 Potatoes in the foreground and the long vegetable beds behind, 2011 |
 Newly transplanted sweetcorn and pumpkins in June 2011 |
 The long vegetable beds in their first planted year 2009 |
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About the Fruit and Vegetable Garden Purpose The wall was built 25ft inside our boundary so that its south and east facing sides could be used to grow wall-trained fruit trees, and the remaining area outside of the wall could be laid out to accommodate two 5-bed crop rotation systems. The fruit and vegetable garden is an experiment to find out just what it takes to become self-sufficient in as many home grown resources as possible, and this experiment extends to cover the use of our own water gathered from the roof of the house, and the installation of solar panels and a wind turbine to provide power for a ground source heat pump under the lawn in front of the house. We dry, pickle or freeze almost all the food produce, which means harvests that are seasonal when fresh are available year-round, either frozen or stored in jars. Everything about the fruit and vegetable garden is experimental, meaning primarily that all activities are designed as a quest for information rather than for specific results. Every year I fully expect half of everything to fail, and we only abandon a crop once we have tried five different ways to grow it, so hopefully over the years we'll learn better ways to grow tricky crops and which to avoid completely. Contents All along the wall a range of fruit trees are in the process of being wall trained, and in the beds at the foot of the wall there are early, middle and late season strawberries together with red currant, white currant and blackcurrant bushes. The long vegetable beds create a five bed rotation of legumes, brassicas, cucubitaceae, onions, and roots, and the squarer beds are used for an experimental rotation of sweetcorn, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins and annual herbs. There are a further four permanently planted beds containing asparagus, raspberries, cobnuts underplanted with mint, and perennial herbs. History The hard landscaping for the vegetable garden was done in late summer of 2008, once the wall was complete. The fruit trees, bushes and strawberries were all planted in January 2009, and 2009 was the first full year for the two 5-bed crop rotation systems in the vegetable beds. Below are some photos of the site before and during its construction. Peak Season: June/July for soft fruit, August/September for vegetables The strawberry harvest seems to last four weeks and starts in the third or fourth week of June depending on the weather, with the blackcurrants peaking at around the same time followed a few weeks later by white and red currants. With the exception of onions, the vegetable beds tend to look very unexciting until later on in the summer, when everything suddenly explodes into growth and all manner of knobbly and peculiar edible things appear until late autumn.
Home / Rose Garden / Yellow Garden / Pastels Garden / Double Mirrored Borders/ Fruit and Vegetable Garden / Open Days, Directions and Contact Details / Plant Sales and Teas / Map of the Gardens Copyright Carol Bruce 2012 |
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