Progress on the Smallholding: Five Year Review

How much can a smallholder accomplish in five years? We have recently celebrated our five-year anniversary on the smallholding. So here’s a review of all we have done in that time!

Chickens

Once we had moved in, the first big objective was to get ready for chickens. We had previously kept back-garden chickens some years prior to the big move. But we wanted to take a much more holistic approach to keeping chickens this time.

The plan was to build a mobile chicken coop, and use this together with electric fencing to move the hens around the field. Hens are excellent for soil health; as they scratch around for grubs, their feet act like little harrows, pulling out weeds and dead vegetation. Their manure is also highly nutritious for the new grass growing through.

So George set about building a Chick-Shaw, and I found a local charity that rescues and re-homes ex-commercial chickens.

As our hens aged and egg production slowed down, we have added more hens to our flock. We have learned how to manage a range of maladies, including egg impaction and prolapsed vents, to ensure that our girls live out a long and happy retirement with us.

Check out this post if you’re interested in keeping hens!

Sheep

As a keen knitter and sheep lover, I had my heart set on keeping sheep as soon as we had the space for them. I didn’t have to wait long for an opportunity to present itself!

We were still just getting settled into our new home when we found out about Peggy. Poor Peggy had really struggled with lambing, and was destined for the meat market if the farmer could not find her a suitable retirement home. So I found Peggy two new friends, and they all came to live with us!

I have so enjoyed learning how to care for my woolly girls. Everything from foot care, to annual vaccinations and shearing, I have learned to do myself. They grow beautiful fleeces, which have been a joy to spin and knit with. And they give the most wonderful woolly cuddles!

Polytunnel

Another early project! Growing heat-loving crops such as tomatoes was right at the top of our list, so we knew we would need a large tunnel. As luck would have it, our new friends were looking to move on some hoops which had previously been used as the structure for a lambing shed. We sourced some additional bracings and fittings from First Tunnels, together with the plastic skin.

Skinning the tunnel ourselves was a bit of a challenge, but we have thought of several ways to improve the technique for a better result next time. We had treated the batons which we used for the base rails, thinking this would prevent them from rotting and so prolong their lifespan. Unfortunately, the wood treatment reacted with the plastic and caused it to tear! So we will only be using untreated batons next time.

We have very heavy clay soil here, and it has taken several years to improve the soil in the polytunnel with the addition of manure and compost. Initially we watered all the crops by hand, which was quite a task. We then experimented with overhead sprinklers before investing in drip irrigation, and this has been a real gamechanger.

Alpacas

The alpacas arrived about six months after the sheep. They are beautiful, graceful animals. I love to watch them galloping around the field, chasing each other.

In addition to their aesthetics and comedy value, they also provide me with some gorgeous fibre to spin and knit with. And arguably more importantly, they are our security detail! They keep foxes, badgers and other predators out of the field and away from our birds.

These alpacas had not been halter trained at their previous home. I would like to persevere with this, as I hope that getting them more comfortable with closer contact and interaction will make it easier to take care of them. Sheering, winter vitamin supplements and vaccinations are really quite challenging at present!

Vegetable Garden

Once the polytunnel was up and running, we enclosed the tunnel and surrounding area with stock fencing to keep the sheep and alpacas away from our crops! We were then able to establish an outdoor vegetable garden for crops that prefer cooler growing conditions.

Again, the heavy clay soil has been a challenge to work with. It is hard work to dig over, but it has improved year on year with the addition of manure and compost. We have had to contend with various pests, including slugs, moles and voles. But we have seen our efforts pay dividends, and the space is now a productive and orderly vegetable plot.

Preserving and Storing

We had never grown enough of our own food before, to be concerned about storing it long-term. As we have gathered our more bountiful harvests from the vegetable garden and polytunnel, we have experimented with various methods of storing our produce. From pressing and canning tomatoes to making pickles and sauerkraut. we now have our favourite methods for each of our staple crops.

Stay tuned for a forthcoming post about dealing with gluts!

Willow Windbreak

Our smallholding is quite exposed to the elements, especially the strong south-westerly winds that are part and parcel of living near the coast. Any warnings of strong winds on the weather forecast would result in sleepless nights, as George and I lay fretting that the polytunnel would be blown away and the vegetable garden would be left in tatters.

So, we decided to plant a windbreak around the edge of the vegetable garden. This has definitely done the trick. It feels like we have our own little microclimate within the vegetable plot, protected from the elements.

We chose Salix viminalis, a vigorous willow which can grow up to 2 metres per year! It took us about three days to plant the 700 cuttings in three rows around the border of the vegetable garden. We prune it back each winter, but otherwise leave it to its own devices.

Orchard

When George and I got married, we asked for contributions towards establishing an orchard instead of gifts for our home. We thought that planting yearling trees and watching them grow would be a fitting metaphor for married life together!

The trees have had a couple of years to get fully established in our orchard, and are doing remarkably well. We have even picked our first few apples this year!

Ducks

Our most recent addition to the smallholding were our runner ducks. We had been talking about keeping ducks for some time, when we were asked to rehome this small flock. These particular ducks add a great deal of comedy value to our day-to-day life on the smallholding, and they seem to be reducing the pest pressure in the vegetable garden.

Rose Garden

I have also cultivated a peaceful rose garden, as a memorial to pets who are no longer with us. I have given the rose bushes plenty of TLC this year, and have been able to fill vases with cut flowers. Just beautiful!

Zero Waste

We have worked incredibly hard to reduce the amount of waste we produce. I have declared war on single-use plastics, and tried to repurpose or mend and items that are looking a bit worse for wear. Of course, there is always room for improvement. But I am really pleased with the progress we have made.

I am amazed at all we have done so far. Especially given that we also got married and became parents during this time!

Projects for the Next Five Years

George and I frequently review our progress with current projects and discuss new ideas for future endeavours and improvements. Things that are immediately necessary or desirable are prioritised, and everything else gets relegated to the “5-10 year plan!” Here are some of the headline tasks that I want to tackle in the next five years, in addition to maintaining all that we have already accomplished.

Back garden

The back garden has sadly been neglected. When we purchased the house, the espaliered fruit trees in beds around the garden walls were already very overgrown. Over the years we have determined that only one of the apple trees and the kiwi tree actually produce any fruit. The raised beds were also plagued with perennial weeds. We could see that there was a lot of work to do to restore this space to its former glory, but wanted to prioritise the establishment vegetable garden and polytunnel over the aesthetics of the back garden.

But we now would like to create a child-friendly space for our little one to play, as well as an outdoor seating area so that we can enjoy the space. We plan to dig up the fruit trees that are no longer bearing fruit, and overhaul the raised beds to eradicate the invasive weeds. I would like our little one to have a small garden to take ownership of. And of course we need some big garden toys.

Pond

We have a pond at the bottom of our field, which was overgrown with bull rushes when we bought the property. In fact, it was so overgrown that when we explored the area around the pond. we found a small boat in amongst the rushes, left by the previous owners. We had not even noticed it was there!

We plan to clear the rushes out so that we can see the pond. (The rushes will also make very nutritious compost!) This should increase biodiversity within the pond. And perhaps we will even get the little boat operational again!

Basketry

We have to prune back the willow windbreak each winter. This leaves us with lots of cuttings, many of which are ideal for basketry. As a crafty person, I would love to learn this age-old skill. Baskets of all shapes and sizes are so handy for storage, carrying things about, laundry hampers, the list is endless!