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Time I keep reminding myself is my most valuable asset, but often I waste it.

Spring and early summer we know in our gardens is a time for battling with weeds. Trying to remain organic does not help this issue. I set myself a task this month to weed 100 plants a day. The task started well because there had been 8mm of rain at the weekend. With our clay soils and hot weather, after four days the soil baked and my 100 plants a day dropped to 60, as I set myself the job for first in the morning before breakfast. This morning we had another 3mm of rain and again it has become easy to pull thistles. But in the process of this I also contemplate that although I am pulling up 150mm or more of root with each one – there must be a huge network of roots beneath the surface waiting to produce the next wave of weed invasion. So what do I take from this? I have to admit that the sea buckthorn will not look pristine and weed free. It hurts my pride, but probably not too much yield. It is certainly better where I have applied the compost mulch. In real terms this comes back to time management and accepting that one must prioritise what is most productive and not waste time on trying for perfection.

Talking of invasion, today is Waterloo day. Two hundred years ago Napoleon Bonaparte’s army that had been a thorn in the side of Europe and Russia for fifteen years was finally defeated. In the UK it is seen as a British victory, but without allies the result might well have been different. Certainly the intervention of the Prussian army made all the difference. It proved that partnerships are valuable, but it is a sad reflection on the human race that we are still causing immeasureable suffering by inflicting war upon the world. 59 million refugees currently on the move in the world. It is no wonder that the UK is a popular destination when we have been privileged to have been free from invasion; civil disruption; economic chaos and able to carry on our lives without fear.

Back to sea buckthorn – I have another invasion to deal with – rooks. The traditional way would be shooting. There are sophisticated methods using loud audio systems that send bird distress calls across the site. There are less sophisticated methods. The enemy – if that is how I can describe them are intelligent. But I have to stop myself there. They clearly have intelligence and understand how to measure the risk of coming to steal my berries. This intelligence should not be measured in human terms. I used to consider that they would work out that any counter measure that I used that did not physically hurt them would not deter them. But a daily change of method does seem to be working.

Basic scarecrows of a single stake in the ground with an old yellow waterproof jacket on it seems to have some effect.

A more sophisticated version is an unturned bucket. A cross of wood is then bolted across its base fitted with old CDs at the end of each arm. The upturned bucket is then dropped onto a bolt fitted into the end of a stake that has been driven into the ground. The CDs at the end of each arm catch the wind and the bucket rotates. Add to that two 3 m strips of hologram silver tape and the whole thing can be seen from a way off. These “scarecrows” I move around each day. Alongside, 3m of flexible drain rods pushed into a base made from old electric cable drums with the silver tape attached providing some added flags of fluttering tape.  Additionally I have a hawk kite held aloft by 6m of carbon fibre ex-fishing rod pole. When all else fails – I will start to use rockets to fire over the top of the rooks when they are crowding up on a neighbouring field, waiting to hop over the fence. All this of course takes time. But having lost all the berries last year to these pests, I am leaving little to chance.

Next issue is going to be sea buckthorn fly and the spotted winged fruit fly. The end of June is the period to monitor the appearance of these pests. I will leave this problem to my next blog.

I normally concentrate on sea buckthorn matters for the blog, but this week has had a focus which reminds me that farming is not a single enterprise operation.

Devereux farm is located on the East coast of the UK. The business has two farms. Devereux farm faces the Hamford Water national nature reserve. A conservation area designated also as a Ramsar Site for its special importance as a 2000 hectare area of salt marsh, intertidal mud and sand habitats which attract thousands of winter migratory birds from Siberia amongst other places. Walton hall farm, 140 hectares, is on the Naze peninsula – 4 miles from Devereux farm, and like Devereux is protected from the sea by 5m high, concrete faced sea walls.

