Bokashi makes your Veggies Grow

Bokashi is great for dealing with kitchen waste, but this article by Rosella Steven in Newindpress explains how it works and how it can increase productivity in your garden or on your farm.

Customer Complaint

Sometimes its difficult to always agree that the customer is king when you run a small business...

I had a complaint in today on our feedback forms. Mrs Jones said; "Why are your birdfeeders SO expensive - its outrageous - your birdfeeders are £75! Are they made of GOLD?"

The thing is we do have a birdfeeder at £75 with exactly the same margin as our other feeders, but look how gorgeous it is...

An Eva Solo glass feeder - yum!

The thing is what is wrong with selling this one? We have a whole range of feeders and if you want to spend £7.50 you can go for our metal seed feeder!

You cant please all of the people all of the time and I think its important to offer as much choice as we possibly can. The birds aren't fussy thats for sure, but they're not the ones buying the feeder are they?

A grumpy Heather rant....sorry!

Nesting Action!

You may remember this time last year Frankie - a Herefordshire Blogger, and indeed a Wiggly customer had tits nesting in her cambox.

Well this year a pair of great tits have started building a nest and you can follow the movie here!

Mouse and Trowel Awards

The Wiggly Podcast Team are tickled pink to see that our show has made to the final stages of the Mouse and Trowel Awards for Gardening Blogs and Podcasts.

If you enjoy the show please vote for us at the link above and check out all the other entries.
Lots of Wiggly favourites in with a chance including Garden Rant in the blog section. This post about my Nuffield Scholarship caused a mega Earl Grey spit!

Mark's Droughtbuster....

Mark has doned his wellies to give his viewers a demonstration of drought buster!! He says it works really well but dont bother with wellies at home.

Marks bathroom is on the third floor so he's added a little bit of hose which dangles into his water butt and goes to irrigate his veggie patch.

You can follow his progress here and find out whether his lettuces taste of bubble bath - or his carrots are full of bubbles!

Seriously he's a fab foto- er and his blog is following a pair of goldfinches nesting right in the tree below his living room window.

Not sure about The Wiggly Podcast?

If you are thinking to yourself - I cant be bothered to listen in to the Wiggly Podcast - I expect its just a company advert.... maybe you think its more of a country bumpkin production, take a read of our latest review on iTunes.

I'm so pleased that "The Mart-Man" has put up a review - I began to wonder if we would get another! Our listenership is rising but our last review was over a month ago!

Anyway here it is:
"5 stars My weekly dose of farming and I love it.
People who really love what they do. The team at Wiggly Wigglers put out this glorious podcast every Monday, the highlight of my iTunes week.

A too-short snapshot of the workings of an innovative and diverse farm-based business led by the enthusiastic Heather, her of the infectious laugh. She draws the best from those around her. in particular logical debate and knowledge of many environmental and sustainability subjects from Richard, and a down to earth practical farmer's take from the children's telly character named Farmer Phil - surely he should be getting his own animated show soon (actually he is a real person - a real star...sorry Heather).

If you have an interest in modern country life (and if you value our future food production and countryside then you should) then you'll enjoy this podcast and learn a lot from it.

Particular highlights for me were ploughing - I am a nurse in Bristol and I listened with rapt enjoyment to something I'll probably never get to try - and a brilliant debate on shooting as part of country life.

One low point...cats. Don't mention cats."

I reckon that should have inspired you to have a listen, in fact our local hospital is going to play the Wiggly Podcast to their listeners which I think will be really cool. Thank you to The Mart-Man.

Need anymore convincing? surely not but if you really do, we are in the "whats hot" section of iTunes inbetween Chris Evans and the BBC Breakfast Takeaway!

Meet Hannah!

This is a great photo (by Michael - many thanks) of Hannah - one of two new team members at Wiggly Wigglers. You will meet Karen soon as she will be blogging, but this is Hannah modelling our new leather apron (I HAVE to have one of these). Hannah is a qualified organic gardener, she is a beekeeper and she makes the best fruit cake I have ever tasted. She's here to help you on the telephone every week and will soon take over the Wiggly Garden.

Mary Booth says....

Photo thanks to John Harding

We sent out a request for feedback on Wiggly Products and Services a couple of months ago, and here's whats going on in Mary Booth's garden.
"My mealworms arrive every week (except a couple of times when the post has gone haywire!!) I have a robin thats feeds from my hand!! At the moment he/she has a friend and so I hope they are nesting. The other birds love mealworms too. I also have one of your Turtle Bags - wonderful idea."

Steven Humber's Top Five Wiggles

Wild Strawberry

Steven Humber from Dorset has sent me in his favourite wiggly bits and bobs. He has a long narrow garden and has transformed it over the past year into a wildlife garden. He enjoys wildlife gardening, country walks and local cider! (Yummy - maybe we should do a Wiggly Podcast on cider making...)

Wiggly Favourite and Why?
Number One: Can o worms , it’s a great way of getting rid of so much waste and making wicked compost for my veg patch.

Wiggly Favourite and Why?
Number Two: Clog box, I put it up about a month ago and has a pair of blue tits in already.

Wiggly Favourite and Why?
Number Three: My wild strawberry plant because the bugs love it and the fruit is amazing.

Wiggly Favourite and Why?
Number Four: Cowslip , just because it loves my garden and looks great.

Wiggly Favourite and Why?
Number Five: Love the podcasts, always make me smile my fav has got to be the one on the combine with Phil.

Thanks to Steven. If you would like to send me in your Wiggly Top 5, I would love to receive them.

Farm Art...

I posted recently about going to the European parliament and mentioned the sculpture...

Anyway yesterday while at Bunshill Farm I saw the farm equivalent...harrows.

Podcasting Sheep!

In Podcast 78 coming out on Monday I get to go on a Wiggly Adventure...Well I go behind the scenes at Alison's farm. She has Swartbles sheep and grows our hedging and wild flower plants, and I get to find out all about them on the most lovely April morning...

Bunshill Farm

The Wild Garlic in Pots ready for despatchRob and Alisons Polytunnel

The Swartbles "Tiddler" (who went on to chew my trouser leg!)
Farmer Alison...

If you've never tuned into our podcast the easiest way is to go to to our website and follow the iTunes subscription. Its totally free and it means that the podcast will arrive on your computer every week.
If you want to just try listening to an episode - go to our archive and choose one you think you would like. Most popular are: Wiggly Podcast 0043 From the Combine Cab, Wiggly Podcast 0045 Bees Make Honey or Wiggly Podcast 0071 A Star is Born.
If you want to try the highlights go for Wiggly Podcast 0064That was better, wasn't it?
By the way you dont need an iPod to listen in, most people listen on their computer. Enjoy.

A Star is Born

Wiggly Podcast 71 follows a cow calving - with the help of Farmer Phil.
And today here is that very calf - one month on with his mum.