The Garden

When we came to Ireland, we bought 'wreck' of a house and a field. 

We set about clearing the field with a rotovator and a strimmer. The field was L-shaped, so we decided to use the L-part as an orchard. Part would be vegetables, and in front of the house would be shrubs and flowers. We also inherited a pile of old tyres and a long bank of stones where the previous owner had knocked down another building. A local farmer came and took this away, eventually

The field was L-shaped, so we decided to make the L-section an orchard. The front of the house would support shrubs and flowers, and the middle bit vegetables. A good plan, but we were very naive about the amount of time we would spend trying to make this work.

In the end, the orchard was a drastic failure. The ground was too wet, none of the trees thrived. They grew, but were sick and unproductive. Many years later, as the ground dried up we replanted and we are finally seeing some results. Meantime, we had laid the goundwork for the septic tank, and built a fence around it. This became the real starting point to the garden, and provided a centre point for our plans.

I then planted a willow arch to separate the veg garden from the rest of the garden, and we planted a grove of cob nut trees on the left of the willow arch.

Eventually things started to come together, but what with the house renovations, the sheep and pigs in the yard, the garden was almost too much! There were few things that grew well for us. Cabbages and sprouts thrived, and we grow them every year. Carrots got carrot fly, potatoes got blight... It seemed that each year different vegetables grew, according to the weather! The willow arch and cob trees (on the left of the image) thrived.

The front garden was also very boggy. But as the shrubs grew, the land started to dry a little. We eventually turned the long slope into two flatter areas, separated by a small wall. It is still difficult to grow bedding plants, so when we finally afforded the garden room, we built a patio in front of the double doors, and a couple of raised beds, just for some colour.