About us

If you have landed here and you do not know who we are then we hope you enjoy your visit to our pages and take something away with you to use in your own lives.

Loraine and I both come from catering backgrounds, she a head chef at BHS many years ago and myself a chef in the British Merchant Navy back in the 1970s. We have always enjoyed cooking since those days and have put a healthy diet at the foremost of our living choices.

We recently sold our business, a Health Food and Supplement Store in Sussex which we ran for 15 years. Whilst there we met many wonderful people from all walks of life and this helped broaden our views and our lifestyle. In 2004 I lost my father to cancer but before that happened he used to run an allotment (1 rod), on which my parents grew a wide variety of vegetables. As my father fell ill my wife and I took over the allotment and cultivated our minds and the plot.

It took some time to learn how to garden, the pitfalls and the rewards were often not balanced and we struggled to keep on top of the work along with the high workload at our business. The turning point came with a letter from the council allotments saying that if we did not ‘up’ our game then we could lose our plot.

We discussed the situation and decided to keep with it but on a new course. Part of the plan was to equip the allotment with raised beds of which we installed 16 x 12’x4′ beds and the rest bare ground. We also covered paths and walkways with strong woven weed cover which instantly saved us a lot of work on the weeding front. Our crops advanced each year and we became more proficient at gardening to the point where we started to really enjoy the challenge and came to improve our knowledge considerably.

Our original start on the allotment

Our allotment inherited from my father Michael Zwierzanski

Then came a divining moment! NO DIG entered our lives. If you have not heard of it then please look it up on the net, there are plenty of sites that can guide you on this wonderful way of growing. Our favored No-Dig guru is Charles Dowding and he has Facebook and home websites plus many YouTube videos on this subject, we ourselves have never looked back.

This would have been our fourth year at the No-Dig method but as we are relocating to Cornwall we have had to refrain from our usual procedures at this time of year until we get to our new home. For ANY gardener this is such an important time of year it goes against the grain in not being busy as bees and planning the ground for the new growing season. We are hoping to get going once we relocate, updates will come once we are there.

The most important tip we can give anyone on No-Dig is Do Not Cut Corners when it comes to your laying the compost levels on your beds. If you put less than a 3″ covering it will be much harder to get a No-Dig garden underway. We have noticed Big Time after each year it gets easier with less weeding, bigger and better cropping, and little watering to do. The ground becomes more productive and this shows in the crop size and the size of individual veggies. We struggled at first to even produce carrots on any decent scale but look at this beauty.

This carrot topped the scales at over 1 kilo!

And this was not a one-off, there were many more like it but this one weighed in at over 1 kilo. And it tasted delicious ALL the way through! No bitterness, no woodiness just great-tasting carrot.
We have been getting this sort of result on many of our vegetables and it is amazing. That is why we are now going the extra step of going bigger and better across the board on a much bigger plot of some 2.5 acres.

Do join us in this new venture by following our story at https://nanpean-gardens.co.uk/ and make comments if you like to tell us what your thoughts are on the subjects.

Our Mission:
Our aim at The Stables is to produce from the barren paddocks that we started with, an Organic, Eco-friendly gardening system.

To aid us in these goals we shall adhere to certain criteria as our base premise. No Chemicals - whatsoever!  No-Dig method to be used throughout! Positive impact upon wildlife in the surrounding area, but especially on our 2.5 acres.
Special care given to all types of insects, birds and mammals with dedicated areas for building natural housing for them. Trees will be maintained and cared for with regular clearance of parasitic plants.

Our Vision:
Like all people, we have our own version of what our vision for this place can be, and we shall strive to complete that in time.
Many trees to be planted, construction of a walled garden for vegetables and flowers. In-house composting from the garden's waste materials. A fully producing fruit orchard and fruit field to be lain down.
And long term aims to open to the public for certain days of the year.

Where we are:
Having spent most of our lives in Sussex, we have now relocated to Cornwall where we live in Nanpean, a small village deep in the heart of 'Clay Country'.  
We live on 2.5 acres of what used to be an equestrian centre training and housing horses and is known as The Stables.

The Village:
The village is laid out in an S shape as it runs through the area. We live in the SouthEast lower part down by the village Church and village store.
The upper part has a garage, a few shops, and a Chinese takeaway. Population 2737. est 2020.

Height above seal level: 170m - 558ft

Meet The Team