Compost always provokes a lively debate in the gardening world.
We all know it is good and we see Monty Don using vast quantities of the stuff. Equally those who garden know just how difficult it is to make in the quantity a large garden requires and how much energy is required to say nothing of the logistical issues of space and organisation to store it.
Last year I went on a compost making course at our friends Sue and Ian Mabberley’s garden at nearby Nant y Bedd and was inspired to make better compost.
Now I cut up woody stems with a pair of Jakoti shears (watch out they are lethally sharp as my scars testify) and add as near as I can make 50% green to 50% woody material. This needs watering and an accelerator should be added. It needs turning after 6 or 8 weeks and maybe I will have some decent stuff this year.
I also acquire from accredited sources horse manure mainly for the vegetable plots which get depleted more easily. The soil here being heavy clay does not need a lot of feeding but does need aerating .
I would love to be an advocate of no dig gardening but I think it is a con trick. Nobody digs for pleasure but we all need to weed and if that is not digging , what is ? However, as a nod to the principle I will be adding mulch regularly and hoping it smothers the weeds.
I am also going to get some ancient well rotted cow muck this year so will be interested to see what effect it has on the flower beds !
Preserves
What sort of man makes Jam !
Well I do because I like the stuff. My parents were to blame. They made 40 lbs of marmalade each year in January and I do the same but not in that quantity. I like to make dark Seville, light Seville and Ginger Seville.
You can buy some on our open days.
We also have far more soft fruit than we can handle so look out for my Strawberry, Raspberry and Blackcurrent jams.
I do make chutney and the best one for our garden is All of the Garden chutney as you can add anything in that you have glut of. I also can’t resist green tomato chutney but 2018 was such a hot year that the tomatoes were over before the end of September and so we were short of green tomatoes, the essential ingredient. The same happened with our beans which needed more water than we could give them.
Water
On the subject of water, we have our own borehole which we found was inadequate for the water demands in 2018 in the heat wave.
We need to find a way of storing winter rainfall but to make this viable we need to store at least 10,000 litres and find a way of using it under gravity.
If you have any thoughts or comments let us know ! gardenofthewind@gmail.com
25 March 2019
In late 2020 a water collection system was installed at the top of our main vegetable garden. A new structure replacing an old summer house was created with a sloping pent roof to feed 3, 1000 litre tanks. This water will be used to water the upper garden in times of water stress. April 2021 saw the driest April on record in the UK. If this system proves its worth, a larger system will be created on the side of the metal farm barns with 8000 litres available.
Three sides of the structure are covered in trellis on which Clematis and other climbing plants have been planted.
Plans are afoot as of 2023 for another water catchment scheme of 10,000 litres from the roof of a metal barn following the scorchingly hot summer of 2022 and the very dry spring of 2023.
4 May 2021 updated 11 July 2023
Opening out some Woodland
In 2004 an acre block of woodland was planted up with mixed native trees mainly oak, ash, field maple, wild cherry and some birch, sorbus and hawthorne.
In 15 years the trees have grown well on their south sloping site despite damage from squirrels.
It has now been thinned and the canopy lifted. New paths are being created linking with a new entrance from the Art & memory field.
May Blossom
I have never know a year as fine for May Blossom. The warm spell in February might have helped and the cold snap without much frost must have been beneficial for the setting of flowers. Here are some photos taken around 21 May 2020.
RIBA West Midlands Awards
On 17 May 2019, the Bridge at Middle Hunt House designed by Michael Crowley Architect and built by local contractors Downey Engineering and Advance Joinery both of Pontrilas Herefordshire received two RIBA awards for best building including the only award for Client of the Year to Rupert and Antoinette Otten.
The citation from RIBA says it all !
The Sunday Times featured the Bridge and garden in the Home section on 5 January 2020.
Sunday Times January 2020
Gardening during Coronavirus
The Coronavirus hit the UK in February 2020 and a 10 week lockdown followed restrictions imposed on 23 March by the Government. We were all restricted to our homes except for obtaining food, taking exercise and for medical reasons. As none of us could travel any distance, those with gardens used the available time to improve their outdoor spaces and greenhouses.
Here at the Garden of the Wind we got on with clearing brambles in the Art & Memory field, continued with clearing work in our woods and planted a grove of Red Hazels. After a wet start to spring, April and May turned out to be the driest on record and watering became necessary in May on a daily basis. Despite very warm days, the last frost did not happen until early May here and in central England as late as mid May. I made our first batch of Elderflower Cordial on 3rd June, some 4 weeks earlier than 2019.
The second lockdown stifled off any chance of travel from October 2020 to May 2021, so we put our efforts into choosing and planting a new woodland area which one day will be an arboretum. The area devoted to this new enterprise is approximately 1.5 acres and adjoins by a new gate, the Art & Memory field. The ground is deep clay loam is most parts except the south end where the rock is close to the surface. It can also be wet with poor drainage in places so Alders and Haxels haven planted to sop up some of the excess wet and other trees have been chosen for their tolerance of wet conditions. As luck turned out, we had the driest Spring I can remember with only one decent shower in 5 weeks which meant carrying large quantities of water down to water over 50 new trees during April. Another 50 trees or shrubs were added in autumn 2021.
