The stock fencing around the croft is ancient and very rickety. We have plans to rip it up and replace it with deer fencing as soon as time and funds permit, but for now it hasn’t seemed a huge priority with the house build taking up all our time and energy.
However, recent events may have promoted fencing repairs to move up the priority list a bit more rapidly.
Yesterday evening Husband noticed some ghostly white shapes through the obscured glass of the caravan door as he was walking through to the bedroom.
Little ghostly white blobs on the grass…
Spectral forms they were not, unfortunately.
Rory’s sheep, tempted by the long, lush grass on our unkempt croft, had broken through the fencing and were chomping away like demons right outside the caravan!
They’ve also grazed all the purple sprouting broccoli, red cabbage and kale in the croft beds down to sad looking stumps. There goes our outdoor winter crops. As if we didn’t have enough competition from the deer!
From now on, until we have the fencing repaired or replaced, all our growing goes on in the polycrub only, where at least there’s some protection from hungry mouths. I’m going to try and sow some replacements, even though it’s late in the season.
On a brighter note, good progress is being made in the house. We have the carcasses being built in the kitchen in preparation for the template guys to come in later in the week and measure up for the worktops.
I can almost imagine it now! The hob arrived yesterday and we’ve just ordered the fridge. It’s taking shape.
We’ve not had much in the way of a summer yet despite us being at the end of July, but the croft and the polycrub continue to feed us.
We dug out the rest of the onions yesterday. These are a variety called Keravel Pink, and they’ve produced what I think is quite a respectable harvest.
I chose these as they were the closest I could find to the Roscoff onions that I used to love when I lived in France. They’re an onion with a slightly blush colour, and sweet, firm flesh. They’re now hung up to dry, ready for use.
Husband also dug the rest of the potatoes as we were starting to detect slug – and believe it or not, deer damage. We’ve had a few meals already from them. It’s a smaller crop than last year, probably caused by the cold, wet weather and they could have done with a bit longer in the ground, but they’re a reasonable size. To be honest, we like ‘em small and sweet.
I planted Edzell Blue and Casablanca varieties from Scottish seed potatoes and Red Rooster from a bag of sprouted supermarket potatoes. The supermarket ones outperformed the specialist ones by a reasonable margin for a second year!
The first of the carrots are ready now, and I’m going to sow more. They’re sweet and very flavoursome.
The sweetcorn experiment is progressing! We have flowers and silks on a few of the plants, so I’ve been hand pollinating with the hope that we manage to get a few cobs at least.
All in all, not bad for a low-effort croft nurtured using organic principles and no-dig beds, in this weather and whilst not at my best due to illness. No pesticides, no inorganic fertilisers, no chemicals. I love that we can pick produce straight from the plant. The soil is fertile and giving, and we will continue to develop the beds next year with windbreaks and deer protection.
It seems strange but I can already detect the first wisps of autumn drifting in from the edges. The leaves on the ancient horse chestnut at the end of the lane are starting to turn russet. The seed heads on the long croft grasses are ripe and heavy. The season feels about to turn.
The rest of the country is living through a Met Office severe weather warning with temperatures hovering around 40C, but Skye today is a cool 22C with balmy sea breezes.
Blue skies and sea breezes
I don’t think that we would have survived that heat if we’d still been living in London.
The house we were renting there was badly insulated :- a town house with three floors, our bedroom being at the top of the house. There was no airflow or air conditioning, and the heat would rise to the top of the house and make sleep simply impossible.
Even with fans we found it too hot to do anything, and whole months could be lost to weariness and bad temper through lack of sleep. There was also a continual sense of grubby stickiness from the proximity of the crowds and the air pollution, which was palpable.
London does not do summer well, like most cities.
I know that people think it’s bizarre but we genuinely like the cooler temperatures up here. There’s nearly always a wind blowing, and it rarely exceeds the mid 20s. That’s comfortable, as far as I’m concerned!
We’re so glad that we got out. The air is clean and cool here, and we enjoy the wide open spaces of the croft. Today was a good washing day and husband hung sheets and a duvet cover out to line dry in the warm breeze.
Washing day
I’ll take the cooler temperatures and the rain over the pressure cooker of the city any day.
