The Garden

I realised that I haven't yet mentioned my garden, The garden at Jones Towers should really be called a meadow, for that is precisely what it was some 25 years ago. It also rises quite steeply away from the house. I have attempted to grow vegetables in the past but not been very successfully.

This year I had the bright idea of building some raised beds on a section of lawn that we never used as a lawn. So with the good offices of a friend and neighbour I acquired some standard scaffold boards and built the beds shown in the picture, filled them with some topsoil from our local garden centre and they seem to be working perfectly. I may have overcrowded the cabbage in the middle one, but everything else is progressing nicely. We are looking forward to some Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Spinach, Broccoli and Celeriac. The raised beds are 9ft 6 in. long by 3ft 6 in wide (very approx 3M x 1M)

I do have two other plots further up the meadow, I will photograph those and talk about them later - but what I do enjoy is playing with Bonsai trees. The other photo, albeit not a good one, shows an Olive tree (Olea Europaea) estimated at approx 5 years old, and a Larch (Larix decidua) which is around 15 years old. The word 'Bonsai' actually means 'planted in a tray' these of course are obviously not planted in trays, but are dwarfed by careful pruning of the roots and the growing section and looking like miniature trees. Its a pleasing hobby which doesn't take up too much time. More pictures later.