Vineyard & Kitchen Garden, Monmouthshire

YEAR

2023

LOCATION

Monmouthshire

CATEGORY

Design & Maintenance

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Gareth Edwards

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  • YEAR : 2023
  • LOCATION : Monmouthshire
  • CATEGORY : Design & Maintenance
  • CREATIVE DIRECTOR : Gareth Edwards
  • VISUALIZATION :

A Grade II* listed farmhouse dating from the 17th century, a backdrop of the Bannau Brycheiniog east of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire. 5 acres with kitchen garden, fruit orchard (apples, pears & plums), extensive Walnut orchard, lake, meadows and flower gardens. A further 15 acres with ambitious plans for vineyards and family areas.

New owners in 2022 keen to add a productive element to the well maintained gardens, providing ample year round fruit and vegetables for the young family. A derelict, enclosed kitchen garden, unused small field,  overgrown orchard and patchy flower beds provided a great potential for fulfilling the original ‘brief’.

Roses on a Rural Farmhouse in Monmouthshire

The Orchard, Garden and Vegetable Plot

A shorter growing season than some of our other gardens down in the balmy milder landscape of South Gloucestershire with thinner soils over a complex of sandstones & mudstones (St Maughans Formation). Challenging to get into production as soon as possible. The first project was the small rabbit fenced kitchen garden. Faced with bramble, couch grass, dock and thistle, flourishing on a thin soil, we decided on a minimum tillage approach – otherwise know as no-dig. Brushcutter and strimmer clearance, cardboard scavanged from wherever, deeply mulched with soil conditioner from a local supplier. Some success and some failures with the difficult conditions this year but the family have been enjoying the spinach, chard, kale, beans, fennel, carrot (yes, just the one) so a good first year. Planning on big improvements as the soil quality is built up. Some set backs with waterlogged ground, a year too cold for good seed germination, but a decent enough start.

The Vineyard

Planted early 2025, it will be a few years before the first bottles arrive. Dave Morris of Mountain People Wines is the guy putting together the new vineyard. Gareth & his team are occasioanlly seconded in to the vineyard, in times of need, to help with planting willow windbreaks, sowing the vineyard wildflower meadow, winter pruning the vines in their first year. All under the astute direction of Dave. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Seyval Blanc, Pinot Menier all chosen for their suitability for the prevaling climate in this burgeoneing wine making region of Monmouthshire! A first summer of drought, a first winter of remorseless rain, the vines faired better then the gardeners I think.

The Pumpkin Patch

A small field, set to one side of the farm house and pond, put to use in 2024, intially just as a pumpkin patch. No dig from the outset, various types of biodegradeable membrane and copious ammounts of compost and soil conditioner goto the ball rolling. The classic combination of Sweet Corn, Runner Beans & Pumpkins. It soon became apparent that Watership Down was conceived here and the resident dogs, Thor & Elsa, were more interested in chasing hedgehogs, digging up Sweet Corn and generally being annoying than keeping the rabbits at bay, so an enclosed veg garden was the next step in the garden evolution.

The New Kitchen Garden

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From redundant rye-grass ley to productive kitchen garden in one year, all no dig, was pretty satisfying.

Next step in the gardens evolution is developing the slip gardens around the new kitchen garden; part nursery bed for the gardens flower borders, part cut flower garden and, probably this year, a pumpkin patch.

Watch this space.