This page is designed with the purpose of sharing my activities and thoughts relating to food production in the Holly Dene garden. Initially, I shall describe the garden before going on to tell you about my planting activities, seed suppliers and suchlike. For my latest activities, look up the recent work and activities page.

The Garden
Garden History
The Garden in 2001
Major Features
      The vegetable beds
      The Greenhouse
      The Fruit Beds
      The Northern Border
      The Shade Triangle
      The Pond
      The Paths

Recent Gardening Activities

The Garden
- covers an area roughly 100 by 70 feet, the long axis running east/west. Bordered by the cottage to the east, other buildings and trees to the north and west, the garden is thankfully open only to the south and thus sheltered from the worst of the weather.
Apart from paths, the entire area is planted and there is no lawn. In front of the kitchen door lies the pond, 16 by 10 feet by three feet deep, and beyond that are two vegetable beds, (long axis east/west), edged by old groynes and sleepers. The two beds amount to 350sqft of growing space, each being 25 by 7 feet. Paths consist of concrete pavers, gravel, limestone. Additional food-growing space lies at the north/western corner of the garden where there is a collection of fruit bushes and trees.
The remaining spaces are filled with a small greenhouse abutting onto the west wall (southern edge), and the north/eastern border which runs the entire length of the northern side until it hits the raspberries and tool shed to the west. The border is primarily planted as a large sweeping herbaceous collection including a small number of woody shrubs and many bulbs. Spaces are filled with occasional hawthorn topiary and lilies in pots.
The north/east corner is dominated by a very large and stately, twisted, Horse Chestnut. Typical of the East Riding, the soil is above neutral pH and is based on heavy clay, but due to repeated applications of manure over the past sixty or seventy years, since my grandfather bought the property, it is now a light and rich loam, perfect for vegetable and fruit growing.

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Garden History

My childhood memories of this garden are vague - I recall raspberries (who wouldn't?), rhubarb, forget-me-knots, and honesty - a garden full of small beds and paths. My paternal grandparents lived in the house from the late 1930's and managed the garden actively during their fifty years here. To the south of the cottage, Harry and Nora rented a small orchard in woodland locally known as 'Camp' because it had been the site of an Italian internment camp during the Second War. Their tenancy was lost in 1977, so I only just remember it, but their sheds on the site housed a food store of rabbits and chickens, apples and a fine hedge of cherry plums which still, just, exists. Because they had space for larger plantings in the orchard, the garden at Holly Dene was held over for vegetables, soft fruit and flowers.
Grandad Baker was a meticulous organiser - the way his shed is packed with pots of different sized screws and other odds and ends is telling enough. The garden clearly had its rules, although as he grew older, he let slip and various small trees appeared throughout the more formal planting of beds and topiary.
I own the same trait of not being able to easily cut down a tree without first apologising to it. I came to the cottage in the winter of 1994/5, and spent a dry Christmas holiday clearing, bonfire-lighting and laying the foundations of later planting. Self-sown Ash, Horse Chestnut and Sycamore reared up to 30 feet, whilst bindweed, ground elder, bramble and Elder were rampant - the garden had been pretty much un-worked for more than five years.
It was possible, though, to find vestiges of previous care - peonies, sedums, rhubarb, occasional roses survived and were rescued gradually with the help of family and friends.
Initially, the original structure of paths and beds was maintained, and new plantings of fruit, vegetables and herbaceous perennials made in between. That structure had its advantages and spaces were flexible enough to allow for rooms to occur within the garden offering different feels and planting opportunities, but by the end of the summer, the mixture of decorative and food plants crowded each other and chaos reigned, resulting in sub-optimal cropping, weed infestation and poor growth.

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The Garden in 2001

Arriving back home from an 18-month trip to the Antarctic in February 2000, I had time and energy on my hands to rearrange the garden in its entirety to the form you now see in the photos taken in mid may 2001.
Principally, the design of the garden is intended to provide food cropping and flower growth throughout the year with easy management. My work commitments are such that the garden is often left for long periods throughout the winter, and increasingly the summer.

