Transforming an abandoned magical walled garden into a thriving multidimensional growing and cultural project.
This is a very late post, partly because "Harvest 2023" is still, even in late December, not quite over yet. This means that the contrast to last year is huge, which is partly predictable due to last year's sowing and growing beginning late, but also because of the increase in growing spaces and varieties of… Continue reading Harvest 2023
Harvesting of my very first potato crop in the walled garden began in mid June with the first of the first-earlies, and ended with the last maincrops in late september/early october. Most varieties had a good yield, and while blight was limited in many cases, it was ultimately inevitable for some, especially given the wet… Continue reading Tatties 2023
July 2023 proved to be a shockingly beautiful month for an unbelievable range of flowering herbs, wildflowers and various other annuals and perennials. The polytunnel, various veg beds and of course the forest garden area all burst into bloom - possibly for the the first time on such a scale ever in the history of… Continue reading Flowers!
In a dry warm spell I took the drone out to capture some aerial views of the walled garden. It’s fascinating seeing some top down images at different distances. Polytunnel area I think the drone triggered a response in a certain peafowl - hooting away and clambering all over the cattle shed roof, so I… Continue reading Flyby in July
On 15th June 2023 I made, for Instagram, a quick film about all the plants finally emerging in the Forest Garden area. This was just before the rains finally arrived, after weeks of heat and drought - which came after weeks of very cold temperatures. So to see many of these plants finally emerge felt… Continue reading Forest Garden: The Movie..
One activity I have been regularly doing at Bamff over the last three years is trying to propagate willow around the wildland area. Between spring 2021 and 2023 I must have jabbed into the ground (in damp areas) at least two thousand sticks of wildly different lengths; ranging from stubby little things about 6 inches… Continue reading Viminalis!
Update on the Rough Ground quadrant. The rough ground quadrant was, just a couple of years ago, still being used as a cow and sheep pasture in conjunction with the cattle sheds. The livestock were permanently removed from the walled garden in summer 2021 leaving an initially mostly bare terrain - with some nettles populating… Continue reading Rough Ground (midsummer 2023)
Update on the Market Garden quadrant. The market garden is the quadrant dedicated primarily to veg growing. Chris Potter, the ex Bamff gamekeeper, has been growing his own veg and strawberries on a small allotment style patch here for decades - I then moved in next door with my polytunnel project which was created last… Continue reading Market Garden (midsummer 2023)
Update on the Forest Garden quadrant. In my last post about the forest garden project, I described the tentative process of uncovering some of the vast plastic mulch sheets, liberating large expanses of space, and then planting during some very cold late winter conditions. I also imagined a path network, and remarked that very few… Continue reading Forest Garden (midsummer 2023)
With this becoming my first complete experience of growing in the walled garden from the very beginning of spring/late winter, I’m in awe through witnessing such a dramatic transformation, beginning with the typically bleak lifeless browns, yellows and greys and then emerging towards an immense explosion of life, colour and abundance, almost as if it… Continue reading From Equinox to Solstice
The Bamff Walled Garden. 