The Covid lockdown and consequential panic buying made starkly clear just how dependant the majority of us are on being able to buy food from shops, be that supermarkets or local small businesses. To be fair, although we initially found it quite hard to get delivery slots, we didn't really struggle too much with getting hold of most of what we needed. But the situation did make me stop and think about whether we could make better use of the vast expanse of our garden. And to us it truly is "a vast expanse", as our previous garden of 35 years or so was very much smaller than the space we have now. And so, like many thousands of others over the past few months, we decided to make part of the plot into a kitchen garden.
To be honest, my loves, I wasn't convinced that Adrian would be at all keen on my latest idea but to my amazement he agreed without hesitation! And so the transformation of half the front garden began...
Of course, you may be wondering why we have chosen to locate our new kitchen garden at the front of the house rather than at the back, as is more traditional. There are a few major reasons, the first being that the front gets sunlight for many hours during the day. The second is that we don't have much space out back for growing fruit and vegetables, plus there isn't as much sunlight for as long. And the third reason is very simply that the front garden is, for us, a rather overwhelming space! Perhaps you'll understand better if I tell you that our old back garden wasn't even as big as half of our new front garden 😲
This is the canvas we started with. The garden, like the house, had been neglected for many years. We inherited a gnarly old hedge which was beyond salvation, so it had to come down just like the sycamore trees. Of course, the one good thing said hedge had been doing was to suppress the weeds ~ after it came down, they just ran rampant and it's been a nightmare ever since trying to keep on top of them. And as I pointed out in my previous pond post, spring bulbs were also trying to take over the asylum!
We decided that we would keep the perimeter borders purely ornamental, concentrating the kitchen garden-proper in the grass area (I'm too embarrassed to describe it as a "lawn" LOL). So Adrian got out one of his big boy toys and strimmed over virtually everything, in these two borders for starters, so we could at least see the lay of the land as it were.
I decided it would be easier to look after the new borders if they were kept narrow (plus it would leave more space in the centre for the kitchen garden), so these two are only about 34" or so wide. Then began the long, hard slog of getting the weeds out and trying to make the ground as level as we could. Between Adrian's dodgy knees and my dodgy back/general level of unfitness, this took weeks to accomplish. Good job we were stuck at home I guess!
Along with the weeds we unearthed a small sheet of asbestos, which seemed to have originally been intended as some sort of divider in the border. Chris has very kindly said he will drop it off at the only recycling centre on the island that will take it at some point.
We had realised that the raised beds in the back garden just weren't going to work out as we had hoped, so decided to rehash them in due course and in the meantime make use of the old railway sleepers out here in the front garden to edge the borders.
We thought it would be a tad less soul-destroying to edge the new borders as we went round the garden, working out from the corner where I have a nice clump of escallonia which was planted a couple of years ago. OMG, those sleepers are so bloody heavy! I just couldn't help Adrian lift them whole, I was terrified that I would hurt my back, so he cut them in half. Even so, they were still pretty weighty beasts! It wasn't an easy task to get them level...
...but we didn't make too bad a job of it in the end. Adrian has joined the sleeper halves front and back with metal plates; those at the front should hopefully be hidden when we eventually put down the stone chipping paths. The weed membrane is tucked right under the sleepers and Adrian has tacked it in place on the soil side.
I thought it might be easier to look after the "terraced" bed beside the pond if I could reach it from the front as well as the back, so we left a gap after laying two of the sleepers and Adrian finished it off with a piece of scaffold-board. I lived with it for a few days, but in the end decided the space was just a little too large. I also didn't want to uproot the peony, which was already there, so added a wee more garden area around it which I edged with another two of the logs from the old sycamore trees. I think the log edging makes a nice transition from the logs around the pond area to the new border. The plants now living with the peony were dug up from other parts of the garden. This has left the perfect little space for a garden chair, so I can have a sit-down in between gardening chores 😊
The two chimneys (which are actually the old ones from St Abbs' roof) had been in the back garden, but since I'm rearranging out there as well I decided to put them in this border. The mint was in its pot in the back garden. I put fresh compost in the same pot, which I then buried in the border.
Even at this early stage, with a river of black membrane gently flapping in the breeze (and not quite so gently at times, hence the bags of bark chips holding it down LOL), it was already starting to look a whole lot better.....which was just as well, considering how knackering it all was 😉
Over the course of lockdown I've gradually been filling the borders, as they have been created, with plants, in an attempt to keep at least some of the dratted weeds at bay! This first border is quite shady as the day progresses, so I had to purchase most of the plants as I didn't have much elsewhere that would be overly happy here that I could relocate. I started off with five gorgeous bare-root roses from David Austin Roses. I love roses, and it seems that there really is a suitable variety for every spot! I chose the varieties Rosa Rugosa Alba, The Mayflower, Lochinvar, Blanc Double De Coubert and Fru Dagmar Hastrup.
The ferns were relocated from the back garden, and the little plants around the pot of mint are primula auricula which were dug up from other parts of the front garden. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you may be able to make out a very sorry-looking mahonia down in the bottom left-hand corner. It was previously in a position that was just way too sunny and was basically on its last legs. Although it doesn't look good in this photo, much to my relief it is now thriving.
I was able to scrounge another handful of plants from other parts of the garden, such as alchemilla mollis, a fern, ajuga and some of the spring bulbs that had been dug out during the clearing-phase. I ordered the rest from a new-to-me nursery, Woottens of Wenhaston. Although there was a long wait for the order to be despatched due to unprecedented demand, I was very impressed indeed both with the plants themselves and the compostable packaging. I am sure I will be ordering from them again in the future.
This corner where the escallonia was planted a couple of years back is actually a wee bit higher than the rest of the front wall border, which was a tad annoying to be honest. There is also the issue of having a stench pipe in the border ~ not the most attractive thing, I'm sure you'll agree! I was a little concerned that soil might get into it, so made a simple retaining wall of yet more logs in order to address the issue of the different levels. I asked Adrian to cut the bottom off a plastic plant pot for me which I put over the pipe to help protect it from accidental damage, and topped it off with a rusty metal cloche to keep leaves, etc, out. I think it looks fairly unobtrusive, and over time the plants around it should help to disguise it further.
The front wall border was filled with plants that I liberated from other parts of the garden, and I have since added more from another new-to-me nursery: Shire Plants. I was very happy with my order and will be buying from them again, I'm sure.
Much like this post, getting this far in the garden was an exhausting exercise but we are so very pleased with the results. Join me again later in the week, if you've got the energy, for part two of our epic gardening project 😉
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