The
Garden
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Virtual
Tour
 - The
vegetable beds and polytunnels that are prominent features of the
garden, but here is a look around at some of the less obvious aspects
of our work.
- Fruit
cages
- The fruit cages were constructed thanks to a generous donation from
the English based Henry Smith Charity.
Prior to having the cages, much of our strawberry crop was lost to several
greedy families of blackbirds taking advantage of an ineffective netting
system. Not only did it fail to protect the crop fully but it was also
cumbersome for the trainees to operate. The cages allow pickers to walk
inside and fully protects the soft fruit down to ground level. As a
result we are now able to plant gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants
in addition to a mixture of strawberry varieties.
- Perimeter
hedging
- H.O.P.E. has benefited from the hard work of Angus College students
who have planted a mixed, native hedgerow around three sides of the
garden as part of their college course. Angus College supplied all the
materials to create a hedge mix of hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, hazel,
elder and hornbeam, which will eventually provide some shelter for the
plot when it matures. The mixed, native hedge species are not only hardier
than most imported hedging but they provide an all year round source
of food and shelter for wildlife. An organic garden benefits greatly
from an increased variety of wildlife, which act as pollinators for
the crop and produce natural predators for crop pests.
- Plastic Bottle Greenhouse
- Near
the sheds in the main garden is a greenhouse that is actually green!
This is an interesting way to reuse plastic waste rather than recycling
it. The greenhouse is used to bring on more early seedlings to allow
for an earlier start to the vegetable box scheme.
- Fruit
Cordons and Espaliers
- Although the H.O.P.E. Garden does have a sunny aspect, it is quite
a windy place as a rule, producing fairly harsh conditions for fruit
trees. An organic fruit tree nursery, Butterworths in Ayrshire, specialises
in growing varieties to withstand the extremes of the Scottish climate
and landscape. Using many older varieties, several of which originated
in Scotland, they aim to supply a suitable type no matter the aspect,
height above sea level or how far north your garden is.
- Two cooking apple trees and two plum trees have been planted to grow
as standard bush varieties, while eating apple trees are being trained
to grow in a straight line at an angle - this method is called a cordon,
or they are trained to grow in parallel lines along the fence wire -
this method is called an espalier. Careful pruning at the correct times
of year trains the plant into the desired shape. Training the fruit
in this way is a more efficient use of space, makes for easier harvesting
and provides an attractive feature for the garden as they mature to
their final forms.
- We grow fennel in among the trees as a companion plant to keep away
insect pests that may damage the tree or fruit.
- Memorial
garden
- Mr and Mrs Barthorpe have gifted a wonderful seat to the H.O.P.E.
Garden. The inscribed garden seat is in memory to their son, Mark, who
was the original H.O.P.E. gardener until his sudden death over two years
ago. The seat is located next to the memorial tree and garden, which
was planted up by the trainees in recognition of Mark's invaluable contribution
to the project. The seat provides a peaceful spot from which to view
garden and will be much used.
 Cloches
- Cloches are metal hoops erected across the garden beds. They are used
with a variety of coverings to improve plant performance:
- we use coarse netting to fend off the greedy pigeons
- fine mesh netting is used to prevent carrot root fly and butterflies
- fleece protects the crop from the worst of the weather at the
start and the end of the season
- polythene acts like a mini-greenhouse to give early crops and
extra boost
- Herb
Garden
 HOPE
has a very small herb garden that we add to each year but the very impressive
stands of both green and bronze fennel are the tallest herbs in the
garden. The feathery fronds can be used fresh in cooking or the seeds
produced on the seed heads now forming can also be used in cooking.
Fennel has a mild aniseed flavour. Other herbs in the garden are rosemary,
oregano, chives, parsley, spearmint, lemon balm, applemint and eau de
cologne mint.
Herbs traditionally have medicinal as well as culinary uses; for example
spearmint is used for indigestion, colic, wind and hiccups. Lemon balm
is used to help nervous disorders, anxiety and tension headaches, while
rosemary can help with poor circulation, arthritis and muscular injuries.-
- Green
Manures
- Green manure is the name given to crops that are sown to improve the
quality and fertility of the soil. The crop is dug in to the ground
when it matures and therefore puts back all the nutrients into the soil.
HOPE mainly uses overwintering green manures such as fodder radish,
mustard, field beans and grazing rye. Not only do they tie up nutrients
and stop them being washed out but they also protect the soil structure
by providing cover for bare ground.
Bare soil can be compacted by heavy rain and the rain may also leach
out vital nutrients. The green manure absorbs all these nutrients during
growth and in the spring time the crop is dug back into the soil where
it rots down to release the nutrient ready for uptake by the following
crop of vegetables.
