Friesland Farm

04/08/2026

Let’s look at different ways to water or conserve moisture for your home grown produce.

Ancients didn’t have hosepipes connected to the mains so they had to find ways of watering if they wanted a crop. For bigger areas there techniques such as Swales, depressions, rain gardens & hugelculture.

Most domestic growers have a few smaller areas/beds so what can you do to cut down watering or conserve moisture in those?

The first best practice is the soil itself, if you have soil with no body to it then the water is just going to run off. Your soil needs to have plenty of organic matter in it to hold any watering that you need to do. I would always advocate that you make your own compost, you then have a closed loop which is sustainable growing (that’s your first brownie point 😊)

You can add well rotted manure (check that the animals have not grazed on sprayed pasture!)

You can add something called biochar (a charcoal type material) it is good for soil fertility, it helps retain water and improves nutrient availability plus it locks in carbon (you are helping to mitigate climate change, another brownie point 😊)

Leaves! It dumbfounds me that people collect up all the fallen leaves in autumn and put them in their green waste bin 😣 (which they are paying for) and then go and buy a commercially processed product to add to the soil 🤷‍♀️Gather them up by all means but then put them on top of your soil and let the worms do the rest!

Wood ash. If you have a wood burning stove then save some of that ash! Not all of it, too much is not good either but you can add a bit to your compost or sprinkle lightly on the beds in winter. (Look this one up if you are keen to use yours)

The next thing is to stop any moisture evaporating in these high temperatures. Bare soil dries out quickly, erodes and loses nutrients.

Mulch, mulch, mulch 😂 you can use a purpose made mulch such as Strulch. I use this on the cut flower beds and it is fabulous (though expensive)

You can also use grass clippings, wood bark, straw (not hay it is full of seeds!) and those leaves again 🤪 Sheep wool is another good one if you can get it.

There are other items you can use to cut down any watering time especially during a hose pipe ban.

Solar powered irrigation pumps that attach to your water butt. Great bits of kit that will water for you while you are busy elsewhere.

Ollas, you may have never heard of them but they have been around for millennia! Porous terracotta pots that are buried into your veg bed and filled with water. No pumps, no electrics just physics. The dry soil pulls water from the porous olla, if the soil doesn’t need water, the water stays in the olla until it is called for by the soil, genius if you ask me. You can buy purpose made ones (and mine came packaged in sheep wool, bonus) or you could make them from an unglazed terracotta plant pot, seal the bottom hole and put a lid of some kind on it to stop evaporation and insects falling in.

If you have room in your beds create depressions or ‘rills’ to hold the water long enough for the plant roots to draw from it (these are subtle not trenches and holes 😂)

There are plenty of other diy ways to get that water down to the root level rather than sit on the surface where it will quickly evaporate undoing your hard work.

03/08/2026

Did you manage to grow any of your own this year?
I did say back in spring that if there was a year to start it was going to be this year! And I wasn’t wrong because if you have struggled imagine how bad it has been for farmers 🙄 They are warning of shortages in some fresh produce sectors. Cucumbers, tomatoes, root veg all need a lot of water and we haven’t had rain for weeks and weeks.
So if you did get produce from the garden don’t let it shrivel in the bottom of the fridge. If you have more than you can eat while it’s fresh then process it for freezing.
The sooner you freeze it the more nutrients it will retain.
I have been harvesting carrots & beans, chopping them, blanching them and freezing them as mixed veg bags. The same can be done with potatoes, par boil, cool then freeze. Tomatoes & peppers chop and freeze (or whole toms if you prefer) Courgettes 🤪 we don’t eat them as they are because we don’t like them BUT they are very willing to grow 😂 and so I grate them, squeeze out the liquid and freeze flat in bags to add to soups, stews and sauces. They add nutrients and you don’t even know you are eating them 🥰 If you didn’t grow your own but see ‘reduced’ items in the shop then buy a load and do the same while it’s available.

Last year I had an abundance of fruit and did wonder why I was freezing that much instead of just leaving it, this year I am glad I did because the fruit is not available in any quantity but I still have plenty in the freezer, feeling smug, you bet 😂

At some point this week I will do a post on watering and different ways that make it a little bit easier during a drought. In my personal opinion this is likely to become the norm and so we need to adjust in whatever way we can 🙄

30/07/2026

Well well, it seems we have a spotted fly catcher here, I have been hearing it for a few days but needed to see it to confirm. Merlin says it’s highly unlikely that is what it’s picking up but it actually is!

24/07/2026

The eggs may be dwindling but the honey will still be available. I have just taken delivery of a large varied batch 🥰

Spring honey from Bradwell estate, the bees were accessing hawthorn, blackthorn, bluebells and snowdrops.

Summer honey from Westwell, the bees accessed Sweet Chestnut & Elder

Summer honey from Bradwell the bees accessed Lime flower

It’s like a menu isn’t it 😊

The spring honey will be what is available in the shed until it is gone and then the summer honey will be next but if you specifically want to try any of the others then let me know and you can arrange collection.

Unopened jars of raw honey can be stored for years. Over time they naturally crystallise but you can soften it by placing the jar in a bowl of hot water.

24/07/2026

Tall Green & White stripe grass, good root system, clump forming, hardy £5 each

22/07/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ESxvAoWDB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

14/07/2026

Finally! The government have released plans for a civilian awareness campaign as well as the military home defence excercise.
It will cover everything I have always said about being prepared and resilient and don’t forget you heard it here first 😂😂🤪

The UK will hold its largest home defence exercise in decades next ...

06/07/2026

Up early this morning just as everyone who was watching the match was going back to bed to get a couple of hours in before work lol.
Firstly I wanted to get all the honesty cut for drying along with a few other things.

Then to harvest a few bits of fruit before the sun came round. The apricot tree produced just a tiny fraction of last years harvest but I didn’t expect much else really. Last year I got many, many kilos 🤪 and they were duly processed or given away.
The thing with a bumper harvest is to make the most of it and that way in a poor year you still have plenty from last year 😊

Berries have been coming thick and fast again this year, the thornless gooseberry is always a good producer and well worth adding to your fruit garden.