(no subject)

[annofowlshire]

Spring is coming to life in the UK. In November, my family moved from central London, to a small-holding in the Forest of Dean, and between day jobs we’ve been trying to tend a garden that has seen many years of neglect. It’s been a bit overwhelming, to be honest. (It’s not my first garden, but it’s by my largest, and when we bought this place I wasn’t expecting to return to work until at least 2022, and surprise! I was given an amazing returning career opportunity in January so now I’m working full time again :P)

Anyway—after some several weekend’s work—we’ve put in a “test” orchard of 12 trees. Apples, pears, medlar, mulberry, apricots, green gage (plum). (If they thrive, we’ll put in more next year.)

We’re trying to tear out an enormous bamboo from one bed, and it will be the soft fruits area—strawberries, currants, black berries, raspberries so far.

And I’m trying to reclaim a huge once-flower-bed now overtaken by wood geranium, brambles, and other such things. (This was taken last week, and that’s all regrowth from previous weed removal!)





I’m using large pieces of red sandstone that my husband sourced while digging holes for the orchard as bed borders. My inspiration is medieval potager gardens, so a mix of cutting flowers, herbs, vegetables, etc.



The kitchen window and conservatory are functioning as a potting shed.




And... I ordered about 40 more seed packs this morning (cutting flowers, herbs, and more vegetables)... I keep thinking about a friend who said to me when I worried that maybe I was going overboard—”Darling, if you’re not going overboard, are you even gardening?” XD

Comments

[jadelennox]

ohhhhh so much land. Gorgeous. And yes, your friend is 100% right about gardening overboard. 😆

[prettyarbitrary]

Ohhhh envy. What a nice amount of land that is to work with.

I have discovered that the easiest way to create or reclaim beds, if you have the time to wait, is with lasagna gardening. A couple layers of cardboard or newspaper, with compost and then wood mulch on top--the more natural the better. Let it sit for a year or two to kill all the stuff underneath and let the compost and nutrients work in, and it all becomes soft and fertile and lovely and NOT loaded with weeds. No tilling necessary!

It's pretty great if you have plenty of other work you need to be doing anyway. You can let some of the corners take care of themselves while you deal with other ones.

[annofowlshire]

Thanks for the suggestion! We’re talking about doing something like that for the section of bed I don’t get to this year (we’ve downshifted our “do it all” plans since I went back to work early), but we don’t know how much it will be yet.

We have a lot of cardboard from our move sitting in the stables just waiting... XD We definitely see this place as a long term project, we’re not going to do it all this year.

[ewt]

Looks like a great start!

[sea_changed]

It looks like a lovely area, and I envy your nascent orchard! I also definitely went overboard with seed-ordering this year, so you're friend's wisdom in this regard is well-taken.

(Also, re: the earlier comment about lasagna gardening, I also highly recommend a similar type that requires far less time and materials [but unfortunately lacks such a catchy name] that basically involves laying down newspaper, putting compost on top of the newspaper, then growing in that. I just wrote a post about it here--it's a really easy way to turn lawn into garden without a long time frame or tilling.)