In 2004, the UK government Department for Food and Rural Affairs published a consultation paper on the possible withdrawal of maintenance from sea walls that they thought did not protect land of high value ( agricultural land). Since then, farmers on the east coast have been working with the agency to find a solution to the rising costs of sea wall maintenance and how to continue protecting their land.

Climate change is a difficult factor to quantify. Since 2000 we have had more incidents of extreme rainfall, one particular incident in 2012 flooded 60 hectares of land at Walton. The sea is also becoming more aggressive. In 2013, a surge tide came down the east coast and broke the sea walls in 63 places causing extensive flooding. Projected sea level rise was suggested as 6mm per year. This was downgraded in 2006 to 4mm for the first 25 years of this century – then doubling for the next and rising to 15mm per year as the century comes to an end. Add to this predictions, which are being recorded now – wind speeds are increasing with an impact that wave height is becoming more extreme and we have an increasing issue as to how to view our future as coastal farmers.

An example of this has been the fact that the Naze at Walton has a soft sediment cliff frontage facing the sea which is designated a geological site of special scientific interest. In its sediments are fossils particulkarly from 55 million years ago, but also the site shows evidence of being the most southerly point that the ice sheets reached in the UK in the last Ice Age. This scientific interest means that the cliuffs cannot be protected from the sea in order to allow them to erode and the fossils within the cliff to be washed out so they can be collected and studied.

This is all very interesting, but as the cliff line receeds 1.4m a year every year there will come a time when there is no more cliff left. At one point that will be next year, and the result will flood over 70 hectares of our land. It will also flood the sewage treatment works that serves the local area, removing their services for 22,000 people and polluting an important conservation site.

It was this issue that started the whole sea buckthorn project. We knew that this was going to happen and that we might lose land to the sea, but hoped it would not be for 50 years. Sea buckthorn is a high value crop that can be grown on a smaller area. This will maintain the viability of the farm when we stand to lose half of our land.

So over the past two weeks I have made presentations to our local government committees to galvanise understanding of the issues. The problem is that the sea is all powerful, relentless in its action upon the coast. But that does not mean that nothing can be done. In times of low government budgets any action needs to be targeted, affordable, local and innovative. It seems to need almost the same approach as we are taking in developing sea buckthorn.

Defending our coastline and our farm is a trial of effort and ingenuity. At the same time we have our first crop of sea buckthorn to manage; our website is up, but as work in progress. The threat of losing a large amount of our farm now looking real so it is becoming essential that the sea buckthorn development at Devereux farm converts research into a viable and economically sustainable business. Looking at our first crop on the plants now, I do feel modestly confident that success is on the way.

This week was forecasted for the weather to be wet – and it was. unfortunately it was also the week when I planned to give the whole sea buckthorn plantation a spring clean. It is time for the plants to have their next compost tea feed; the grass and broad leaved weeds are determined to dominate the field; the Altaiskaya sickness problem needs solving; and the site needs to be smarted up for the summer.

Like all problems, the Altaiskaya issue needs taking into perspective. my father used to say that ” things were never as bad – nor as good as they seem”. So when I look at these plants of a group of 48 I have 16 that I would qualify as being critical. Critical defined as having lost 50% or more leaf, with the remainder being distorted and drying.

The problem is aphids. Small ( approx. 1mm ) green aphids which seem to remain relatively local as they have infected one group of 7 plants in two adjacent rows but not spread into other plants which look relatively healthy. It seems to only have impacted upon Altaiskaya as a variety. Even Elizaveta which has been particularly prone to problems in the past, show no signs of issues.

Having identified the problem – the solution?

The site laid out by InCrops in 2011 has 6 Siberian varieties planted in 18 replicate groups of 48 plants. 18 replicates made up of 3 groups of each of the six varieties. So this morning I have sprayed the three Altaiskaya groups with two treatments: one of compost tea/ one with compost tea with a high dose of seaweed in the expectation that the seaweed may reduce the aphid numbers. The plants are crawling with ladybirds so nature might rebalance the excess numbers of aphids. As a more radical approach I have ordered some neem spray. as an organic natural insecticide this will cure the issues and it will be a good product to have in my medicine cupboard for the sea buckthorn in the future. As it will kill all insects it will be used on the critical plants, not all of them as I see that some are recovering of their own accord.

