Walled Garden | Winter
In these months of condensed days, when things grow slowly, if at all, considered productivity can be afforded: steady days to restore order following hasty, high-season movements and to put ourselves in good stead for more of the same. Remnants of summer cleared, soil fed, beds, paths and schedules prepared ahead of welcoming post-6pm sunlight, warmed soils and the demands of sow, weed, harvest, weed, repeat: plans on paper delivered as crates of veg and flowers to the restaurant and bar.
It’s quiet now but still we harvest kales, autumn planted salads and roots extracted from iced soil, soft sunlight lingering on our historic brick boundary.
With a few more lessons in our pockets from the year behind us, our space is redesigned, crop plan streamlined and more hands assigned. Over the cold months the soil has been nourished with cover crops, manure, garden/kitchen and woodchip composts. Thanks to a local tree-surgeon, mounds of wood chips are aging around the farm: a propagation and broadscale compost in the making. Our general compost is made from kitchen veg scraps, balanced with cardboard from emptied wine boxes, straw and wool from the grazers of our currently dormant vineyards. Wool is also an excellent mulch. Water retaining. To be stockpiled should last year’s rain deprived situation repeat itself.
Reset and plans sealed, it will be just a week or two before we begin sowing the first seeds of the Tillingham Walled fourth season.
Words & image by our Head Gardener, Becca Davidson