Storms, Snails (lots of them), Frost and Flood

Who would want to make a living from growing things? A question we've asked ourselves several times this year, because being honest, what hasn't been thrown at us in 2024?!

The year got off to a challenging start with winter storms that devastated all bar one of our polytunnels, took out a corner of the greenhouse and generally made a mess of things, but with a little help from our good friends Ruth and Mike, we recovered the biggest tunnel in early March and got busy planting.

Then there were the slugs and snails! Like a plague, we think a result of the mild 2023/24 winter, huge black and brown slugs marched around the site. We found ourselves pulling literally buckets of them of young tender plants, but it wasn't just the new plants that suffered - we have NEVER know slugs to enjoy such eclectic flavours, leek and daffodil included! Later in the year we did find a weapon that we unleashed on the dahlia beds at the farm - Fred's flock of laying chickens spent many happy autumn days feasting on these beasts before the beds were put away for the winter. Given the way they one over the patch like mini rotators with their feet - here's hoping the population is somewhat depleted before these beds are planted with perennials in the Spring.

Flooding has become a really serious issue for many farmers and home owners that live near the banks our our rivers and streams. Our property is high above the flood plain of the River Teme and our river meadows are naturally designed to cope with the rapid floods that we experience so we and our livestock are safe and sound, nothing to complain about really given the devastation we see in other places, but this is a much more frequent occurrence which worries us. In 2024 we have experienced flooding on 9 separate occasions, surely this is unprecedented.