Wildlife In
order to make an organic garden work, it is essential to create as many
different habitat types as possible to keep a good balance of beneficial
wildlife versus the pest species.
The wildlife pond was created in 2002 as part of a project by two trainees,
Alan and Gerry. We hope that the pond will provide a haven for beneficial
wildlife, particularly frogs and toads which should help to control
our slug and snail problem. To maintain our environmentally friendly
approach the fountain is powered by a small solar panel.
As well as the pond we have made bird and bat boxes, habitat piles of
logs and leaves for overwintering animals and a native hedgerow has
been planted around the perimeter of the garden to encourage all sorts
of wildlife.
Heather's Poppy Garden- One of our newest trainees, Heather, helped to create this small wildflower
garden. She created the garden using recycled logs from a tree felled
in the garden and planted mainly a poppy mixture of wildflower seeds.
The soil used was one that is very poor in nutrients as this is the
best medium in which to grow wildflowers.
We will allow the flowers to form seed heads and let them self seed
in the area before clearing away the dead vegetation. It is important
to clear away the dead flowers because if they were allowed to rot in
place then they would improve the soil with nutrients which is not good
for the wildflowers.
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- Compost
Boxes
- A good organic garden recycles as much of its own green waste as possible
and here at HOPE we have several compost boxes. Even the compost boxes
have been made from mostly recycled wood.
The secret to good composting is to layer up the compost in small amounts
of different materials - not too much of any one thing. Our heaps have
a mixture of grass cuttings, dead plant and vegetable waste, old straw,
newspapers and cardboard, thin prunings and rotten wood chip s from
the garden paths.
It is also good to apply a dry layer after a wet layer and vice versa,
for example newspapers after damp grass cuttings as you do not want
the heap to become too wet or too dry. Keeping in the heat is another
good way to make the heap rot down more quickly so covering it something
is a good idea.
To produce good compost for applying to the vegetable or flower beds
it is important not to add weeds or infected plant material to the heap
as this will make a weedy or infected end product.
We make our own compost and leaf mould at HOPE and the only fertiliser
brought into the garden is horse manure from a local stables.
Leaf Mould- As HOPE is surrounded by trees that produce barrow loads of leaves
in the autumn it is natural that we would put all this free organic
matter to use.
A leaf mould bin is very simply a wire cage to contain the leaves and
allow air and moisture to penetrate. The leaves will be well rotted
after two seasons so we have two large leaf bins allowing a supply of
leaf mould to be available each season while the other is still rotting
down. a black plastic bag with holes in it is a smaller scale version
that achieves the same end result.
Leaf mould does not have a lot of nutrient in it but adding it to the
soil improves its condition breaking up heavy soil and improving drainage.
It also acts as a good mulch to control weeds and retain moisture.
Liquid
Feeds - At HOPE we do like to get as much as we can for free and all of our
delicious liquid plant feeds cost absolutely nothing but time to make.
In the very smelly barrels we have seaweed feed (collected from the
local beach and then washed), nettle feed (no shortage of those to collect
from around the garden!), comfrey from our comfrey plot and liquid manure
from the horse muck.
The liquid feeds are used in various combinations on the polytunnel
crops and some of the greedier outdoor crops and provide nutrients and
trace elements to the growing plants.
The rule of thumb (or should we say, nose!) to tell when the feed is
ready is when it starts to smell really awful - usually 3-4 weeks after
the starting material has been mixed with water.
- Comfrey
Plot
- Comfrey is a herb which has a long medicinal history - originally
known as knitbone it is used to promote rapid cell growth and can be
used on cuts and to ease joint pain. Comfrey research in the 1950's
also revealed it to be the fastest growing perennial fodder crop in
the world producing 6 times more protein per acre than soya bean crops.
However, here at HOPE we grow the comfrey to make our nutritious liquid
plant feed and to provide a green manure to dig into the ground before
greedy crops such as potatoes.
Comfrey is a cut and come again crop throughout the summer so many crops
for several uses can be harvested from this small plot.
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- Wormery
- Worm compost is made by the small, red, manure worms and is of a superior
quality to ordinary garden compost.Worms are fed partially rotted vegetable
matter after this substance has passed through their body several times
- over a period of six months - worm compost is produced.
This tiered structure has several different levels and as the worms
finish feeding on one layer of rotting matter they move up to the next
layer through holes in the plastic. The bottom layers can then be removed
and the compost used, returning new vegetable matter to the top for
the process to continue.
Some liquid feed can also be collected in the bottom basin and run off
to used as liquid plant food.
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