When we moved in, the are of the kitchen garden had once been well cultivated but was completely overgrown apart from one area of very large parsnips and a raised bed full of bindweed and strawberries. The soil is solid clay and indeed, the village is the site of an old brickworks. My decision to build raised beds was purely practical as the soil, although fertile, needed improving and the perennial weeds needed surpressing. In hindsight, I should have sprayed the whole area with Roundup before doing anything, as trying to dig bindweed roots out of our soil is a heartbreaking undertaking. The paths are lined with woven ground cover fabric and originally had bark coverings. The bark composted down nicely and I ended up with more growing in the paths than the beds. I cleared all this into the beds and have been replacing with paths with gravel which should also deter slugs and snails (heres hoping).
Weekend visitors were warned to bring wellies and for the first year, everyone helped dig out beds and clear the grounds. We uncovered the original brick paved entrance to the garden and have hung a gate found in a hedge. The area was defined with a low boundary of corrugated sheeting which we removed and replaced with post and wires supporting trained fruit trees. We discovered the in the 1950's rabbits were bred in the garden and the corrugated sheets were from the dismantled hutches. We also were lucky enough to inherit an old metal framed fruit cage from Agriframes complete with red & blackcurrants. This cage sadly collapsed in the heavy snow a couple of years ago and Him In Doors rebuilt it with a rather smart wooden frame. A trick he repeated with the new superdeluxe hen run behind it - sadly not a fox proof hen run - as we have since found out.
Fruit trees in the Kitchen Garden include: Pear: Williams (2 espaliers), Concorde; Apples: Discovery, Russet, Blenheim Orange; Crab Apple: John Downie; Quince: Vranja, Meeches Prolific; Damson: Shopshire Prune; Plum: Victoria, Opal (fan), Czar (fan); Cherry: Summer Sun. I also have five cobnuts planted for peasticks as well as nuts, although the squirrels usually plant the hazelnuts all over the garden before I can pick them. Soft fruits include: Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Whitecurrant, Blackberry, Tayberry, Loganberry, Gooseberries - green & red, Raspberries: Glen magna and Autumn Bliss, Rhubarb: Timperley Early & Victoria, Strawberries: Hapil & Blueberries.
