Soil to Soul Farm

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Soil to Soul Farm

Using regenerative techniques to feed the soil to grow healthy vegetables and fruit to nourish the soul of our community.

Planning a small scale CSA subscription veg box scheme. I'm setting up the road side hedge veg at Les Hubits, St Martins

01/10/2022

Late blooms from the dahlias. Lovely bit of sunshine through the dreary wet autumn days

29/07/2022

Absolutely 5* meal with Poppy in Jersey

04/07/2022

Imagine my shock to find a lovely handful of ripe blackberries growing amongst the flowering rose and pelargonium. They're obviously loving each other as great neighbours. I'll certainly enjoy these tonight warmed through with a little ice cream on top I think.

I've noticed the cherry tree leaves have started to turn autumnal colours already and the plum leaves are just on the turn.

I would expect in our little micro climate everything starts early and then is tired out ready for an early autumn break 😴

21/06/2022

The grapes are coming along nicely, some need thinning and we need to protect from mildew and rats so we get a good crop this year 😋🍇

We've kept the vines pruned much more than last year, we need to try to keep on top of the over growth to aid ventilation to reduce the chance of mildew.

We'll net the bunches as they ripen our make little bunch collars to stop them reaching the fruit 🤔 Any idea for pest reduction?

18/06/2022

Tomato bed update. I'm so late planting my tomatoes but I'm sure they'll catch up and late is better than never.

Here's a few ideas about how and why I'm interplanting, how I planted them, and a first sneak peak at the new irritation system we're fitting

Is too easy to feel like you're failing in the garden but just know it's fun, you're doing the best you can with the time and conditions you have and plants want to grow so usually catch up. Don't sweat it and congratulate yourself on every win...... OK you may be sweating during the heatwave.

16/06/2022

Potatoes are looking absolutely brilliant in the back garden

08/05/2022

Scented pelargonium plants for sale 1.2L
£7 each

28/03/2022

In the autumn I planted garlic cloves in larger cell trays as the beds weren't ready and I saw doing the same thing.

Most are now in the ground at the vinery doing really well, the head start really helped them. I've planted them in the beds where we suffered verticulum wilt which is a fungal disease and garlic is a natural anti fungal vegetable.

These are the last few in cell trays which I need to plant in the garden at home.

Can you see the tips are yellowing? They're running out of nutrients and drying out between watering as they're so pot bound.

Thankfully with lighter evenings I'll get them planted one evening this week and interplant with brassica when they're ready to go out, to reduce the pest load.

27/02/2022

Purple of Sicily cauli seedlings are a delight at the vinery, they've had plenty of daylight from every angle to stop them getting leggy and are so much healthier than the ones I tried to keep at home in the conservatory last year.

Cauli don't need heat to germinate or grow.

The heavy duty metal mesh is to stop the birds and rats getting into the seedlings.

I love buying heirloom seeds from although they've travelled some air miles to get to me, I hope to allow one plant to go to seed so I can save seeds to avoid future air miles as these are open pollinated. They'll be more acclimatised to my conditions too.

When mature in 70 days these have beautiful, brilliant purple heads weighing 2-3 lbs and are a fine, sweet flavor. The heads cook to bright green. Insect-resistant, it is also easier to grow than many white varieties, and it is rich in minerals. This colorful heirloom is from select Italian seed.

These will be planted with a spacing of 18-20"

I'll sow these again in midsummer for an autumn harvest and see which does best in my conditions as they prefer cool conditions.

16/02/2022

🌱 This aerial drawing shows 2/3 of our vinery, showing beds already existing and some that are in the process of being created.

🌱 The whole site is no dig. I'm working hard to regenerate the soil with no dig organic methods. Healthy soil grows healthy veg which feeds our bodies and soul.

🌱 Some of the beds are traditional no dig beds with several cm of mushroom compost, well rotted house manure and organic peat free compost.

🌱 Other beds are lasagne sheet layered organic material beds - with beer grains, hay, grass clippings, cardboard, rabbit p**p, rabbit bedding, horse manure, emu p**p, sheep and goat p**p, mushroom compost, worm castings, dried leaves, straw and remin volcanic rockdust. Lasagne beds are a bit like composting in situ in the beds, you need a lot of material gathered to do it and don't under estimate the volume of materials.

🌱 I try to keep surfaces mulched with organic material to stop the heat from causing damage but one of my 2022 goals is that I will do better at mulching, I won't leave it until later, I'll do it as I plant 😁

🌱 If you live in Guernsey or are visiting and would like to learn how to make no dig beds with some hands on practical experience please let us know,
, and I would love some company at the Soil to Soul Farm and to share our knowledge and a lovely cup of home grown floral or herb tea.