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Major Features of Holly Dene's garden are as follows:

The vegetable beds were built in the spring of 2000 from a number of groynes and sleepers, tacked onto hidden uprights to maintain shape. Filled with soil from other parts of the garden plus manure, they allow ease of management and occupy the prime site in the garden with respect to daylight and air circulation. Bordered by paths on all sides, they allow easy management and intensive cropping in an organic setting. High fertility is maintained through the use of well-rotted farmyard manure, chicken manure, garden compost and rotation of leguminous crops. Planting is close in order to create shade at soil level, and watering is limited.

The Greenhouse was constructed in the spring of 2000 from a brick base, on which three courses of breeze blocks were cemented. A pitch pine frame 11' by 7' was tacked onto the west wall. Access was allowed through the south wall for future vine planting. Shelving on the east side of the house is used to provide space for early plantings of salad crops, flowers and the maturing of lily bulbs prior to planting out in the garden proper. Against the west wall, tomatoes are trained, as are cucumbers and the occasional nettle.

The Fruit Beds are chiefly at the west end of the garden. I have two apples. One, is an old Newton Wonder, cankered to death, the other is a pendulous, and unidentified, heavy cropper being a mixed cooker and eater. Raspberries occupy the north western corner of the garden, alongside the blue shed. I grow All Gold, Autumn Bliss and Glen Moy. Alongside the apples and raspberries are two rhubarb plantings, one being 'raspberry' and the other currently unidentified - both came from our neighbour, Brigham Reed, whose parents grew commercially on a small scale. Soft fruit is scattered - blackcurrants and gooseberries, brambles and strawberries being the other fruits regularly grown. I am not good with strawberries, though I am hopeful this year. I have a Brown Turkey fig in a pot, which is grown as much for its leaves as for any fruit it might produce in the future.

The Northern Border is species rich, consisting of herbaceous perennials, roses and some woody shrubs. In March 2000, the garden was replanted in its entirety, with only the larger trees remaining in position. As a result, many plants were relocated in the northern border, which runs in two sweeping segments from the cottage to the north west point of the garden where it terminates with a healthy white elm. As the name of the house might suggest, there are several examples of Ilex aquifolia, along with many geraniums, shrub and climbing roses, privet, Euphorbia, Iris, Lavendula, the planting list is shown below. The eastern end of this large border is dominated by the shade of the Horse Chestnut and as such provides a challenging dry shade environment. Despite this, the native yellow flag iris exists happily there, along with many ferns in a leaf mould bed maintained by run off from the shed roof in a moist and happy condition.

The Shade Triangle is a new and soft planting at the western end of the garden between the greenhouse and the raspberries. Centrally, a topiaried yew shades Heucheras, Honeysuckles in variety, Polygonatum, Welsh poppy, and several Digitalis cultivars. Again, planting lists are available. To the immediate north, the Newton Wonder apple has been cut back to increase light at ground level. An evergreen white honeysuckle along with two clematis twist their way skywards into the overhanging branches and a rose, Filps kifstgate, is heading rapidly up the trunk, bolstered by regular watering and songs of encouragement, though it hardly needs it.

The Pond is large enough for me to float in, and is situated immediately in front of the kitchen door, reflecting light into the part of the cottage I use more than any other. Void of fish, it is essentially a wildlife pond with a clear surface. Plants are planned in addition to the existing oxygenators, as is a fountain when my cousin has finished her sculpture. Right now its surface is rippling with tadpoles and, although their numbers are going to be decreased substantially by the fishing activities of my blackbirds, I hope to have a large frog population come the late summer to help with slug control. The east and north borders are hard, limestone edged with some planting overhanging, whilst that to the west is cobbled as a beach for animal access. That to the south has yet to be completed as it is a planned fernery. Planting here will be evergreen where possible to allow for overhanging foliage throughout the year.

The Paths - are in the main gravel, on top of a membrane layer to keep out the worst of the weeds. Around the southern and western borders to the sheds and greenhouse is hard paving to give wheelbarrow access throughout the work parts of the garden. Through the gravel paths I have planted occasionally to soften the effect of the hard landscaping - lavenders and thymes in addition to bulbs nestled alongside the sleepers. Pots of lilies, bamboo and hostas allow additional flexibility of colour and flower management.

Recent Activities

Over the coming months I will be adding my suggested gardening activities. This will be updated on a separate page - please follow the link

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