Let’s get the weather report out of the way before going on with the news from ‘The Stables’.
Our last post was on the 19th of October, some six weeks ago and the weather patterns have changed drastically since then. It is now cold on most days, with the odd exception when the sun comes out with little in the way of wind, now those days we enjoy.
Although we have lost many days due to the wet and windy weather, we did have some bright, clear, and sunny days when we were able to get things done in the gardens.
Finished North wall
As you can see from the photo above, the long-awaited North wall is now up and runs the Northside of the walled garden from the Hut, down to the Composting area. The next chore on that is to make the gate to fit the gap where the piers are. This will be constructed from a wood frame with thick galvanised wire over the frame for both strength and durability.
Composting area and the gate to the 2nd field
The posts in the photo above are to be fitted on either side of the gate entrance and the new gate will be fitted to those. Loraine has 3 bays of composting on the go at present and this will help our requirements for next year. She has also started leaf composting and we shall see the results from that sometime next year.
Garden area view from the South side of the veranda
Loraine’s efforts in the garden during the winter months are amazing! Our crops for this year consist of Leeks, White Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Parsnips, Swedes, Turnips, Purple-sprouting Broccoli, 2 types of Kale, Onions, Spring-Greens, Spinach, and of course, the obligatory Brussel Sprouts! That’s a total of 13 different vegetables. Not bad for a former city girl!
Entrance to the hut and intended seating area
Here you can see the intended seating area and newly made flower beds. The seating area will have a weed suppressant cover underneath, topped with sand and large chippings, and later on to be topped with coloured chippings to add some colour to the area. The corner above will be housing a Dwarf Cherry tree and there shall be a further 3 trees around the seating area. Along with perennials and annuals, this should be a busy place for our pollinators and colourful on the eyes with all the flowers throughout the year.
There will be beds in front of the North wall down to the composting area and here we intend to grow Grapes and Peaches on this South facing wall which will retain heat for those demanding fruits.
The brown colours you can see over the wall is from the dying Ferns which are now asleep for the winter months and these provide some of our composting materials for the garden. There is little waste in a well-run garden!
Last part of the garden wall to be completed with the trench in place
The last part of the main building works for now in the walled garden is the completion of the South wall which will then section off the whole of our vegetable area giving it good resistance to any wandering rabbits that may be tempted to nibble at Loraine’s assortment of goodies.
This part of the wall will have to be stepped, as was the West side of the wall as it follows the natural fall of the land down to the Cemetary wall.
The area to the left of the above photo and the trench will form part of the ‘Flower Garden’, which will hopefully contain many roses of different types. Paul has found a rather large piece of stone about four feet in length that he wants to make into a seat in the ‘Flower Garden’, but moving this will be tricky indeed as it weighs so much. There are also a couple of big stones there which will form the bed of the seat with the long stone across them.
Seating area down to the sand-ring
Here we have built a wooden seat from timbers leftover from the hut build that looks quite natural and in keeping with the surroundings. We have two old cast-iron baths behind the seat which we are going to build two sunken ponds on either side of the seat by placing the level of the bath with the ground and lining them with rubber pond liners which will help the large number of toads we have roaming the gardens. Behind the seat, but rather small at present is a beautiful Red Acer tree which seems to like it in the calm area behind the tree line.
This area will be tackled perhaps next year and cleared to reveal the artificial hill that was made when the earth spoil from the school extension was placed here long before we came. It was perhaps very beneficial to us in that it has formed a perfect windbreak from the South-West weather and keeps our new orchard out of severe winds. The wall you can see forms part of the border for the local cemetery which lies just behind it.
North road leading to the 2nd field
Our fruit field is now becoming established and will produce more abundant crops as time goes on. You can spot the first of the ‘Grisilinias’, hardy shrubs, which will form a natural hedge all down this roadway. We intend to keep it at a height of around 6-8 feet, which again will provide wind shelter for our fruits in the summer months. We have scattered sand we dug out from the polytunnel along the roadway to make it more stable as it can get very muddy otherwise, and as we have tons of this material at our disposal it will make a solid road to bring the car up to without turning the whole place into a mud-bath.
Eventually, we plan to place Daffodils along the bottom of the North wall to brighten up the view.
Well, that’s all for this post, and we hope you have caught up with our efforts to turn ‘The Stables’ into a vegetable, fruit and flower festival every year. And by the way, one of the reasons for posting so intermittently is because Paul has been working on a NEW website which will allow us to expand the site to new levels. This will be called ‘The Gardens@Nanpean’, to reflect what we are trying to achieve here, more of that when it becomes usable.
You all take care.