Moving into a new home means moving into a new garden too, and there is a sense that despite bringing some ready grown plants from our previous garden, we have to start all over again. There is also a great mystery that the seasons will unravel, and so far this year I have been pleasantly surprised by the plants that are already in residence. We had a beautiful array of snowdrops and daffodils brightening the cold spring mornings, and I am thrilled to see the climbers over the 
garden wall coming into full bloom, as well as a laburnam tree showing its beautiful purple blossoms. This is my favourite so far; my grandmother, who sadly passed away over twenty years ago now had three laburnams in a row in her rather regimented garden. Veg grown on one side, and a flower garden and lawn on the other, I do think that if she is looking down on us she would be quite proud of what we are trying to acheive here at Wrickton Hall.
We have been lucky in that there were already a couple of raised beds built in the garden that just needed turning over and some compost mixing in, and Mick picked up a greenhouse on freecycle to start the vegetable seeds. And now that we have met the beginning of May, the beds are looking promising and the greenhouse is growing in greenness everyday.
We have herbs that will not be too much longer before being planted out into a herb box; Mick made a planter last year from an old pallet, last year we grew far too much lettuce in it, but this year it will become our herb pot. We have onions and garlic growing well in one of the raised beds, with a row of early radishes, and peas, more onions, beetroot and lettuce in another. The brassicas, cauli, broccoli and kale are in a new raised bed that Mick rotivated about a month ago. Something again we learned with growing last year is that netting is a must, we have an eave full of swallows nests and plenty of other wildlife that would love to share our vegetables with us!
We are a little undecided yet where the fruit bushes are going; possibly a dedicated area that we can cage in to protect the fruit. We have brought strawberry plants across from the last garden and they are flowering already, and our trusty dustbin that the potatoes grow in has had it’s second layer of soil added to encourage longer and more productive roots.
Yet it is still a time of patience, there isn’t anything ready to eat, preserve, jam or soup yet, and there is still the waiting to see what else nature has in store in the wooded area of our garden, fruits I hope and I think there may even be a walnut tree; trees that have grown here year after year, appreciated by whoever has cared to enjoy them.
But alongside the successful growing of our fruit and veg, and the joy of seeing the flowers coming into bloom, there is also the control of the lawn and the weeds!
We have invested in a self-propelled petrol lawn mower; Mick says that even I would be able to use it…I’ve managed to avoid it so far! Today the lawn had it’s second cut, and it only took five hours, compared to a day and a half a fortnight ago.
Mick is looking forward to the sheep moving in shortly. (Hannah was given a lamb for her birthday six weeks ago so we are waiting for the lamb to be fully weaned and for us to construct some stock fencing and then we are ready, hopefully for five sheep and maybe even a pair of goats!) As far as the weeds go, so far it seems that just dandelions on the lawn are the problem: I’m not keen to pull out anything that I don’t recognise from the flower beds, just in case they take me by surprise and turns out to be a prize flower!
Keep an eye on Wrickton Hall news and follow the growth of our garden and some recipes to use with the home-grown veg over the weeks to come.