🌱 If you live in Guernsey and think you may have some materials we could lovingly convert into healthy soil let me know. As long as its chemical free we'll take a wide variety of organic materials.

We're really keen to protect Guernsey's soil and food security.

14/02/2022

Volunteer potatoes in the vinery have what looks like potato blight. These are in the same bed that the aubergine affected by Verticillium wilt were planted, so I wondered if it's related.

Volunteer potatoes in another part of the vinery are not affected.

I'm hoping there are some ideas out there?

13/02/2022

Old aubergine beds have been topped up with mushroom compost and rotted manure.

The garlic that i started in modules have been planted amongst the remaining over wintered chilli and rocket plants.

Topped with leaves to protect the soil from drying out and twigs to hopefully discourage birds from digging them up. This is the first time I've used leaves as a protective mulch. I've used twigs to protect against cats before but not against birds

I love gardening for the new ideas and experiments💡

08/02/2022

The plum tree is flowering , I'm so happy with this early sign of spring

16/01/2022

We inherited this asparagus bed and we got a surprisingly good crop from it last year but it was sorely neglected, the crowns were completely exposed and some spears were so thin and spindly we thought the plant would give up producing.

We stopped picking quite early to allow the plant to replenish.

Today we chopped it back, sprinkled a handful of Remin volcanic rock dust, worm casts, free handfuls of rotted manure, bagged organic peat free compost and seaweed.

We've layed cardboard between and around the crowns as we get a few weeds here.

I'll be topping up the beds with compost where the cardboard is, making the beds wider to allow the asparagus to have plenty of space and to pop in some strawberry plants which apparently are a good companion.

Great to get a job off the tick list

16/01/2022

Wowser, this beauty is on my 2022 growing list for sure.

It's a Musquee du Maroc winter squash. It is nutty and sweet, delicious even cubed and eaten raw. It roasted into the sweetest silky smooth cubes and really added a flavour explosion to the oven roasted freshly picked chayote, parsnip, and today's fabulous Jerusalem artichoke.

I thoroughly enjoyed sprinkling on dried chilli flakes from last year and some dehydrated carrot tops which really did combine well.

The only thing not home grown here was the free range grass fed venison steak ..... I can only dream about being self sufficient enough to have my own meat one day.

12/01/2022

Happy New Year!
We've got a huge crop of chayote squash in the vinery. I've put a crate of them for sale on the hedge veg, 50p each buy one get one free. There are loads more growing in the vine, so I can easily pick to order as many as you need.

You can use them in curry, stew, stir fry, soup, stuffed, oven roasted. Google is full of recipe ideas.

The health benefits are immeasurable, see the image below.

The hens are looking beautiful again after their moult and are laying a wonderful rainbow of eggs, these are on the stall ready to buy also, £3 for a box of 10

09/01/2022

The beds weren't ready so we popped these onions, garlic and shallots into cell trays at the vinery, where 2 days later the rats dug them up and gnawed through some of the bulbs and digging up and destroying my saffron crocus beyond repair.

We rescued most and brought them home to the front garden where they've nicely shot up.

I'll plant some of these in the back garden and get beds ready at the vinery for the rest.

- I could do with some tips on where I should plant these in the vinery. Last year we put them all in one bed and they didn't get watered regularly so we didn't get a huge crop. Amongst the cane fruit in the orchard area? In the summer veg beds in clusters, in lasagne beds under grape vines? Or in raised bed outside the greenhouse so they get plenty of rain and it's a bit cooler? If they're outside though I need pest control as the rats are even worse outside the vinery!

09/01/2022

Small but perfect, first ever parsnips grown from seed direct sowed. Although I sow most things in cell trays, parsnips and carrots prefer to be direct sowed

Can't wait to roast them in the ninja air fryer for tea tonight

This is why I grow veg despite the rats that are doing their best to bring me down. These little wins will help get my mojo back

12/12/2021

If time is ticking on and you haven't got the beds ready to plant out your garlic, shallots and onion sets, you may have to do the same as us and plant them in cell trays.

This will allow roots to get started whilst we finish making and clearing the beds.

This is multi purpose compost with a few handfuls of worm castings, mycorrhizal granules, Remin rock dust, and blood fish and bone, hopefully to give them a good head start whilst they wait for their 9 month home in the ground.

