09/12/2024
Wilder was a very neglected elf over the weekend, with the stormy weather and family time, we didn't go hunting for him. But Mrs Wild reassured the Wild Bloomers he was injured, so likely just needed a couple of days rest anyway 😉. We enjoyed a special viewing of The Polar Express at Foulden Village Hall - Norfolk with our community.
It looks like Wilder managed through the storm just fine, having set himself up camp in a sheltered area near the wildlife pond. Attaching his bandage to the eucalyptus supports and throwing over some fleece to make a tent! He even managed a tub from the tunnel to sit in to keep his bottom dry!
He mustn't have scared the mice though as they've managed to get into some of the ranunculus somehow 🤦♀️.
Mrs Wild thought she'd better do some W&WB related work today, life hasn't allowed for much in the way of that recently. But despite the cold, it has been a therapeutic morning, pricking out and potting on some seedlings! They are much farther behind this year than previous years but are looking pretty good otherwise. Last year we lost in excess of 90 seedlings/small plants to dampening off in the tunnel, which was gutting. So these babies have all been kept at W&WB HQ greenhouse! We learn our lessons!
Spring will see them get growing well again when light levels increase and we look forward to then starting our less hardy annuals.
We have opted to not plant out our hardies like we did last year, but will wait until 2025. The seeds germinated in the greenhouse, so are plenty sturdy for the cold weather we've been having and have needed little to no attention despite the frosts we've had but they're too small to defy any slug attacks. Either that or Mrs Wild has become very neglectful (a bit of both! 🤣).
Some of the hardy annual seedlings in the beds at Rubble Corner have germinated well after shaking seed heads a couple of months ago, they've survived the onslaught of rain, wind and freezes. We are keeping everything crossed they make it through the winter as then they'll be really sturdy, productive plants and will then be thinned out when the time is right. Its also been good to experiment with how good our soil is in terms of germination and water logging as we jumped straight into planting last year with no regard for our soil health other than top dressing with alpaca 💩. Which the worms have done a fab job of taking down into the soil over the 2024 season! It also saves us time on sowing, pricking out, potting on, planting out and compost costs if they make it through! That's a win in our book, even if its another job added to the Spring list!
Mrs Wild might just have time to make a wreath for their door this week - she hopes. If not she'll make time of an evening with a cuppa! She's been learning more and more that me time is important and our family support worker has been pushing Mrs Wild as a challenge if you wish, to find those moments for herself in between the chaos that is our lives!
