Year One part 3 Permanent Planting

   The Shrubberies were put in early in the year to make a colourful welcome as we drive along the lane into our yard.

 Our friend Jane gave us several shrubs and others were lifted from the area next to the piggeries and stables.

  I planted the perennial shrubs along the length of the border and have added a few more since. 

 After a few months of growing the long shrubbery has filled out and has given us some colour every month. Some of the plants in the shrubbery have uses in addition to looking attractive. The buddleia has attacted many butterflies and other pollinators as have all the flowers on the shrubs. I've harvested the lavender flowers, dried them and I will use them to make lavender bags, lavender sugar and to refresh the pot pourri in our home. The roses will produce rosehips which I will add to the rosehips gathered from the hedgerows and other sources (read about rosehips from my sister's home here).The fushia bush should provide us with berries, although as yet it hasn't produced very much and having never tried fushia, I'm keen to find out whether the berries from this particular hardy bush are sweet or have a bitter aftertaste.

The short shrubbery is still only half completed but is already starting to look good.

 We brought with us several pots of raspberry plants that had been lifted from Mr J's parents' home, together with shrubs, herbaceous plants and a couple of small trees.

Jane helped me to dig the turf from the area that would become the herbaceous border (actually Jane lifted the most of it) and we planted it with the plants that she had given to us and some that we had brought from our previous house. Over the year I haven't weeded the area anywhere near as much as was needed and as a result we've had a display of weed and wild flowers amongst the cultivated perennial plants.

The Food Forest

I decided that creating a permanent planting area filled with edible plants and supporting plants would be a good use of a large space. The more I explored the ideas behind permaculture and the way to use the land in harmony with nature, the more I realised it fits exactly with our thinking and a food forest should work really on this site.

I've had to make some compromises with how to start the food forest, but I'm happy with how it is coming along. Wood chippings have been poured onto the area and composted wood chippings used to make planting beds. It was a bit tougher than just pouring wood chippings, because finding a source of wood chippings took me several months. My budget for the garden is close to zero and it was important to find a free source of materials, but luckily I have now found a local tree surgeon who brings a trailer load of chipped wood on a reasonably regular basis. It gets dumped in the front garden and I then move it one wheelbarrow load at a time to the place I want it. 

 We made a small wildlife pond using a butyl liner that was already on the smallholding when we moved in. It's not very pretty, but as the planting around the edges grow, it should hide the liner and attract beneficial wildlife.

We've recently bought 17 fruit trees which I am in the process of planting and below them I've put fruit shrubs like currants and raspberries (lots and lots of autumn fruiting raspberries), herbs and ground cover plants like strawberries. I've been researching perennial vegetables to include in this area and in the meantime, for the next couple of years at least, I will use some of the food forest area to grow annual vegetables that will act as good ground cover (like some of the squashes I'd like to grow).

 It will take a few years for the food forest to establish and there will always be some maintenance tasks to do there, but it should be more productive in relation to the effort put in as time goes on. 

Hedges and boundaries 

There is very little hedging around the boundary and whilst that gives us fabulous views across the adjacent land, it also gives us no protection from the wind that whistles across the area from the Severn Estuary.

In early spring, Jane helped us to plant a hedge around the east and south sides of smallholding. It is mixed native hedging, that will be good for wildlife, pollinators and food and although still very small, it has started to fill out over the year and I'd imagine that by their fifth year, the hedge plants will be around shoulder high and knitted together to form a thick wind shelter and a good place for birds and other wildlife to live. I used weed supressing membrane and planted through it in an effort to slow down the invasive weeds coming through the stock fencing that surrounds the smallholding. 

I've put up some wind break fabric on the stock fencing to reduce the impact of the wind on the plants in the garden and as some relief for the chickens who were getting blown around by the wind. Much of the winter and spring brought winds of 30 to 40 mph and a few times it reached up to 60mph, which, if you are a small chicken (or a large human) is pretty miserable to be in.

We still need to plant some hedging along the west boundary and I've ordered some more native hedging to put in the ground later in the year together with some elderberry trees that we can lift from below our trees. I'm also going to add some fast growing trees like eucalyptus which I'll keep cut back so that they are large bushes rather than tall trees.

Now that we have divided up the paddock and are happy with the area designated for the chickens, we've put in a more permanent fence. I've started to plant some fruit canes along the fence that can be supported by it, offer more protection for the chickens, look attractive and be productive.

I've written further blogs looking at the vegetable garden and our animals . The best way to ensure that you don't miss them is to subscribe to my blog, which you can do below!