July is underway and with it comes the first of the proper harvests from the croft.
The polycrub really has been a game changer and we’ve managed to grow cucumbers and lettuce enough for all of our salads and more to spare for neighbours and friends. This in combination with the produce from the raised beds has meant a wide variety of foods can be grown throughout an extended season.
Lettuce and young onions
The most successful lettuce has been a butterhead, which we’ve been cropping as a cut and come again lettuce. We’re also growing romaine. All the mizunas and rocket grew well initially, but then bolted within weeks and became straggly. I don’t like eating the mustards and mizuna because of the spiky texture of their leaves so I won’t bother with these next year, and will just plant more lettuce.
Butterhead lettuce
The onions were supposed to be red onion varieties, but aren’t more than vaguely pink. They sent up flower shoots so most of them have been lifted before they soften.
They’re small, but sweet. We’re using them in salads and cooking now and I have them drying in bunches ready for use later in the season.
Drying onions
The red kuri squash has a few young fruits on it, which I’m very excited about. Early days, but I’m hopeful that we’ll have a few to harvest in late summer. The French squash hasn’t shown any sign of fruiting yet.
Baby squash hiding behind a tomato leaf
The garlic was a bit of a disappointment. Sown last October I had high hopes for bigger heads this year, but they’re still small. I’ll use them in stews and trays of roasted vegetables, so despite their lack of size they won’t be wasted.
Wimpy garlic
The potatoes are also much slower than last year. We’ve just harvested some Edzell Blue and Casablanca varieties. Great taste, but not hugely prolific. We’ll hold off for a while for the main crop variety.
Edzell Blue potatoes
The kale is growing well after the deer ate all of my perennial kales from the beds last winter. I grew more Uncle Bert’s kale and red Russian kale from seed and it’s coming up nicely. I’ve also sown purple sprouting broccoli into the beds recently, so between them that should give us a reasonable winter crop.
The carrots were grown in large seed lick tubs this year as an experiment. Three varieties, all French heritage types, growing well, albeit slowly. The first of these should be ready in a few weeks time.
Carrots
The cucumbers had a very faltering start due to the cold temperatures of late spring. A number rotted and wilted beyond salvation, but the three plants that did survive are fruiting well and have produced about six cucumbers ready for eating so far. There’s no trace of bitterness to their taste either, which is great.
Baby cucumber
The tomatoes are starting to set fruit, again later than most due to our cold, late start. It will be interesting to see whether we can get them to ripen in time. The big Russian bush varieties are pruned and tall with not much evidence of fruit yet. The dwarf bushy varieties, which don’t get pruned, are happily fruiting away with no fuss.
Dwarf tomato plants doing their thing
The courgettes – I only planted two plants so that we weren’t overrun if they grew – have started fruiting, although the fruit is yellow rather than green, which is a total surprise. We’ve already had a handful of courgettes from them, and looking at the flowers there will be many more to come.
The beans have struggled. The borlotti beans are doing the best out of all the varieties and are starting to flower now, so I’m hopeful for a few fresh beans from them.
The corn is about four feet heigh although no sign of flowers or fruits yet.
The herbs have gone mad – the tubs of parsley and coriander have gone crazy and we’ve been eating them for months, the dill the same and I’ve left some to go to seed for collection. The chives, lemon balm, rosemary, lemon verbena and mint are all growing well.
All in all, I’m happy with our first months of growing with the polycrub so far. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been here since mid April. I’ve learned a lot, and when we set up proper grow beds in there next year I’ll feel confident about what to plant out.
Now to start sowing the winter seeds! The year is turning already.
Taking it easy isn’t easy for someone like me. I get bored quickly, and convince myself that as long as I do things slowly or gently that they’re no effort. How wrong I’ve been.
Harvested onions
Junior Gardener has returned to Manchester now, so I’m on my own. Husband is busy with the house build and I don’t like to bother him with small things that distract him from his main priority, finishing the house!
I was told not to, but I pulled the flowering onions from the croft beds a few days ago. There were only a few dozen of them, and they came out of the soil easily. I didn’t feel that I had strained myself or exerted any real effort. I carried them through to the polycrub to dry and thought no more of it. I felt a bit tired afterwards, but that was it.
