Author Archives: foxglovefarm

We’ve been loyal Pekin bantam owners for years and have also had Light Sussex bantams in the past, but this time we fancied a change of breed, so we ordered these hatching eggs. Amazingly, they arrived, unbroken in the post. We placed them carefully, pointed end downwards, into the pre-warmed incubator which is kept inContinue reading “The Chickens of Foxglove Farm – Part Two”

We’ve kept Pekin bantams for many years and the flock usually stays at roughly six hens which gives us enough eggs for our needs but we’d got down to three recently so we decided it was time for Clarissa to hatch her three babies as mentioned in a previous post. She’s still doing a veryContinue reading “The Chickens of Foxglove Farm – Part One”

In common with probably half the nation we decided that we needed a poly tunnel in addition to the normal vegetable garden once lockdown began in Spring 2020. Hannah had previously owned a large, wide poly tunnel at our former home but this time we had to find one that fitted into a long narrowContinue reading “Our First Poly Tunnel – Vegetables”

As we celebrated Christmas with our family none of us could have predicted the awful year we were going to endure; one which saw us all ‘locked down’ for months. Fortunately, Hannah had gone a bit wild with the seed catalogues over the festive season, so we were well stocked with vegetable seeds when itContinue reading “Making the Vegetable Garden”

This week’s post is about the Lincolnshire Wolds in general rather than Foxglove Farm itself. When you are travelling and get into conversation with someone who asks where you live you can guarantee that most, if not all, will say, “Ah, Lincolnshire, very flat there isn’t it”? Part of me wants to agree because aContinue reading “The Lincolnshire Wolds – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”

Here’s recently shorn Benji tucking in at his beloved hay rack, even though everyone else is happily grazing. After owning sheep for only a few months it has become evident that they are individuals with their own likes and dislikes. Benji simply loves fresh, sweet, hay and positively skips with delight when he sees someoneContinue reading “Sheep are not like, well sheep …”

Equipment and other essentials Our first year of trying to become smallholders has proved expensive, but we hope that we won’t need to replace all our newly bought equipment and fencing for a good many years. Famous last words? Little Red was cheap as tractors go and positively bargain basement compared to our neighbour’s impressiveContinue reading “Starting the Smallholding”

We also run a boarding cattery and like to keep the entrance looking smart and presentable. With a mature plane and horse chestnut tree looming overhead this is a shady part of the garden and doesn’t suit most plants, so we’ve decided to go for low maintenance slate. We’ve also ordered some low growing junipersContinue reading “Improving the Entrance to the Cattery”

Hannah at the impromptu ‘fleece cleaning table’ Once Boris and Benji were shorn at the beginning of August we had to decide what to do with the resulting mass of woolly locks. We took the bagged-up fleeces into the cattery sluice room, put on some classical music, and happily picked through the fleeces to removeContinue reading “Preparing Boris & Benji’s Fleeces”

Today was a learning day but I think we coped well. We always go up the sheep and horses in the morning to check everyone is ok and to top up waters, put on fly masks, move them into different paddocks etc and then, on our second visit, we poo pick/muck out. All was wellContinue reading “Dealing with Foot Problems ‘on the Hoof’!”