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Photographic distractions

The next batch of hatchlings are due any day now and I have been looking for ways to distract my attention. Sitting in front of the incubator really doesn't make them hatch any faster, but it has allowed me to see that some of the eggs are starting to move. So I've taken a wander around the garden and taken lots of photographs.

This is my favourite part of the herbaceous border, which is mostly a jumbled mess of field weeds and young perennials.

The daisy like flowers which would normally be considered weeds have lifted this border and although I will take them out before they seed too much, I have really enjoyed their sunny little flowers.

The Patty Pan courgettes are now setting fruit and the first will be ready to eat in a week or so. I pick them when they are about three inches across so that they are still sweet and have very few seeds in them. Sliced and tossed in a little butter in a pan they are delicious.

The giant pumpkin Howden that my grandson gave me the seeds of has now taken off and seems to be growing six inches or more a day. Plenty of male flowers have appeared and I think I've seen a female flower developing, so fingers crossed that there is a big pumpkin by autumn.

The nasturtium seeds were sown to provide some companion planting in several of the vegetable beds. I'm not sure that I like the mixed colours and next year I will look for some more simply flowered seeds instead.

Marigolds, also planted as companion planting, have created a brilliant display. The bright orange splash of colour in the vegetable garden is attracting pollinating insects aplenty.

The borlotti beans have produced some nice looking pods. I have no idea how I am supposed to cook them (do I slice them like runner beans or pod them and eat the seeds?), but I will look it up in due course. Unless they taste amazing, I don't think I'll bother with them again. There aren't many pods per plant and I feel that there are better uses of the bean poles in terms of cropping.

 Rainbow Chard, with its colourful stems are providing us with lots of green leafy food with the bonus of the chickens loving it too. Neither Mr J or I were terribly keen on chard, but steaming it lightly with plenty of black pepper added to it, we are learning to like it (or at least tolerate it knowing that it's good for us).

Each morning and evening I check over the brassicas for eggs laid by cabbage white butterflies and where it's obvious that I've missed some eggs, I remove the caterpillars. They can hide pretty well and when I went back round the garden this morning to take these photos I found several that I had missed during my early morning search for them.

The January King cabbages are just starting to form hearts, this is one of the few that hasn't had it's outer leaves chomped away by caterpillars and slugs.

In the same bed is the purple curly kale, the chickens are particularly keen on it. We haven't eaten any of it, but it's been a great supplement for the chicken food, even the small chicks squabble over it and Big Red and Little White will come to sit on my lap to eat it on an almost daily basis.

The ducks came to see what I was doing with the camera, they have become much more trusting of us over the last few months. When we first got them they ran away from us all the time, now although they don't like us to get within a couple of feet of them, they do come to see us and watch me as I potter in the garden.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this little chap who was merrily flying from flower stalk to flower stalk on the lavender hedge. If anyone can identity the species, I'd be interested to know (please leave a comment below if you recognise what it is).

This gorgeous little field bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) has popped up all over the place, I like the delicate pink of the flowers.

There are some mighty thistles all around the smallholding, I am torn between leaving the flowers to go to seed (to feed the birds in the autumn and winter) and cutting them all down soon to prevent them spreading even more. In the meantime, the rich purple flowers are being visited by insects and I'm enjoying their stature, shape and colour.

The brambles are now fruiting well and I'm looking forward to gathering the first fruits in the next week or so. Once they have fruited I will cut them back to the ground before our hedges turn into spikey thickets.

 In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are growing well. We've picked half a dozen deep red tomatoes and there are lots of green tomatoes on the vines waiting to ripen. I've grown several varieties to help me decide what I'd like to grow more of next year.

These simple flowers are of MoneyMaker, the plants have grown tall, strong and healthily. They are a must for next year and have clusters of medium to large tomatoes which I know that I like the taste of.

This more elaborate flower is on a Russian black tomato plant, given to me by our friend Merv who breeds Cream Lebgar chickens and has supplied us with our girls and the cockerels. Merv had more plants than he needed so gave me a dozen plants for the green house.

The garlic has been lifted and is now drying off before I plait some of it and store some in the freezer. Mr J and I eat a lot of garlic, I like it roasted and can happily eat a whole clove of garlic with a plate of vegetables.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new hydrangea to go into the shrubbery, I particularly like the large pale flower heads against the deep green, almost shiny foliage. And, as a way to continue my distraction, I am going to plant it tomorrow.

But for now, I am going to check on the broody hen in our house to see whether her eggs have started to hatch and then, as always, it's time for a cuppa!