SUMMER

Can you imagine anything more beautiful than a crop of 25+ species blowing in the evening summer breeze, the air thick with pollen and the humm of insects collecting their bounty. This is farming as nature intended. Remember all those seeds that my husband direct drilled in the spring time? This is the result. Sunflowers, clovers, vetch, oats, peas, beans, buckwheat, phacelia, turnips, grasses, barley, kale… Even though we have had a cold and slow growing season, they have all worked together to produce a beautiful palatable cover crop. They have not only fed lambs, but fed the soil, insects and subsequent bird life. 

After the sheep have finished nibbling what they want the paddock will be left to freshen up then the cows will move in to eat and trample the rest, ready for autumn sowing. Remember the paddock smoothies of fish, humates and molasses. Thats all the inputs this crop needed. No insecticide, pesticide or fungicide as the crop is so diverse there is no disease or insect pressure. Plenty of beneficial insects all working in harmony with each other as nature intended.