Category Archives: Smallholding

No dig diary, 7th May 2024: More weeding

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

I swear I don’t know how they grow so fast. This is the third time I’ve had to week the plot this year! It was slow progress, but I got another bed done today, including removing leeks and volunteer potatoes. … Continue reading →

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Memory Lane, 29th April 2023: Sycamore in flower

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

When this happens I have to fight the need to go and check all the hives in my apiary to make sure they’re not swarming. Once the sycamore starts flowering they go crazy for it and the volume of their … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

A change of boxes for bait hives

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

I’ve decided that I’m going to use only boxes that aren’t in quite good enough repair for permanent hives as bait hives now. Ones that aren’t perfect, but can be repaired to be reasonably close. Or in some cases, home-made … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

No dig diary, 6th May 2024: At last I can return to the veg plot

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

Finally it appears that the weather is picking up a bit here and I was able to spend all of this afternoon weeding the veggie beds. It’s crazy how the weeds are growing. I managed to get two and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Memory Lane, 10th April 2023: The veggie plot clearout commences

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

It’s time for all the “old stuff” to come out of the veggie plot now and make way for this year’s plants. Onto the compost heap it all went. Up and up went the compost heap, up and up went … Continue reading →

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fat dummies completed

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

I was hoping to spend today in the veg plot, but the weather was back to its usual appalling self again today. I hid in the workshop and finished off my current set of fat dummies. First up was to … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

Memory Lane, 7th April 2023: A mesh underfloor entrance

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

Having made some underfloor entrances (UFEs) with solid floors, I thought I’d do the same thing with my mesh floors. There wasn’t a huge amount of difference between the two types other than the need to cut the mesh back … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

A little more fat dummy progress

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

After a full day inspecting bees I thought I might as well finish off by doing the next stage of my fat dummies, so I sliced some scrap 50mm PIR insulation board into 33mm-ish widths and fitted them into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

Busy (Star Wars) bee day, 4th May

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

In contrast to our recent weather Saturday was a really lovely day: warm, sunny, very few clouds. Proper shorts weather. So I did 🙂 Given the fact that it was so pleasant, first order of the day was to inspect … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment

Memory Lane, 6th April 2023: Next stage of the “tree rescue”

Posted on May 3, 2024 by james

Today I attempted the next step in my attempt to rescue bees from the tree that was cut back last October. I opened up the cover that I’d fixed over the top of the cavity and put what is basically … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee-keeping, Smallholding | Tagged | Leave a comment