They were burning a hole in my to do list, begging to be planted, whilst fresh and plump.

The varieties here are:

🧡🧡 Onion & Shallot Varieties 🧡🧡
🧡 Rolein Red Onions, to harvest in July, producing heavy yields of pinky red globe shaped onions with a strong skin
🧡 Golden Gourmet shallots, producing large fleshy round golden brown skins, to harvest in September
🧡 Electric Red Onions, , to harvest in July, producing a shiny deep red skinned onion with a pink tinged crisp flesh ideal for salads or pickling
🧡 Red Sun Shallots, producing abundant crop of large round red pink skins with crisp white flesh, to harvest in September
🧡 Eschalotte Gris, intense concentrated flavour, often a favourite of chefs, to harvest in July

🧡🧡Garlic Varieties🧡🧡
🧡 Solent White, great variety for flavour and storage, to harvest in August, can be planted as late as March in the UK
🧡 Kingsland White, a hard neck variety that doesn't like to be too wet, best tasting French garlic with a pink skin, to harvest July, can also be sown in spring
🧡 Maddock White, excellent all round garlic from Spain, with large plp cloves, to harvest in July
🧡 Carcassonne White, best hardnecked variety for UK climate, with pink cloved, to harvest in July.

Harvest times are all specifically for my planting conditions and the time I've planted.
All garlic is from The Garlic Farm

26/11/2021

Eggs, eggs, eggs 🥚🥚🥚

The eggs are going out on the hedge veg stall tomorrow morning. 🥚🥚🥚

The lovely ladies have started to lay at last. 🐔

Our blue eggs have dried up, but everything crossed they'll pick up again soon but we've got some lovely glossy pink eggs, olive coloured eggs, some really matt win comes from their rich bloom to protect them.

You may be able to spot the shine on the pink eggs on the left if you swipe through the images.

The chickens have been on strike on and off this year, as some mature ready to lay in spring.

They've been through their seasonal moult, where our beauties turn into a complete mess. There now starting to look fresh and chirpy.

Our newly hatched chickens have unluckily been heavily weighted towards boys so replenishing the flock has been a challenge.

Watch this space in spring when our little polish bantams should start laying, small but quirky eggs 😁

In research, freshly laid free range eggs can contain more vitamins A and E and more omega 3 fatty acids - so what's not to love 💗🥚

Les Hubits, Guernsey
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26/11/2021

We'd love to turn your unwanted leaves into compost and mulch for our veg beds. To protect the soil and microorganisms to enable us to grow more nutritious vegetables to sell on the hedge veg stall next year.

If you'd like to know how to make use of them for your own compost and garden bed mulch, continue to read below:

🍂 Bed mulch
To protect the soil and microorganisms especially over winter. A good tip is to chop up with a lawnmower into smaller pieces, then simply lay on top of the soil in a thick layer, the smaller you chop them the less chance of being blown around by the wind. This method is better for perennials such as trees and shrubs, as it can encourage slugs to overwinter.

🍂 Leaf mould
To add organic matter to the soil to aide water holding capacities and build the soil structure. It isn't particularly nutrient rich but the organic material benefits still make it invaluable.

When making leaf mould chop up the leaves with a lawnmower as they decompose quicker.

To make leaf mould allow to decompose for a year at least as it is pure carbon and so doesn't decompose as quickly as nitrogen rich compostable materials.

Make a 3ft wood or wire bin and pile leaves in there, making sure it stays damp and leave to decompose. Turn the pile every few weeks for faster decomposition. Cover the pile with a couple of layers of cardboard weighed down with stones to avoid it getting too wet and to keep in the warmth, again aiding faster decomposition.

Or use black bin bags, sealed with some air holes, checking the bag for moisture every now and again

Once the leaf mould has turned into compost in about a year, it can be used as a great soil conditioner for all beds as a top mulch even for your vegetables as it doesn't attract slugs

13/11/2021

Shock horror, to find rats have eaten over half my aubergine, chillies and peppers in a couple of nights. They've got so bad!

Operation harvest all the summer veg happened tonight, some by phone torch light with

Just pumpkin and squash left to pick tomorrow, hoping they don't get eaten tonight. 🤞

is there late tonight shooting the little buggers.

11/11/2021

So I'm sharing a fail as I promised a few weeks ago I would.

My lovely red and green frills mustard interplanted with radish which you can see in an earlier post is no more! We went to the vinery late to shoot rats and found 8 or so having a party here! They've dug up practically everything and my nice clearly defined bed has disappeared.

