As I scribble this blog, we are in the first week of spring and the sound of birdsong and the green shoots that herald the arrival of spring flowers and perennials are clear to see. No rain and some sunshine also adds to the moment! The count down to our opening on the 5th and 6th June has now also started. 12-weeks away which sounds like a lot but it really is not!
The dream of a vegetable garden is very slowly showing the glimmerings of reality. Mr Farwell, the skip man, has delivered and retrieved 2 of his largest (and vastly expensive) skips – which we filled to the brim with a generation of builders rubbish from the old vegetable garden, the conversion of the big house into two dwellings, and there was also, I fear, some good old fashioned fly tipping. We didn’t get the lot but it is better.
The lovely Dan, and his chaps, spent days with diggers starting to level the area and gardener Simon proved himself to be an expert dumper truck driver! So now the result is a vaguely level area, and lots and lots of mud!
In amongst the rubbish we found a particularly reluctant half wall from many years ago. Originally with a slate floor, we are wondering whether it was some sort of Victorian cold store long ago abandoned. It put up such a good fight that we decided to keep it and build a seating area around it as a nod to the previous buildings and vegetable garden once in this muddy place. It is called ‘Dan’s Wall’!
Massive sleepers, of the old fashioned sort, have been manhandled into place for the new raised beds, and 9 foot posts concreted into the ground – ready for the mesh that cover them and discourage the creatures of all shapes and sizes who are bound to want to gobble up all the marvellous vegetables that we plan to grow here. We will also dug wire into the ground as rabbits like lettuce and dig holes! Once finished, fruit trees will be planted around the fence line inside.
Of course, the latest glitch is that the mesh cannot be found or bought or delivered… A drama that I am sure time will cure but frustrating.
Our new polytunnel has now been delivered – an uncompromising collection of unwieldy pipes with complicated instructions. How hard can it be to put up? Ask me in a week’s time…
We are looking forward to showing off our new vegetable garden in some semblance of order in June so do come and see us and see how we’ve done…!
Contact sue.grant@fernslodge.co.uk.