Working the new land

We have now started work on preparing the small holding for next year. We took the land rover down there yesterday loaded with manure and garden waste. We also took the old pond liner. We are planning to put in ponds on the small holding but the reason for this liner was to use it to kill grass and weeds. It is too tattered and brittle to use for building ponds. Instead, it was laid out on the ground where the potatoes will be planted to kill the grass and weeds. We also used a tarpaulin, some dumpy bags and feed sacks in which the manure was brought to the site. We had already removed some branches from trees in the hedge and these were used to weight down the liner etc. We need more as the area we will be using for growing potatoes will be much bigger. Our plan is to grow potatoes for ourselves and as a cash crop. After all, we now have lots of land to be able to grow crops for sale.

In late winter the liner and sacks will be removed and we will run the rotovator over the land and add the manure we brought down (there's lots more to come!)

Yesterday we also measured out the area we will be using for the first goat and pig paddocks. The aim is to get the pigs in early spring, once the worst of the winter weather is behind us.