As it gets wetter I'm going to see more rats move in as well as the speed of which they breed. I will be overrun in sure and nothing will survive.

There are no predators for the rats in the vinery and very few in Guernsey anyway, we don't really have ferrets, apart from a few escapee pets, no foxes, badgers (if they eat rats???) and not a huge population of owls either.

I'm loathe to use poison as I don't want to poison the soil and water ways. Shooting dispatches 5 or 6 in a night but they scare easily so once you've got a few it's hard to get any more, they're mostly too smart for mass snap trap success and the humane live traps haven't been too successful.

Any ideas for mass extermination would be greatly appreciated.

10/11/2021

Meal prep - I used the pressure cooker to turn these fresh home grown ingredients:
💚 freshly picked aubergine and chillies,
💚 home ripened tomatoes,
💚 the last saved onion
💚 garden grown garlic

⚡ into a delicious aubergine and potato curry.

I followed recipe, it was so lovely.

Recipe:
1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Onion chopped

1 clove Garlic crushed

2.5 cm piece Ginger grated

1 Green Chilli finely chopped

1 teaspoon each Cumin, Coriander, Garam Masala, Turmeric, Chilli Powder

2 medium Aubergines cut into cubes

4-5 medium Potatoes about 500g cut into cubes

3 Tomatoes finely chopped

1 tablespoon Tomato Puree

100 ml Vegetable Stock

Fresh Coriander chopped, to serve

Instructions

Put your pressure cooker into saute or browning mode and add the oil. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the ginger, chilli and garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes until everything has softened.

Add the spices and cook until fragrant then stir in the aubergines, potatoes and tomatoes until everything is coated in the spices. Pour in the vegetable stock and tomato puree then put the lid on and seal.

Cook for 4mins on manual mode, immediately release the pressure and serve with rice or quinoa

This will go into the freezer and once defrosted I'll add some home grown
coriander

02/11/2021

Chicken tagine made with homegrown aubergine, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, inspired by I used fresh tomatoes rather than the tinned in their recipe and used bone in thighs for the extra nutrients boost from bones in the stock and I added aubergine because I have a glut.

It was tasty, full of nutritious spices and quick to cook in the pressure cooker. One of my favourite recipes recently and the fresh tomatoes gave it an amazing boost of flavour.

My 9 yr old daughter enjoyed this recipe but wasn't keen on the chickpeas . We're working hard to boost her health and expand her diet as she is a huge fan of beige oven cooked food.

31/10/2021

Happy Halloween everybody 👻🎃

🎃

31/10/2021

I popped to the greenhouse this afternoon before the winds pick up and had the opportunity to do a bit more of my favourite thing, planting!

More winter veg planted today as soon as the white aubergine were removed, after a couple of cm of peat free organic compost.

This bed has kohl rabi and various colours of chard

Once all these beds are planted up for winter I'll be mulching with some seaweed and leaves to feed and keep the microorganisms snug over winter.

31/10/2021

I try not to feel sad when the tomato vines come down by reminding myself they are decomposing in the compost heap ready to feed next year's crops. 😁🍅 and we have a lovely crop of green tomatoes ready to cook 💚

The beds are mostly cleared- there are some borage, leeks, basil, pink celery and the remaining courgette left.

These will be typed with some mulch layers of beer grains, cardboard chopped up, animal bedding, seaweed, hay and mushroom compost before being planted with alternate winter veg and green manures to feed the soil.

31/10/2021

The chayote has loved the greenhouse. It has grown into a huge vine, creating wonderful shade for our chickens. I was confused that it wasn't producing any fruit, then suddenly over the last week it's become covered in flowers and loads of tiny fruit have started to form.

These were first grown in Mexico, so do well in our greenhouse growing environment. One of the greatest attributes of chayote squash is its nutritient content, as it offers various essential vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants.

Chayote squashes are prepared like vegetables. Every part of the squash can be eaten, including its skin, flesh, and seeds. You can consume it raw or cooked.

It makes a great addition to smoothies, slaws, and salads. Alternatively, it’s easily steamed, roasted, or fried. You could even consider adding it to soups, stews, and casseroles for an extra boost of nutrition.

I just read you can eat the leaves in salads and stir fries - wow there's a lot to enjoy here 😋

Let's hope they have time to ripen before the cold weather arrives 🤞

30/10/2021

Tamarillo are ripening nicely. I can't wait to taste this delicious fruit that taste like a combination of kiwifruit, tomato, guava, and passion fruit. can't wait for you to try them too 😋

We've planted three of these trees as the canopy layer as the start of the permaculture exotic food forest.