However, I was wrong. It did cause problems, and I’m now sitting with my legs up wishing that I wasn’t so stupid. I’m only two weeks into my recuperation, and the effort was too much too soon for my still traumatised body. Stupid, stupid.
I’ve learned my lesson, and won’t be doing any more gardening for a while yet.
I only hope that I haven’t caused complications with my recovery. What I should do is use the wonderful aromatherapy gift that a good friend sent to try and calm my thoughts and stop building “to-do lists” in my mind, and instead focus on relaxing and healing. She knows me better than I know myself.
I will also have to content myself with nothing more than gentle walks and wearing outrageous leggings for amusement. It’s about the level of what’s possible for me right now, and what passes for entertainment in these parts.
We have a pair of adult ravens living on the croft, Floki and Helga, after whom the house was named.
We hear them mostly in the spring as they call to each other, and occasionally see them wheeling overhead across a windy sky, but they’re generally private birds, watching us curiously from the big Douglas Fir on the western boundary.
They’re no trouble, and fascinating birds to live alongside.
Unlike the Raven juveniles.
Before we moved here I had no idea that young ravens live together in a huge group before they pair off, mate for life and settle down to adult Raven respectability. The juveniles form what can only be described as a gang of teenagers, noisy, boisterous, and badly behaved. It’s often called a Conspiracy of Ravens.
We have a large Conspiracy that lives locally. Recent exploits have been starting at dawn – which is just after 4am in these parts – with loud squabbling, and shrieking so loud that it’s impossible to sleep through.
They’re very smart.
They’ve been working out how to get to the fat balls that are put out in a wire cage contraption for the smaller birds. Clearly it’s a breakfast treat that can’t be resisted, and an hour or so of noisy plundering takes place with a dozen or more of them fighting each other for the spoils.
On blustery days at sea we occasionally get seagulls venturing inland across the croft, and on these days we can hear turf wars sparking off between the ravens and the gulls in a cacophony of noise.
The battlefield is usually the caravan roof, where shrieking, scrabbling and cawing take place until supremacy is established.
It’s amazing how quickly things grow at this time of the year. In the few weeks since I last posted about plant progress, the croft beds have filled up and are now bursting with foliage from the maturing potatoes, onions, garlic and kale.
Raised beds with sorrel in centre
The red veined sorrel planted last year was the only thing that the deer didn’t eat over winter, and in the last four weeks it’s shot up and is throwing out flower stems. We’ll keep the seed and cut it right back soon.
Mint going crazy Polycrub filling up
The polycrub plants are growing even faster. The tomatoes have flowers on them and the squashes, courgettes, beans and sweetcorn have all grown hugely.
Borlotti beans
We’re already cropping strawberries from the three tubs of strawberry plants that we have. It’s just a small bowl each day, but they’re sweet and delicious.
Breakfast bowl of strawberry pickings
We have plans next year to increase strawberry production and as the plants are already sending out runners we should be able to propagate many more plants before next spring. We’ll install a couple of runs of drain piping to hold them above the raised beds.
StrawberriesHerbage (mammoth dill)
The days are long now. Sunrise is at about 4.30 am and sunset around 10.30pm, with the plants responding to the long days with rapid growth. The ravens set up a cacophony of noise at dawn to herald the start of day (thanks lads) and one of us potters over to open the polycrub some hours later once coffee has kicked in.
More herbage (parsley)
Soon we will start harvesting. We’re already cropping seed-grown parsley, coriander, basil and dill, as well as lettuce, but the potatoes and garlic won’t be long now. Then courgettes, spring onions, peas and beans. I’m already sowing purple sprouting broccoli, kale and pak choi to succession plant in the spaces that they will leave, and tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and corn won’t be far behind.
The polycrub is my happy place. It’s warm and sheltered and smells faintly of greenage and soil and the spiciness of growing leaves.
Duncraig Nursery is one of those wonderful, remote places that are quite magical when you find them.
Nestled in a hidden wooded glen near Plockton, surrounded by an old walled garden from the nearby castle, it’s location is beautiful.
Duncraig castle
From the moment you arrive, car tyres crunching on the stone chipped path, to the initial conversation with the owners who radiate deep plant love and knowledge, you realise that this is a special place.
