We
bought this little house while I was still fully employed, working for the
‘man’ to pay the mortgage and see the children through university. So for a few
years it was a ‘maison secondaire’. We came here when we could but often there
were long periods between visits.
The
garden was probably best described as a portion of a meadow. How to manage a
garden from a distance? Is long distance gardening a realistic option? Well, yes
it is possible to have a successful and productive garden so long as you don’t
mind tall grass. We quickly learned that if you take any given plant or seed,
put it in the ground and then ignore it for weeks or even months on end, it
probably has a 50/50 chance of survival. The challenge therefore is to increase
the odds in its favour even if only by a small margin.
One
book, just one, was our best guide and strangely it wasn’t written with long
distance gardening in mind. That book (which became our bible) was called ‘The
No Work Garden’ by Bob Flowerdew. USA readers can get it here:
When
we moved here permanently, house renovation, initially at least, took priority
over the garden. But we needed to make the garden productive, we needed to eat.
Here’s the best advice I can offer.
The
first trick is to allow the garden to do what comes naturally. Our plot, it
turns out was very fertile, PH neutral, deep stone-free soil, a sort of grassy
meadow hedged by massively overgrown Lonicera. It stood in the heart of the
country surrounded by huge oak and walnut trees. It was rural and rustic and
that’s the way it would have to stay. The trick is to improve it rather than
change it. We brought the hedge under control by taking two metres off its
thickness and planted daffodils and cowslips. We also celebrated the random things
that the garden decided to do of its own accord. Last year, for example, a
yarrow plant appeared in the garden. Many would consider it to be a weed, for
us though, it became a flowerbed.
Part
of enabling a garden to do what comes naturally is to consider the location and
plant whatever you can
find that thrives in your district. If it’s happy in
your climate you’ve got a head start. So, our garden was planted with a
selection of local apple trees, pear trees, cherry, plum and mulberry. All are
thriving and producing fruit.
As
for vegetables we have been successful with Globe and Jerusalem artichokes,
potatoes, onions, garlic, leaks, beans, peas and, this year, we have an
excellent crop of grapes coming from two vine cuttings I stuck in the ground
when we first purchased the house.
Whenever possible we planted perennial rather than annual and tried to
tie our visits in to cropping or fruiting seasons. So, it’s worked reasonably
well. We used to lose some crops due to lack of care or missing the optimum harvesting
date by a few weeks but on every visit the garden managed to surprise us.
And
then of course there is foraging. The local countryside is full of food -
blackberries, sloes, hazelnuts, walnuts
and sweet chestnuts, crab apples, elderberries, wild mushrooms and the
occasional giant puffball. The last one we found could have fed three families.
Two hundred yards away we have the Rance Estuary – good for salt water fish but
also good for Samphire the most delicious green vegetable I know and twenty minutes
away, on the coast there is a bay rich in clams and cockles. Our hens in a
mobile relocatable run provide eggs, keep the grass down and provide excellent
manure and then each season there is a glut of something - last year it was
cherries and plums. Neighbours unload their surplus and we turn it into jams,
conserves, jellies and sauces. If you want more detail try Bob Flowerdew’s
book, you won’t be disappointed.
Life’s
pretty good really!
David