We've already got a standard UK apple and plum orchard area but being slightly milder in Guernsey and having the fortune of a large greenhouse it gives us more protection to try some more unusual exotic fruits.

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Videos

Tomato bed update. I'm so late planting my tomatoes but I'm sure they'll catch up and late is better than never. Here's a few ideas about how and why I'm interplanting, how I planted them, and a first sneak peak at the new irritation system we're fitting Is too easy to feel like you're failing in the garden but just know it's fun, you're doing the best you can with the time and conditions you have and plants want to grow so usually catch up. Don't sweat it and congratulate yourself on every win...... OK you may be sweating during the heatwave. #tomato #interplanting #pestcontrol #basil #tagetes #marigold #irrigation

Plum tree pruning advice needed please 🙏 #plum #plumtree #pruning

Who would have thought we'd get a second harvest of mulberries and they're better than the first harvest earlier this year. Join me on sampling the tasty fruit #mulberries #mulberry #mulberries🍇 #autumnberries #greenhousegrown #greenhousegardening #tastetest #yummyberries #berries #octobergardening #octoberheat

I spend a lot of time sharing the veg and fruit that we grow and I thought today I would share my gardening friend's fabulous invention to protect our seedlings from the birds. From a permaculture perspective it's important to think about the valuable resources you have in the garden and I am eternally grateful for the wonderful resource and friend that I have @nquevatre, for her amazing ideas, hard work and assistance at the greenhouse and simply for being there to share the ups and downs. I genuinely would be lost without you Nikki 💚

Join me on my evening tour of *VERY* late autumn seed sowing. It's great to learn the gardening rules so we can break them; there's no such thing as garden failures only garden lessons and let's all be seed sowing rebels Don't copy me unless you're prepared to take a risk like me All these greens should be making an appearance in the hedge veg stall over winter to keep you nourished with locally grown clean veg to boost your immune systems. #hedgevegguernsey #soiltosoul #seed #seedsowing #seedsowingsaturday #grownfromseed #seedgermination #winterveg #leafygreens #nutritiousanddelicious #gardeningrebel

Evening diary entry about powdery mildew, irrigation system, labeling and a few other ramblings

The BC (before compost) video I'm sharing the area we're setting up for our compost production, I'm discussing materials we're going to use as part of my reuse, recycle and repurpose philosophy. Feeding the soil will help me to provide an abundance of food for veg boxes next year

talking blight, blackbirds, green tomatoes, pruning tomatoes

First in a series of tours

I shot this video a few weeks ago of how we've pruned the tomatoes hard and supported the determinate tomatoes

Sharing the beauty of the first ripe Black Beauty tomato. 'scuse the hands, I'm sure my gardening friends understand 🤣) The taste - wow, worth the wait, tangy, juicy and smooth textured 😋🍅

@nquevatre was kind enough to video progress on the tomatoes this evening to share with our followers. you can see in the video the good, the bad and the ugly. Growing is not all perfection, there are certainly ups and downs. We've got some plants not growing, some looking a bit scraggly, same others thriving and pumping out fruit. As anybody growing tomatoes knows side shoot opening is a really big job, I can't wait until I can get to the vinery to help out. I'm researching new products to make from the crop to enjoy at home all year and to sell on the hedge veg, I'm thinking salsa of the week, sun dried tomatoes, perhaps ratatouille. Anybody have any favourites you'd like to see appearing on the veg stall?

This year's babies have started. Let me introduce you to 1 maran and 2 olive egger chicks we hatched from Facebook bought eggs. The maran will lay dark chocolate coloured eggs and the olive egger a dark khaki green colour egg They're super cute and growing strong. We do have two foot defects but we'll keep an eye on the situation as currently the chicks don't seem to be bothered by it. I don't think we're destined to have a large number of maran chickens. This is our third time trying to hatch them. The first time with a broody hen who abandoned her nest. The second time last year with an incubator where only 2 of 6 hatched and one of those was a boy. Funnily enough almost all of the rest of the eggs hatched in that batch. This time around in an incubator again where only 1 of 6 has hatched. Hoping these 3 are girls and will add to the hedge veg eggs for sale near the end of the summer More eggs going in the incubator this week 🐣🥚🐣🥚🐣🥚🐣🥚 #hatching #hatchingchicks #chickenfarm #hedgevegguernsey #maran #chickensofinstagram #babychicks #oliveegger #rainboweggs

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