The first veg plots we made at Potager in 2000 were four raised beds in the domestic garden, just outside the cafe glasshouse, made from creosoted second hand tower scaffold boards. The photographs of those early years show an abundance of lettuce, chard, beans, sweetcorn and onions growing in these beds.
Growing isolated in the wilderness that Potager then was the crops grew undisturbed by rabbits or slugs, the soil we used was excavated from the cafe glasshouse and was slug free. The rabbits simply didn't find us, quite happy elsewhere.
Now the old nursery trees we left then have been able to grow unrestricted, reaching out their branches into new space they cast shade onto our veg. One bed has been removed while the other three have struggled on not producing much food. Their existence being debated in the run up to opening , should we remove them and wood chip the area for more cafe seating? What food could we grow in the shade, should we fell some trees to let more light in?
A long held ambition of mine is to carpet the floor of our mini tree plantation of old nursery stock with wild garlic or Ramsoms, Allium ursinum, the native broad leaved bulb as opposed to the tri-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum) that many people call wild garlic. Therefore I was pleased to be able to rescue some from a garden where it was considered a weed and about to be sprayed! Looking at the task of clearing the 'woodland' floor though for its new home was a step too far, Brambles still live there, the little copse needs some thinning and trees need legging up. The solution? to grow it as a crop in the raised beds where it will be easy for chef Awen to harvest the the strong flavoured leaves.
An unusual job for Martino our first WWOOFer of the year and Saffa, now we have a bed of wild garlic in pride of place.
On a role I noticed some other wild edible self sown seedlings in the asparagus bed and Martino gave these a home next to the wild garlic. Hedge Mustard, Garlic Mustard or 'Jack by the Hedge'(Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial so will give us a crop of leaves to flavour soups and salads next year.
The rest of the soil was enriched not only with our own compost but with some well rotted manure and a vegetable that has previously grown well for us in the shade was transplanted. Rhubarb, considered by most to be a fruit, it is easy to grow and makes great desserts, jam and chutney.
The remaining part of the bed still contains some strawberry runners, that like the wild garlic needed a home, wild strawberries being a woodland plant gave me the confidence to let the runners live under the trees for a while, they will be potted up and grown in the glasshouse and replaced with moor rhubarb.
In other beds the seed potatoes have now gone in, traditionally always put in by Easter, many people choosing Easter Friday to get the job done, you may say 'but the date of Easter changes!' The cycle of the moon dictates the date and many believe our plants growth so tradition, superstition or an easy day to remember, follow our forefathers and you wont go too far wrong.
Over the past few weeks the fresh greens of new growth have been splashed with colour , the sulphur yellow of the Erythronium 'Pagoda' with its pendant starry bells, the blues of 'Forget-me-nots', Anemone blanda, Omphalodes and Camasia. The mauve of Wisteria in the glasshose and the reds of Camellias. The spectacle of the moment however has to be the 'clouds' of white and pink cherry blossom that grace the domestic garden, perfect for looking up into from a hammock.
