This Farming Life

In June Jenny Young is seeing the fruits of her labours in the Castlefarm garden – but still has to keep predators at bay.

I spent a lot of May planting, maintaining and protecting the garden and many of our vegetables are coming into in season this month, making it a perfect time for visitors to Castlefarm shop to come and enjoy them fresh from the garden.

Our June harvest includes cucumbers, herbs, courgettes, salad, baby carrots and rhubarb. There are already small tomatoes appearing on the vines and it looks as if we will have a bumper crop of pears and berries.

Rows of vegetables have been continually planted outdoors since late March using guiding lines of twine to keep me planting them in straight rows. It is also important to plant vegetables wide enough apart so it is easy to hoe the weeds that will grow in between them. The best investment I have made in recent years is an oscillating hoe which I bought online from Fruithill Farm in Bantry (www.fruithillfarm.com).

Now in June, as the lines of seedlings appear, I remove the twines. Then the difficult bit begins, keeping weeds and predators at bay. In some respects keeping the weeds down helps with the predators, as they don’t have so much coverage to hide. In.

Being a certified organic farmer means no artificial sprays or chemical slug pellets. This also means that I need be organised when keeping predators at bay, and ruthless in their elimination.

Slugs are probably the most destructive predators in my ½ acre garden. They also are the biggest enemy of our allotment holders. To keep the slug population low in my garden I start by letting the ducks in at Christmas time. There are no small seedlings growing at that time of the year. I think that slugs are akin to caviar for our ducks and they love them, literally scooping them up.

Slugs house under old plastic and wood so I make sure that any debris around the garden is overturned. With fewer slugs from the start of the season, I keep my vegetable beds relatively slug free by patrolling the garden once a week.

I don’t do beer traps, but often enjoy a bottle myself while using a scissors to cut the pests in half or popping them into a plastic bag of salt. Sorry readers - it’s a case of them or my vegetables!

Rabbits, hens and ducks are the other animals who like to feed on my vegetables. So I have permanent rabbit proof fencing to ensure they do not get in. However a gate left open or a hen that decides to fly over the fence can cause damage.

This month our 5 ‘pet’ ducks got through a hole in the fence and literally shredded about 20 huge lettuces. If you have hens that are flying over your fence into your vegetable patch clipping the feathers on one side of their wings will ensure they do not have the balance to fly over. Be careful not to hurt them though, and to cut only their feathers.

Then there are the other birds. Pigeons seem to love brassicas and berries and I protect these with netting. Smaller birds love pulling small onions out of the ground and I find old cds and strips of colourful material are great bird scarers.

We are holding summer clubs for children in July and one of their ‘farm’ jobs will be making scarecrows. They will learn about the vegetables we grow and help protect them.

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Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Fri 24th & Sat 25th of June.

Our free farm activities on Saturday 25th Egg collecting 2.30 pm and a farm walk ‘summer on the farm’ 3pm Sat 25th.

Castlefarm is a real farm so remember to wear your old clothes and wellingtons.

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