Wild Flowers Sown

Today I have sown various Wild Flowers. Agrimony, Greater Knapweed, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Yellow Rattle and some Meadow Sweet in the areas I think are wettest. Also a packet of Carnations was scattered around - just because I found a packet.

I have held back some Yellow Rattle in the freezer for a month and will sow them when I remember in November sometime.

It'll be very interesting as to what and how much comes up in the spring because they were all scattered over the grass which is a bit tufty in places rather than scraping back some of the grass to reveal soil, how ever I note that nature doesn't bother too much with scraping back grass when sowing so I'm sure some will work. If it fails then there is always next year.

The drainage channel near the shed was deepened this morning and while I was digging deeper to make a soak away pit I came across a land drain - which was handy to say the least - and within the hour all water had drained away. Later this afternoon or perhaps on Tuesday I will lay a drainage pipe and cover with sand and gravel, but for now the flood prevention near the shed has achieved the main goal. The water butt overflowing problem is no longer a priority since it will overflow next to the drainage channel so I can put off this issue for another week or so.

This time last year we were house hunting and didn't get a chance to do anything garden wise until January or February so it feels like we are 5 months ahead of ourselves and well on track. The first 2 months last year were simply flood fighting and we didn't get a chance to dig beds until April were as this year we already have all the winter vegetable beds done, a huge manure pile composting, pond established and greenhouse built. Everything from now on is adding to last years efforts.

The one failure this year was the Willow that I planted, 50 little sticks, and only 8 or so took and grew leaves but no height. I must remember to water them more and mulch all around them as we think that they were out competed by the grass and weeds. Mulching around them and replanting some more should produce better results. 

The chickens have a far better home this year but already their hen house is too small and they will need somewhere dry for rainy days as yesterday they got soaked and looked a little water logged, so the next building project will be a new hen house with a covered area for them to shelter outside.

Mice have also taken shelter somewhere in the house with all the rain so they'll need addressing next week as well.