Spraying the rest of the plants with foliar feed of compost tea/seaweed I have noticed the seasonal incoming of vapourer moth caterpillars.The treatment is manual removal and destruction. I have grown to respect these pests and even one is too many. The issue is one that demands vigilance.

Berries are starting to appear on plants. Up until now I have ignored the rooks and jackdaws. They have done a good job in clearing the ground of grubs, slugs and other insects following the mowing of the site. Last year’s experience of allowing them to strip the berries off the plants is not one that I intend to repeat. They are intelligent birds. Scaring them will need to be flexible and credible. kites like hawks; scarecrows;bangers are all possible. Audio systems will be the next degree of upping the strategy. The last resort would be the traditional root which they do respect.

The final issue for this week relates to pollination. Walking the site yesterday it looks like not all plants have berries that are setting. Last year there were berries, therefore I know that the males are viable. Some have been affected by disease, some have been replaced. It is clearly crucial that there are males to cover each 100 sq m section of the site to provide wind pollination for the females. The question is whether different winter weather patterns influence how both the males and females develop so that they are viable for pollination at the same time. There is a concern that as some varieties break bud as early as January they are not behaving as they would in their native Siberia. Therefore their development cycle might be different as well as they come through the end of winter and into the spring. Different varieties might be influenced by having to adapt to our coastal temperate weather in different ways. So in the long term some might be viable for farming in the UK some might not. I will give the whole site two weeks for the berries to properly set and then survey the site before trying to make any conclusions.

Another week approaches and field work is becoming an all consuming focus – at a time when there are mounding piles of paper jobs waiting in the office.

I met my neighbour on Friday, who lives on an island in the middle of the Hamford water National nature reserve that Devereux farm is next to. We exchanged current thoughts and the topic turned to the vapourer moth caterpillar. The handsome, black furry beast that ravages my sea buckthorn plants. Not only is my neighbour allergic to its excretions but they are now so many on his island that they are starting to strip trees of their leaves. In his experience there are no predators and no means to control them. So when pruning on Friday and I came across another two plants with these voracious insects on them I was very particular about ensuring that I removed every one I found.

Next week I shall start the next round of compost tea foliar feed. It is particularly important at the moment as the fruit will be setting soon. Ensuring a supply of trace elements is suggested to enhance berry quality. Iodine, boron, cobalt and zinc potentially improving vitamin C. Copper and manganese influencing levels of carotenoids.

At the moment the plants look healthy but as I have reported before there are the occasional ones that have partial dieback. The leaves dessicate and I am adopting a precautionary approach and pruning out any such branches to reduce further infection. The same old culprit of Elizaveta variety seems to be a problem but this is in odd individuals. I am still concerned about the variety Altaiskaya. It seems to be going through a late flowering stage. The plants have come into leaf but compared with others they are backward. This is almost universal in all the Altaiskaya across the plantation

As with all jobs, most work is routine, so on the list now – the whole site needs mowing; compost tea every three weeks; removing all visible pests; prune out all disease; with a one off job being compost mulch across all plants probably starting in ten days time. This would normally be done in April but again lack of availability of machinery has made this not possible. On my clay soils I see it as important as it prevents the upper layer of the soil drying out and creating stress for plants roots that are close to the surface. The mulch is improving the soil ecology as the same time, which I see as an important contributor to controlling plant disease.

British Sea Buckthorn Co Ltd as our development business also needs the same level of concentration as that demanded in the field. 2015 will be an important year. The first berries will provide the inspiration for product development. But all plans need to be tempered with reality, and before plans can be fully formulated there needs to be reconciliation with regulation and resourcing.