A new Wwoofer Kelly from Connecticut arrived with Wwoofer Nell from Belgium to replace Alienor and Lena. Our Wwoofer Sara decided to stay on longer which was great.

Huge cleanup of the polytunnel: jet spraying the last few areas, removing and cleaning all the irrigation nozzles, plant tidying and tomato care. Hannah and Kelly turned over all the compost waste and secured more walls around the pallets. More tomatoes were planted outside in the beds by Sara and weeding by all continued with plant potting up in the polytunnel. Wood chipping was done to mulch the herb and perennial beds

Some of our frozen currants from last year were sold to free up freezer space.

Harvesting started in the fruit cage of blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, and loganberries. Some blackcurrants were made into a blackcurrant cordial. A good supply of peas this year, some of which were dried in the dehydrator for storage. Comfrey leaves were picked and chopped to make comfrey poultices which were then frozen. Comfrey leaves were also soaked in water and stored to make a fertilizer.

Chamomile seeds were sifted and stored. Electric daisy flowers were dehydrated for storage. We had wildflower seeds collected this month successfully from our own plants.

Our 15 year old cat, Holly managed to kill a large rat in the utility room.

We had two birthday celebrations this month for Heather and Hannah and enjoyed a birthday cake for each one.

Work continued along one of the tracks building new steps for easier access. Wood was also chopped and brought back to the yard ready for cutting up, drying and storing.

Visitors from the United States and Uganda stayed with us and the lodge started to book up.

Marketing on social media of our retreat started with new, up to date drone videos done by Stuart.

We were later joined by two French Wwoofers Sabina and Elina accompanied by their vociferous puppy Thelma. They helped building some steps with Hannah in the woodlands and finished their week harvesting our 20-meter strip of new potatoes. One day they helped Stuart working on the charity allotment with Sara. Sadly Sara left after working with us for eight weeks.