WWII by the Polish airforce personnel who moved onto the site after the war. Lane’s Prince Albert, Cox’s Orange Pippins, Bramley’s. Our six apple trees were part of a bigger fruit tree orchard that included the remains of cherry trees - and we’re keen to preserve what is left. Orchards are being rapidly lost. They provide unique habitats for invertebrates and the birds and mammals that predate on them.

After our clearance, the trees slowly recovered from their incarceration. We helped them by following the tenets of old orchard practice and pruning by removing one branch a year to remove cross-crossing and diseased branches.

We also transplanted our apple codons from the allotment to provide a boundary ‘hedge’. Mostly desert apples.

One of our largest original orchard trees died a few years back. We’ve left it as standing deadwood to benefit invertebrates…. and, in my dreams, stag beetles and passing lesser spotted woodpeckers.

The trees will never achieve the goblet shape of classic apple trees but, in good years, they’re fruiting productively.

2022 was a bumper year, providing stored apples into May of the following year. 2023 was a void year due to late frosts but in 2024 the exceptionally wet spring and lack of frosts have resulted in plentiful crops.

I’ve begun the harvest and will store the apples in paper-lined reclaimed bread trays.

Windfalls will lie beneath the trees for invertebrates including ants, butterflies, wasps and hornets .. and to benefit over-wintering thrushes.

All an absolute privilege.

the tenacity of motherhood..

2024-09-30T06:30:00.009+00:00

18 September 2024

Having successfully raised an earlier brood, our female stock dove now appears to have been attempting another incubation for much longer than the two weeks we would have expected.

As we have a live camera sited in the nest box we can

be fairly sure that she isn’t sharing duties with her partner.

We can also see from the discarded feathers that she is moulting.

It appears that she hasn’t fed or had water for much of this incubation. Her physical condition must be poor.

One is left wondering how she would garner the energy for the rigours of chick-rearing if the eggs do hatch..

A previous female died in the nest box attempting to incubate a final season brood.

I hoped this wasn’t her fate. Although her eggs hatched she deserted the nest.

Gifts ..

2024-09-29T06:30:00.000+00:00

14 September 2024

A bright moon, almost full.

MV moth light deep in the Cedar Walk. Tawnies vocalising earily.

We’re little over fifteen minutes from the city. Distantly emergency vehicle sirens. Car engines.. The thrum of music.

Very close by there is a male muntjac barking.

Common pipistrelle is the only bat species I record tonight. Jill persuaded me to buy an Echotouch bat detector gizmo. I predict fun.

Snout

The mothing clock is hovering between late summer and early autumn. 124 moths of twenty four species including twenty five delightful and skittish snout moths) Hypena proboscidalis). Cute and fresh with upturned noses. Their larval food plant is nettle and this part of the garden is quite blessed with these.

Another nettle-feeder is Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum).

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Eighteen last night, another portent and surely contender for the most-unusual name. Setaceous means bristled. I’m picturing dusty sinecured clerics of the Victorian age gathering to share their moth knowledge by candlelight and gifting to us these obscure, time-trapped names.

My team beat Liverpool at their place yesterday. First time since 1969. Another gift. Rejoice.

‘Pure plant food..’

2024-09-27T06:30:00.000+00:00

10 September 2024

There’s so much of my dad in me.

Throughout his life he was a passionate gardener.

No-one could create a tilth with a rake like dad.

Cutting through well-rotted manure or compost he’d always exclaim ‘Pure plant food’ ‘Like cake’ or ‘You could eat that with custard ‘. Mum never was a confident cook.

Even during those dark days when his advanced dementia had taken control and his balance had gone, his gardening drive continued and he’d want to help.

We compromised with seated hoeing. He couldn’t remember to stay seated, would rise .. and fall.

Even when he had tools removed he attempted to help us by poking the soil surface with his walking stick in the manner of using a hoe.

The cycle of the season turns and there is the satisfaction that all that time composting grass and weeds and cardboard and paper and kitchen waste has been productive.

Dad had a compost heap behind the shed onto which everything was thrown.

Gardeners have always known intuitively how valuable compost is to gardening. Now we make it in a series of wood pallet bins and apply it to the undug soil as a mulch.

Here I am, turning out our compost bins onto the beds in readiness for spreading.

‘Pure plant food’ I’m saying. ‘Like cake’.

Fleabane ..

2024-09-25T06:30:00.000+00:00

9 September 2024

Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus) is the pretty little daisy flower that seeds into the cracks in the terrace and paths. Abundantly. Big froths of whites through pinks into reds.

It is irresistible to small insects who love its nectar. Yesterday a male small copper (Lycaena phlaeas), seemed to be bathing in the flowers.

As with most butterflies, there’ve not been many small coppers this year.

We do our bit providing common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and sheep's sorrel (Rumex acetosella) for their caterpillars.

I fear that the incremental decline of 1 or 2% of insect populations annually since the 1940’s may also be playing its part..

Bossing it..

2024-09-24T06:30:00.000+00:00

8 September 2024

Birds moult each year.

Most adults moult most of their feathers in the late

Juvenile Robin emerging from moult

summer, early autumn.

It’s hugely draining and makes them especially vulnerable to predators.

So, garden stalwarts like our national bird, the robin (Erithacus rubecula ) for the duration of their moult ‘disappear’ into the undergrowth and shrubs, skulking while they grow their new feathers.

When they do reappear it is tentatively and without that robin attitude that sees them asserting themselves over other birds.

Now they’re back. Trickling song. Ticking. Pulling shapes. Bossing it.

Looking good there!

Welcome back.

a dense, heavy beauty ..

2024-09-20T06:30:00.000+00:00

8 September 2024

This has been a good year for our brassicas.

Purple sprouting brocolli, calabrese and kale have

cropped well, thriving on early-season rains and nourishing no-dig compost mulches. Stored rainwater is only ever used sparingly. Our plants become accustomed to their sandy conditions and are not cosseted.

It is now the time for our red cabbage. We lifted an impressive 2.3kg head (a dense, heavy beauty) and took the discarded outer leaves around to the neighbours hens.

Beetroot is cropping well too which presents the opportunity to combine shredded beet with our red cabbage to produce a deep, rich red sauerkraut.