The lay of the land

We are starting from scratch with our botanical garden. It was originally used as a kitchen garden – producing food for the people who lived in the house that was sited nearby. At one stage there was even a heating house – using wood burning stoves to pipe hot water round the greenhouse and garden. Tropical fruits were grown using this early form of central heating.

However the area has fallen into a state of serious dis-repair. Windows broken, wall collapsed, wells clogged. Nature has reclaimed a large part of the area. It’s going to be a gargantuan task. But we’ve never shied away from hard work.

We will be clearing a small portion of the garden for planting fruits and berries, to infuse in our rum next summer. Within the greenhouse, we have hopes and dreams of growing pineapples, but will probably start smaller than that. Over the winter, we are planning to grow sample seedlings of a wide range of British spices and herbs.

Our first job will be to clear the area, and add compost which we have developed using waste from the distillery. Once this area is cleared, we will then start planting in September / October.

We will update this page with more photos and videos of our progress.

Above is how it looks in its current state, below is a historical photo of the area in its pomp.

Watch this space…