Tag: garden

Al let the sheep into the orchard, which is a good way of clearing out some of the undergrowth. However the lambs are now large enough to make a lot of trouble while still being young enough to be springy and gung-ho.

Yup, up they climbed onto the carefully stacked stash of stone for…something or other in due course. They were very keen to eat the nice hazel hedge up there, because literally everything is nicer to eat than grass. And it turns out that young sheep can scramble up and jump down just like goats. This was all very well but the wall between the orchard and the Rumwoldstow cloister garden has been taken down so that the foundations of the old Roman gatehouse can be built. And those sheep decided that Rumwoldstow looked much more interesting so managed to knock aside the panels blocking the gap and go for a good rampage around the gardens.

I say, I say, I say, how can you tell if there have been sheep in your bed?

Hoofprints in the beetroot!

Overall the veg are coming on well in the new bed, with only the dwarf green beans stubbornly refusing to come up. These are all late varieties, it’s a bit marginal but I hope we’ll get some crop of white beetroot, salad leaves, carrots and spring onions. Two of the second planting of beans have finally germinated, these are ones that I soaked for an hour before planting. And one got firmly sheep-trodden so I can’t really blame it. I am sure that next year I’ll need to move some of the larger plants around as they’ll get a lot bigger, but just for now there is space for them all. And the snails haven’t discovered them yet, perhaps because of the walls.

Back in the home garden, the older dwarf green beans proved a tasty target for the sheep before they all ran out into the road…then fortunately all ran back! I’ve been very lucky, the sheep might have eaten and trampled a lot more before Al shooed them back to their orchard.

Every garden should have some kind of water feature, for the insects, birds and small creatures to drink at, and just because it’s nice. I pondered for some time how to shoehorn in a pond or something in the Rumwoldstow monastery garden, and finally came up with a plan. And that plan is being actioned by the great energy and skill of Brother Julian – with the stonemasonry of Chris to follow in due course.

The plan is to build a fake Roman well, purportedly part of the old fort within which the monastery is sited. Like the rest of Rumwoldstow, this will be ‘authentish’. The water table is about 1.5 m down and an actual well would be hazardous, and not of benefit to wildlife. So the plan is to set a round pond liner into the ground with a low wall built around it – and a couple of little tunnels to allow the frogs and so on to creep in and out.

In addition, the brothers have begun demolishing the shonky old end wall (once the north wall of a breeze block barn) and reopening the full width of the gate. Watch this space!

I planted an apple seed which had started to germinate inside the apple (a Cripps Red). It’s currently about 10mm high. I’ve always wanted to grow an apple tree from seed and have a unique apple tree. Will this be the one? Or will it die / produce nothing worth eating? Again, watch this space…

I was super excited when Brother Alf reported that a wren was building a nest in the corner of the cloister. We assumed that the female would eschew it because there’s too much human activity including the sweet song of the concrete mixer as work begins on the Roman gatehouse…but no! She clearly thought it a des res and for several weeks we’ve been seeing little wrens flying in and out of the cloister, bearing food for the chicks whose cries at feeding time have become louder and louder.

For the last couple of days however it’s been completely silent. I hope this means the chicks have fledged and moved on; I read up on it, and apparently it’s dangerous for chicks to hang around the nest, because the longer they stay, the more likely predators are to see or smell the nest. Smelly things apparently, chicks, and you can see why. So while the dead silence is alarming, it’s probably a good sign and we’ll keep our eyes open for fledgelings around the place. I saw a few earlier in the year so I’m guessing this is a second brood. Yay wrens. I never saw one before we moved to Rumwoldstow and now we have them breeding in our cloister! The next question is whether we should remove the nest and clean the area to make it nice for them next year? Or do they ever reuse nests? Time for a little research…

Brother Julian has filled the new raised bed to the north of the four square beds, with soil and horse manure. I’ve planted a collection of perennials which are more utilitarian than those in the first four beds. Some were used for dyeing, some for repelling insects, and some for medicine. The bees have already found the goat’s rue and the hyssop – which is sadly rock hyssop, and so probably not exactly what the Anglo-Saxons used, but very close.

The wormwood and southernwood were gifts from another century – a Tudor re-enactor who lives up the road donated cuttings to Rumwoldstow. Thank you James!

The wren’s nest in the corner of the cloister seems to be occupied – an adult is seen flying to and fro frequently. And another small wonder is an out-of-season Christmas Rose, with this fine flower.

Last week, Chris the stonemason built the fifth raised bed in the Rumwoldstow garden and it looks fab.

I was very sad a few weeks ago, to break my memorial Dungeon Keeper II mug with my name on it, a relic from my time as a level designer for that game. I am left with just a framed DVD and a T-shirt. It’s a shame because I was fond of the mug and it held a lot of coffee. But, if you use things, they may break, and if you don’t you might as well not have them and save the space.
Al had the smart idea to build the fragments into the raised bed, behind the square stone on the south wall of the bed. So in it went, now there for posterity!

I also managed to get out in time to photograph the red frilly poppies before the petals fell – they last until about 11 am. I will try collecting seeds from that stem, I have no idea whether they’ll breed true but it’s worth a try.

As the plants come into flower, we are seeing a good number of bees of all shapes and sizes. I particularly like this vast bumble bee who loves the borage – which may or may not be authentic for Anglo-Saxon.

There was a dill plant in that bed, and it did well initially but died in mid June for no obvious reason. It’s the only plant which hasn’t flourished.

I have a stash of plants ready to go into the new bed, when Brother Julian is free to fill it with soil and horse manure.

We have in the garden at Rumwoldstow, a miraculous poppy! I planted one little opium poppy plant, honest, which has thrived, but one stem is determinedly producing different flowers from the rest of the plant – lovely red frilly ones instead of the usual rather meh (in my opinion) pink of the opium poppy.