I went with a friend on an exploratory visit, and we both squeaked with delight as we found more and more of the plants that we were looking for. All good strong varieties, tried and tested to survive in the highlands of Scotland.
All in tip top health, all vibrant and well tended. It was a completely different experience to the rather sad, city garden centre that I’d visited last week in Inverness where the plants were stressed, in need of water and limply unhappy.
Purchases awaiting planting up
I went looking for cucumber seedlings as mine had not germinated for some reason. They were the only big failures in my seed sowing this year. I was worried that sowing again so late in the growing season, already short here this far north in the highlands, would mean that we wouldn’t get a crop at all.
Cucumbers and tomatoes
I found cucumber seedlings. I found strawberry plants full in flower, chilli peppers, sweet red peppers, lettuces and glorious red kale. The soft fruit selection, shrubs, fruit trees and herbs were fabulous. I could have bought the entire place up if I had enough growing room!
We will be back. The danger is now to our bank balance for subsequent visits! Saying that, I’d rather spend my money supporting a local garden business where the owners have a real love for their enterprise than a faceless chain where profit is the main concern.
Compost bag with lemon verbena
I’ve roped in husband to help and have now potted up my purchases. We ran out of canvas bags and sheep lick tubs, so are now using empty folded over compost bags as temporary plant containers . Waste not, want not, as my mum used to say.
I can’t remember how long I’ve nursed the fantasy of potting up plants in a warm greenhouse whilst sipping a mug of tea. Maybe listening to an audio book, or a podcast.
I’m such a party animal. I’m not ashamed to say that the quiet life is definitely for me.
Potting up
This morning I took my mug of tea out to the polycrub. I sat there in the warmth, perched at the camping table surrounded by the smell of damp compost and the sound of skylarks rising over the moors above us, and felt content. I even managed to pot up a few trays of young seedlings.
This was my first taste of pottering about in this sheltered space, growing things without being blasted by the south westerlies, and it was wonderful.
We’re slowly wheelbarrowing loads of woodchip from our tonne bag on the other side of the croft to make a weed surpressant covering over the cardboard. It’s about half way there, and whereas the old me would be stressing that I can’t complete it more quickly, the new me just accepts that it’s slow but that it will eventually get done.
There are several trays of young seedlings that will need potting up into my canvas grow bags over the next few weeks. It will happen.
The house is progressing well.
We have plasterboarded out some of the roof space walls upstairs now, so I have a much better idea of the bedroom dimensions now that the eaves have been boarded out.
A friend suggested a clever hack for extra storage in the often somewhat wasted space in the eaves. Most people put a cupboard door in the eaves, but it’s still a bit inaccessible.
Drawer units either side of the headboard space
We’ve bought a couple of drawer units and are building the eaves around them. Once finished, this will be plastered and painted white, leaving the two drawer units embedded flush in the walls. Easy to access, one on either side of the bed, and useful space.
Although it’s been warm during the days of April up here on the island, with temperatures of around 16C, the nights are still pretty cold at about 5C or less. So it’s time to still be cautious about planting anything tender out.
We’ve started prepping the polycrub growing area with a layer of cardboard followed by a layer of wood chippings to act as a weed suppressant.
It’s been heavy work for husband wheelbarrowing load after load of woodchip over the croft to the tunnel so that I could lay and level it. We’re not finished yet.
I’ve also started filling old sheep lick tubs and canvas grow bags with soil and compost so that I can plant out some of my seedlings. The local crofters give them away and they’re great to recycle as planters with a few holes drilled in the base of each for drainage.
So far I’ve got peas, borlotti beans, and a few squash and courgette plants in the tunnel. The salad leaves are in there too waiting to transfer into positions outside. The tomatoes, cucumbers, dill, parsley, basil and chillis are still too small to go out into the tunnel yet so will benefit from a few more weeks of growth.
I also managed to get the carrots and kale sown directly into the raised beds. Potatoes, onions and garlic are already in. So although the beds look pretty empty, they’re actually full!
A busy time on the croft. Days of lifting, raking, bending and sowing. I’m certainly sleeping well at night at the moment!
Wishing you all a great growing season with good weather and lots of greens. ❤️
Ravencroft Skye 