Visitors to the garden this year will notice that something is afoot down at the bottom of the garden. The 20 raised beds surrounded by the Hilary Wilson apple collection and 2 of the adjacent triangles in the vegetable patch have been leased to people keen to take up the challenge of growing their own veg – and a few more things besides.
The inspiration behind this exciting project came from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Landshare scheme – to create a database of unused land to match up potential growing space with potential growers. The National Trust who are working with the scheme and providing land, aims to create 1000 new allotments by 2012. We were very lucky to receive help in the form of a grant from the Rediscover Your Hearts Foundation, which allowed us to create new footpaths between the raised beds which helps with access for gardeners with disabilities and also helps to prevent weed growth.
Sunday supplements offer adverts for potato pots and patio blueberries and people are more interested in growing food for themselves whether it’s because of concerns over methods of production, food miles or the fact that if we don’t grow – and eat – our heritage and local varieties, we will end up with an increasingly narrow range of perfectly bland varieties. So it’s time to champion the knobbly!
We hear that waiting lists for allotments are increasing – the Landshare scheme estimates 100,000 people are looking for a space to grow their own food. In its own small way, the Helmsley project has been proof of the real desire there is to get stuck in to veg growing. It was initially thought that the idea might be of interest to one or local people and regular volunteers who would take on 3 or 4 beds and an advert was subsequently placed in the newsagents asking anyone who was interested in joining the scheme to get in touch with the garden. No-one expected what happened next. Interest was so great that people had to be restricted to a maximum of 2 beds with several people only having one. Three volunteers were sent to the triangles on the veg patch as there was no beds left for them and there continues to be a waiting list.
Visitors can look forward to an array of different crops including fruit and flowers and there should be plenty of colour and variety. Our friends from Welburn Hall School will be working on 2 beds each Tuesday and have already been busy growing garlic and broad beans ready for planting out. Some people have been working on their beds over the winter and cabbages, daffodils, strawberry plants, rhubarb and garlic can now be seen, to say nothing of the industrious seed-sowing that has been taking place. As spring heads towards summer, there is sure to be an increase in activity and an opportunity to see lots of different techniques and perhaps even a few tips!
Four other beds in the vegetable patch, as well as the Vinehouse and a new herb patch, will supply produce for the cafe with any surplus going on sale plus our gorgeous asparagus, blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, red and white currants and the produce from our orchard and walls which includes different varieties of plums, apples and pears so there is plenty to look forward to.
A review of the raised beds, however, would not be complete without answering a few ‘Frequently asked Questions’. Last year, autumn visitors were intrigued by what appeared to be some kind of ancient folk remedy or an old gardener’s green-fingered secret in the form of a large number of pine cones spread over several of the beds. The prosaic truth can finally be revealed – we get our manure from the neighbouring riding stables and they had been keeping it under some pine trees – hence the cones. Another recent curiosity is the strange wooden construction in the Medlar triangle. It has in fact got lost on the way to the outdoor vineyard and is a cloche to protect a horizontally grown vine – demonstrating an alternative method of cultivation. Last but not least, many people have asked about the fruit trees on this patch. They are different varieties of jewel bright Crabapples and a Medlar with its curiously shaped fruit [ think cats’ bottoms if you must ] which needs to be almost rotten before it is made in to a jelly or glaze.
- Written by Sean; Volunteer and Gardener of the Shared Allotment Scheme
