As part of the increasing popular trend to grow your own produce at home, our latest development in the Model Fruit Garden is our Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg garden which will complement the 3 x 3m plots in the Model Veg Garden as well as the Gourmet Fruit Garden, Allotment Garden, Fruit Enthusiasts Garden and the rest of what we have here. I really am impressed by the diversity and range of what we demonstrate in this small area!
Anyway, this week Ali Valsecchi (Senior Supervisor, Fruit Department) and new recruit Justyna Molendowska (Gardener, Fruit Department) have been hard at work constructing some raised beds for this area. We have installed four heights of raised bed that we’ll use for different produce, including strawberries and plenty of veg.
The highest of these beds is suitable for wheelchair users, or for anyone who prefers not to bend down… which is probably most of us, especially when harvesting an abundant crop of strawberries, for example! We were supplied with these beds, and a fruit cage yet to be installed, by Harrod Horticultural www.harrodhorticultural.com and there are two different types. The smaller ones are from their ‘Standard’ range:
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=GDN-430
and the larger ones from their ‘Superior’ range:
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/product/Plant%20Protection_Raised%20Beds/GDN-570.htm
Both types are made from Swedish FSC certified timber.
Pear cordons, bush apples, gooseberries and currants are already in place here, with plum ‘Opal’ and a self-fertile sweet cherry ‘Sunburst’ going in soon. (This cherry is grafted onto a Gisella 5 rootstock, which will keep the tree of a compact size and therefore suitable for a small garden.) We’re going to plant lots of herbs by the path too, so the whole effect should be pleasing to the eye and nose, as well as the taste buds.
I look forward with great anticipation to the results in the forthcoming weeks, months and years!
We have planted the fruit in this garden with plants from our own existing stock, Ken Muir http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/ or from Frank P Matthews Ltd. http://www.frankpmatthews.com/ .