Kitchen Garden

Conceived as a very domestic space, to grow food and herbs, to dry the washing, to sit in the setting sun. The garden has been laid out following the four course rotation system of potatoes, legumes, brassicas and roots.

Ancilliary beds were needed and a new innovation are the ‘no dig’ sandwich beds starting to creep up the rubble bank to the west.

Claire Takacs

I found this space packed with Japanese knotweed, ground elder and blackthorn. These were dealt with by a combination of digging out, glyphosate weed killer and patience. The whole garden, still thick with the roots of tall ash trees was dug over, the paths laid and the beds dug again incorporating plenty of FYM. The ash trees along the eastern bank were finally felled in 2012 transforming the nearer beds and light levels. Whilst it is bursting with vegetables this summer (2013) a gradual change will take place to stock beds, so that we can cultivate interesting plants to sell. The statue on the marble plinth is a carving in yew wood by John Cleal of Cernunnos, the Celtic God of the Other World. There are strong associations with the Horned Man and the Green Man. Children young and old I hope will enjoy identifying characters, situations and places from Winnie the Pooh in this garden.