I’ve also been puzzling over the identification of some of the wildflowers in the orchard. There are two different plants with small purple flowers, one which came up earlier in the year and one which is now in flower. I fell into some confusion between the two, having previously identified the latter as self-heal but not realising initially that the earlier flower is not the same thing.

And then I found hedge woundwort in the orchard, which added to the confusion as self-heal is also known as woundwort. I did some googling yesterday (with thanks to Saint Isidore of Seville) and found that the plant I thought to be self-heal is indeed also called self-heal and woundwort.

I think I have it straight now, but I felt a strong sense of connection with Carl Linnaeus and really understood why he developed his system of plant classification – by all that’s holy, just have one name for one plant, and group them in families rather than giving a similar name to a completely different plant!

• Glechoma hederacea: common name ground ivy (no it isn’t an ivy, yes Carl I hear your pain; it’s a member of the mint family Lamiaceae). Anglo-Saxon names include hōfe, tūnhōfe. It was used to flavour ale.
• Prunella vulgaris: common names self heal, heal-all, woundwort. Anglo-Saxon names may include brūn-wyrt but the references are not clear – there are many possibilities. Allegedly edible, I must try it.
• Stachys sylvatica: common name hedge woundwort. It is not clear to me whether the Anglo-Saxons had a use for this plant. They may have preferred Stachys officinalis (a.k.a. Betonica officinalis) for medicinal use, which they knew as betonie.

On the plus side, the garden at Rumwoldstow has flowers! The two pot marigolds (orange) are vast and lush. The rosa gallica has beautiful deep pink blossoms with a rich scent. The coriander is flowering and again scenting the area, while the valerian diagonally opposite is having a good go at competing on scent. The cornflower – yes that’s just one plant! – has gone made and is taking over the world. The opium poppy has pink flowers and one completely different frilly red flower on the same plant. The peony didn’t like being transplanted and is Not Flowering but also Not Dead, so I’ll take that. And four of the six iris germanica have flowered, which I think is pretty good for their first year in the ground. The borage is just starting to flower, and for reasons I can’t fathom there is a random borage 100m away in the home garden, where I absolutely didn’t plant it! The lovage is just starting to come into flower. It’s about 60cm high but the lovage in the home garden which wasn’t transplanted must be over 2 metres. So I expect the Rumwoldstow lovage will get a lot bigger. The thyme is also flowering and the chamomile looks like it’s starting to make flower buds. The white horehound has tiny wee flowers but the bees love them.

On the down side, the fact that we still haven’t sorted out the paths is really showing oh lord the weeds…I have a tentative plan to level the ground a little better and apply hoggin (aka self binding gravel) but a lot of weeding needs doing first.

You see that pale rectangle on the ground to the right of the picture? That’s the base for the planned fifth bed where I intend to plant more utilitarian plants. Chris the stonemason has finally said he’s free to start work next week! Accordingly, I went to the National Herb Centre and bought a stash of plants against the day the bed is ready – I wanted to make sure of having the plants this season. I’ve potted them all on as it’ll probably be a month or two before the bed’s fully cured and filled with soil.

I originally asked the shop for:

• tansy
• feverfew
• hyssop
• rue
• betony
• aconite
• dyer’s madder
• ladies’ bedstraw

They replied that they had everything except tansy and aconite. I don’t mind too much about the aconite (monkshood) as it’s jolly toxic, but I’ll look out for tansy at a later date. I trundled up to collect the plants and also took a turn round the lovely garden centre.

At the end of the day, because of a few mixups one way and another, I ended up with both rue (ruta graveolens) and goat’s rue (galega officinalis), but fortunately the latter is also an Anglo-Saxon plant and completely different – I’ve no idea why they share a name. There is also a spare alecost (tanacetum balsamita) which I’ll have to find a home for somewhere in the main garden, or give away – I already have two in the square beds!

A lovely Tudor re-enactor has already given me wormwood and southernwood, so those are also in pots waiting for their home to be built and furnished. Oh, and I had already picked up a lady’s bedstraw at the local garden centre.

The hyssop is a subspecies, Rock Hyssop or Hyssopus officinalis ss aristatus which is apparently more compact. I don’t know its history as a plant but suspect it’s not quite the one the Anglo-Saxons would have known

All told, a great haul and I’m doing my best to cherish them until they can go out into Rumwoldstow garden.

Some of the plants are beginning to show their colours – red roses, blue cornflowers, yellow marigolds and purple iris. The roses have a lovely rich scent as you’d expect from a real traditional rose, as does the white valerian.

And yes, there is a lot of work needs doing to weed and gravel the paths…

The heartsease are flowering, they look great! The viola tricolor is the wild progenitor of the cultivated pansy. There is alas no secure identification of heartsease in Anglo-Saxon literature, but it’s a lovely native wild flower with a history of medicinal use, so it’s probably reasonable to include it.

The main Rumwoldstow garden is really starting to fill out – I can see that next year I may need to remove some plants, or find them other homes – the oregano for example is disappearing under the opium poppy, even though it’s doing pretty well in itself.

The asparagus plants in the Bed of Brother Julian are starting to come up. Subsequent to this photo, I’ve scattered sheep droppings around them and then layered lawn cuttings on top, with a sprinkling of soil at the end. T’internet tells me that sheep droppings are great for asparagus but that they may burn the plants. As these were fairly dry I hope they will be OK, and have tried to keep them from touching the actual plants. Fingers crossed!

Asparagus is another questionable plant. It was definitely used medicinally, and it’s hard to see why the Anglo-Saxons wouldn’t have eaten the tasty shoots, but we don’t have firm evidence of this. It may be that the earlier varieties weren’t so good to eat.