We are ready for the hedge plants to arrive, as soon as they come, they can be planted. The pea shoots are starting to appear, and are now under some fleece protection. Luckily the birds have so far not bothered with the newly planted onion and garlic so once they establish some roots we will not have to worry about them being dislodged from place. We even have a rose in flower. It seems incredible how things will still grow at this time of year. We have plenty of winter salad leaves, but not many people feel like eating salad when the weather is colder!
The broad beans the nursery children planted are now showing well above the soil, and they have been visited, probably by a fox, that has been digging looking for worms to eat. They have had to protect the area with a criss cross of strings and sticks.
Worms in the soil are an indication of the good health of the soil. We have noticed more worms since the wetter weather, and having added compost. Stinging nettles also show rich soil, and we seem to have plenty of them springing up! Many people have commented that the vegetables grown on the plot have such a rich flavour, and this is due to the fact that that they are far more nutritious than commercially grown food on an intensive farm system. After the war, as farms became larger, using herbicides and pesticides, and depleting the soil; the fruit and vegetables produced are becoming poorer in nutritional value, so today we would have to eat six times the amount of fruit and veg to get the same amount of vitamins and minerals that our ancestors had. Unless of course you are lucky enough to be able to buy or grow organic……. food for thought.
Flowering rose 
Pea shoots 
Nursery class planter protection
