just joined - bonjour from finistere

Hi, I am currently residing on a hill in the middle of the national park in the finistere region of Brittany. We (2 lurchers and DW - my other half) moved here 18 months ago and we are turning a barn into our home and a very large overgrown, fern infested patch into a garden and potager. The area has it's own micro-climate and the weather changes constantly.

I have dug over a lot of the garden, which is on a slope so I have created 3 terraces stepping down and a few garden beds to act as wind breaks. The soil is mostly clay and very large stones with a few hundred 303 and 9mm bullets thrown in ...... we have yet to uncover the hand grenades said to be buried here, although it would've saved me the job of digging out the sunken pool area lol ( a hole for the blow up plunge pool, in case the sun ever gets hot enough again!)

I threw some seeds in last year and managed to get a reasonable crop, mainly clover (a local farmer gave me some cow manure) and a few carrots, swede, turnips, greens etc.
we were plagued with moles so I lost a lot of young plants and then it rained a lot so the rest sort of rotted. This year I tried making an african keyhole bed to try to solve the mole and rain issues but then I got overrun with ants which ate all my crops, those that survived the ants then died due to another cold spell and buckets of rain. So last week I ordered a cheap polytunnel, desperation! - I need to be able to produce some food to survive on a budget.

I've also planted some fruit trees but don't expect much fruit this year as they are young trees. we also have 5 chickens and a cockeral named steve mcqueen,

I have never grown veg or fruit so I am a complete novice, please bare with me if I ask stupid questions, thanks and hope to converse with some of you soon.
ps I will post some pictures when I figure out how to do it, I have forgotten how to use the pc because we have only just got the internet as we didn't have enough battery power from the solar panels, (or something technical like that, DW knows what it is lol)

 

Bienvenue tutt bisous et al,
It is sad to read of your trials and problems brought about by this hostile weather over the past couple of years. We are all having to adjust to less that average performance and success in our gardens and it isn't easy to accept is it?
Anyway, look forward to hearing and seeing more when you can,
meanwhile, welcome to Gardeners Corner. Great bunch of fellow nutters here
Jenny Namaste

 

Bonsoir tuttut.bisous I'm (nearly) in the same bateau ....but a bit further south.
Do your neighbours tell you 'Mais, c'est exceptionelle cette annee' every year? Hang on in there, come a normal year it'll all be worth it. It sounds as though you've achieved a lot in a short space of time! Some of the old tricks work well, like glue bands on fruit trees, or painting the trunks with chaux. If you've got a pond in the garden, frogs and toads help to keep down insect nasties. A detaupeur is a big but effective investment if you're plagued by moles. Putting a bucket over it stops doggy accidents. Looking forward to following your progress!

 

Bonjour Jenny et Merci,
thanks for the welcome, I've been reading the site for hours now and I have to say it seems a very friendly and busy forum with lots of useful ideas. It's not so bad, the weather is the weather and I decided it will probably take me a couple of years to see some real results from the land as far as the veg and fruit goes, at least my flowers are growing now
abbs

 

Bonsoir Noisette,
My neighbours tell me it rains a lot here, but not on our hill usually! But then they all read the almanaac and if it says in there that it is going to rain... it will rain!
Thanks for the welcome and for the tip about the bucket over the detaupeur , I haven't tried them because of that reason and the cat of course, I might have to resort to it though if they continue to eat my food!!
abbs

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

 

Hello and welcome.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner tuttut.bisous. It looks like you have your work cut out but it's a great sense of achievement when things come right.

 

Hello there and Welcome.