-
Long Chilli Competition plants
The ‘long chilli’ and heavy chilli are relatively new additions to the giant vegetable competition schedules so growing techniques and plant genetics are still very much up for debate. I had a go last year with some donated chilli seed and had great success with the long chilli but less so with the heaviest. Some…
-
Growing Firewood – 2018 Update
The latest annual update in our trial of a number of species planted specifically for firewood. All species are on the same soil type so whilst not particularly scientific the findings are sufficient to judge which performs best for us. Storming ahead in both rate of growth and quality of logs is the Eucalyptus Omeo.…
-
Cold Day At The Office
I was out and about before the inevitable traffic chaos that goes hand in hand with a dusting of snow and glad I did so judging by the traffic later on. First stop was feeding the hens, the goose, his pheasant lady friends and two robins who stopped fighting for a few minutes so they…
-
Recycling telegraph poles for farm gate posts
Since all the horrible additives were banned from pressure treated ‘tantalised’ wood we have found that modern fence posts last little more than 3 years before rotting off at the base. Whilst this has dramatically increasing the maintenance bill for stock fencing it is totally impractical to replace corner posts and gate posts so frequently.…
-
LADS farm study 2018
I’ve just come back from a few days away on a Farmer Study Tour to Mannheim, Germany, with the Liverpool Agricultural Discussion Society (LADS). Lets get the well deserved credits at the top of the page: Antony Ollerton (LADS), Colin Mountford-Smith (BASF) and Cornthwaites (John Deere) for organising the event and BASF for putting in…
-
Harvesting Hazel sticks
A nice frosty morning allowed a quick venture into our hazel coppice to select and cut some sticks for our stock of blank walking stick shanks catering for local stick makers. In the main they only get offered for sale after being seasoned for at least twelve months (necessary for the stick straightening process to…
-
Land For Sale at Banks, near Southport
Land For Sale SOLD SUBJECT TO CONTRACT An extremely rare opportunity to buy an approx 2.77 acre field of Grade 1 agricultural land presently designated as Greenbelt and laid down to grass. Located just off the A565 dual carriageway at Banks roundabout, the land benefits from being easily accessed from Banks, Crossens, Tarleton, Southport and…
-
The menace of Sky Lanterns
It makes you wonder just who does not know how dangerous sky lanterns can be yet we still get them landing in grazing land. Today’s find was of the dreaded bamboo and wire construction which landed on fields grazed by sheep. I only wish I knew who had sent this beautiful paper lantern up into…
-
Tree Planting Season Begins
Last year it was 5000 trees on 11 acres at Banks and this year the plan is for some 2500 trees to be planted on a field off Becconsall Lane in Hesketh Bank. The saplings were delivered this morning so now it is race against time to get the bare rooted plants into the ground…
-
Big pumpkin season review
Well that’s another year of big pumpkins over and, it is fair to say, Halloween gets bigger every year. The professional carvers took more than ever of our large pumpkins but the giant pumpkins remain in a very niche market. I think how difficult they are to handle is one reason but the other is…