Our Services / Kitchen Garden

With the crisis of climate change very much in the forefront of our minds together with the attendant need to reduce food miles and with the explosion of interest in organic produce, it makes great sense to join the army of people wishing to grow their own fruit and vegetables. The satisfaction of producing home grown useful and beautiful foods which are tastier and more nutritious, coupled with little or no negative environmental impact gracing a dining table cannot be underestimated.

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To design your Kitchen Garden or convert part of your garden into a fruit and vegetable patch or allotment garden can be both useful and beautiful.

To set up an kitchen garden, it is important to start with a good design which incorporates a minimum of a 3 year crop rotation, to reduce pest and disease.

Depending on the area available, a large garden would typically include an orchard, fruit bushes, herb garden, vegetable areas, permanent beds, flower areas, paths, bee hives, compost area and a shed.

Did you know that as well as a great way of recycling food waste, shredded cardboard, green and brown plant matter and creating a cheap source of home made soil improving loam, compost heaps are also an excellent wildlife habitat in that many wild animals that would not otherwise occur in gardens at all, such as those feeding on carrion, dung or decaying fungi can find a home. An abundance of soil creatures can be provided with living space and food all rolled into one. Earthworms, rove beetles, slow worms and possibly even grass snakes, soil improvers and general garden and pest clearers in their own right, will relish your efforts.

Essential to success is the old adage “the secret is in the soil”! Beds must be efficiently cleared, improved and fertilised before planting takes place, which will involve a fair amount of spade work and patience.

In exchange, crops grown will be more vigorous, quicker to establish and less prone to pest and disease. Naturally, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are excluded and replaced by organic methods and products.