Growing fruit and vegetables

The fruit and vegetable garden is very much an ongoing project, a major lesson in trial and error. We are intending to produce as much food as we possibly can for the business, all year round.

When we bought the house in February 2005 the back garden, along with every other part of the outside space, was completely overgrown. Since then we have slowly been reclaiming the area and turning it back into the productive garden that it once was.

We repaired the old greenhouse in the spring of 2006 so that it is serviceable, and it should last a good few years yet, provided we don't experience too much high wind. During the same year we also cleared weeds and brambles from around several fruit trees; a couple of the apple trees provide lots of fruit, but the cherries may take a little while to recover.

We have now boxed in all of the beds to maximise the usable space, and planted a couple of permanent fruit beds, replacing the old bushes with younger, healthier plants; so far we have raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blueberries and blackcurrants.

The thing that surprises us most is how much produce can be grown in a relatively small space. When we first started growing, we ignored the spacing advice on some of the seed packets, thinking that some of the distances sounded excessive. We now appreciate that these people know what they are talking about, and can vouch for the fact that a 3ft x 6ft bed will produce a great deal of a single vegetable, so much so that neighbours will dread your arrival at the back door with yet another armful of excess.

We rotate a total of eight beds, with a couple more given over to one-offs and flowers, and use growbags in the greenhouse. We have decided to concentrate on vegetables that we like, and that are at their best when picked and cooked when absolutely fresh; if space is limited there is no point in growing things like onions, which are cheap and plentiful in most shops.