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You can contact Sally via Empire Farm

Empire Farm, Throop Rd, Templecombe, Somerset, BA8OHR

sally (@) empirefarm.co.uk

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#Organic #gardener & #smallholder, writing on food, farming and gardening, living the good life #blogging at livingononeacreorless.co.uk

A bit of #rewilding, here's a wander around a 2 ac

A bit of #rewilding, here's a wander around a 2 acre field that I'm rewilding, we dug out a half acre pond 15 yrs ago and created some mounds divided by gullies from the spoil to diversify the habitats for colonisation, we had lots of weeds to start but then the willow arrived, followed by oak. I counted 7 young oak trees, some ash plus blackthorn spreading from surrounding hedgerow.Towards the end of the video you can see the pond surrounded by willow and poplar and the grassy area that is a damp wildflower meadow which attracts loads of butterflies and bees in summer

A mini treasure trove! Lifted some fallen leaves i

A mini treasure trove! Lifted some fallen leaves in my Victorian lean-to and underneath I found 20 ground beetles sheltering in a crevice. Brilliant natural predators, no wonder I don't see many slugs under the overwintering pots!
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#naturalpredator #naturalgardening #predator #groundbeetle #organicgardening #organicallygrown #noslugs #beetle #insect #gardenwildlife

#sage this plant has been producing loads of shoot

#sage this plant has been producing loads of shoots all year and still going strong, needless to say the #dehyrator gas been busy and I have plenty of dried sage for cooking is it didn't do well in the main beds as I have heavy clay soil but took off when moved to a well drained bed at the bottom of a south facing wall

Snails! Uncovered this cluster when collecting lea

Snails! Uncovered this cluster when collecting leaf litter, hunkered down for the winter, left them alone as on the wall well away from garden
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#snails #hibernation #overwintering #gardenpests #leaflitter #walledgarden #walledkitchengarden #gardening #gardenanimals #molluscs #shell

Productive session clearing leaves from the drive,

Productive session clearing leaves from the drive, these will be left to compost and form leaf mould - an essential element t for diy potting compost in 2022. So easy - just collect those leaves! #gardenlockdownjobs

Velvet shank growing on a dead wych elm, pops up e

Velvet shank growing on a dead wych elm, pops up every year on the same tree.

Sadly we've lost most of the young elm trees on the farm over the last few years. Elm seedlings pop up everywhere, in the hedges and scrubby margins. They grow really quickly but once they get to a certain size the elm beetles find them and within a season they are dead. It's been a bad couple of yrs and we have lots of young dead trees most around 7 /10 years old, but even three year old saplings succumbed this year, probably stressed by the dry spring. Those which are trimmed in the hedge tend to survive as they are kept small and masked by the presence of other spp around them.

#dutchelmdisease #elm #fungi #fungusphotography #velvetshank #deadtree #mushroomsofinstagram #organicgardening #organicfarm #mushroomphotography #fungiphotography #fungiofinstagram

Giant Bolivian Achocha glut 🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒 o

Giant Bolivian Achocha glut 🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒 on the way, it's growing in the polytunnel and taking over from the #trombocino #courgette glut. Lost crop of the Incas

useful crop which I use in stir fries while larger fruits are hollow so I remove the large black seeds and stuff them. Easy to grow, somewhat rampant climber! Doesn't seem to suffer from mildew. You can get seed from @realseeds
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#polytunnel #achocha #achochaglut #vegetablesofinstagram #vegetablegarden #growtoeat #GYO #ediblegarden #growingfood #organicgardening #organicallygrown #polytunnelgrowing #climbingplants #incas

Still plenty to harvest and the #courgette glut co

Still plenty to harvest and the #courgette glut continues .... Last of the squash and a trawl of the #polytunnel
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#ediblegarden #vegplot #polytunnellife #growtoeat #organicgardening #organicallygrown #leek #chard #allotmentuk #allotments #squash #achocha #GYO #allotmentgarden #harvest #vegetablesofinstagram #vegetablegarden #vegetablegardening #growingfood #greenfingers #permaculture #selfsufficiency #selfsufficient #climatechangegarden #healthygarden

They are still busy! Cabbage white caterpillars 🐛🐛🐛 munching the nasturtiums, not seen them active so late in the year before!, no doubt they will pupate and overwinter ready to pop out early next year, need a hard frost to finish them off.
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#caterpillar #cabbagewhite #nasturtium #gardenpests

Nasturtiums still flowering well. I liked the dept

Nasturtiums still flowering well. I liked the depth of colour of this one spotted in the #kitchengarden at @thenewtinsomerset but no idea of the variety.
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#flowersofinstagram #kitchengarden #ediblegarden #flowergarden #annualflowers #pollinatorgarden #autumncolours #autumnflowers #easytogrow

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Compost – peatfree, aminopyralid and digestate
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