Well, I’ve started my WWOOFing year! It didn’t start too well, actually, as the lady I was going to stay with didn’t want me to get there until 4.00pm. ‘Great!’ I thought, ‘I’ll go and see Jeni for lunch and part of the afternoon’, so I left Cheltenham at about 10.30 (I was actually 3 minutes later leaving than I’d hoped, but not too bad!). Now, under normal conditions the journey from Cheltenham to Chilcompton via Bath is a tad over one and a half hours, so I anticipated being there by midday or just after. I hadn’t reckoned on Bath being solid traffic from Batheaston Hill through to the bridge by the fire station, and I still have no idea what the holdup was, but it took nearly half an hour to negotiate about one mile, and that was on a Monday morning. Then, when I got to the top of Radstock Hill I hit another traffic queue that barely moved for three quarters of an hour – they are doing major sewerage works there but I only spotted a sign about it after I’d seethed in the queue. I was more than an hour later than anticipated but we still managed to have a nice lunch together at The Somerset Waggon.
I found my host’s house very easily, as I had driven up that road many times on my way into Bristol over the years, and was made very welcome. She has about 30 acres of land, most of it is rented out to other people, but she has a cider apple orchard in front of the house, a walled flower garden to one side and a forest garden to the other. All the apples from the orchard are sold to Thatchers, so I heartily approved of that! I was intrigued to finally find out what a ‘forest garden’ actually is – I had been due to go to an established one in Wales just before Xmas, but the host forgot I was coming and was fully booked. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to plant a garden in a forest, but that’s not it at all – it’s all about planting a garden like a forest (or wood, if you prefer) would grow naturally. You start off by siting the largest trees – sweet chestnut, almonds (if you live in the right climate) etc.: then underplant with smaller trees like apple, pear, plum, quince, hazel, damson, bullace; next come raspberries, loganberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries: and finally, perennial vegetables and herbs. This makes best use of all the space available, and every layer is productive. In addition to this planting plan, Bryony had planted a shelter belt of willows on two sides of her field and an edible hedgerow (hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, crab apple, etc) on the other two sides. Hers was quite a young forest garden as she only started it about four or five years ago so all the trees are still quite small, but you can get an idea of how it will look eventually, especially as she had drawn a plan with tracing paper overlays of the planting scheme.
I stayed at Chew Magna for two weeks and during that time I planted a few plants in the walled garden; tied in a climbing rose and a honeysuckle over the rustic arch; tied in the willows that are being grown to make a willow archway in the forest garden; fed the cider apple trees with a seaweed compound; sorted out the old and new log piles; picked up some of the apple tree prunings in the orchard to be used for kindling next winter; planted up some tree saplings that Bryony is growing on to form a small woodland at the top of her land – these were mainly ash, but also a few oaks, beech and holly, so a good mixture; tidied up the two courtyard areas and sorted all the empty plant pots into size order; constructed two new compost bins out of pallets and baler twine and filled them with rotten apples interleaved with straw, as this makes a really good compost after a couple of years; and mulched some of the eating apple trees with manure.
On my days off I caught up with Dave and Jeni and also some of my friends. I must apologise to all those friends in Somerset that I didn’t get round to seeing – I just ran out of time, but I’m sure I’ll be back that way again sometime soon. Dave treated Jeni and me to a meal at the Oakhill Inn at Oakhill on the first Sunday that I was there. For anyone in that area I recommend a visit as this is the third time I have eaten there and the food has been consistently good. On the second Saturday I went to a Jumble Sale at Coleford with my friend Karen and her friend Lorraine. Of course, I needed more stuff for my car like a hole in the head, but I do like a good bargain, so I had to have a look! I ended up buying a small blue teapot for 30p (haggled down from 50p!); a hardback copy of The Cranks Cook Book for 50p (this will come in handy on my WWOOFing journey as I am sometimes expected to cook and my vegetarian ideas run out after pasta!); a pair of original Crocs for 30p (original price £30) and a pretty lace tablecloth with a butterfly/moth motif (40p) – not a bad haul for someone who wasn’t going to buy anything!
I also suddenly remembered that I still owned a pony (rather a large thing to slip one’s mind, you’d think, but he has been out on permanent loan for many years, now). Anyway, I was fairly close to where he lives, so I drove over to see how the old chap was doing – he’s doing extremely well and obviously landed on all four hooves when he found Sam, as I think he is very well looked after. He doesn’t get ridden much now as her daughter lives away from home, but he is a good companion to her old thoroughbred, and I don’t think he misses the exercise – he was never a great one for unnecessary exertion! I got the impression that he did vaguely recognise me as he strolled over and nuzzled my face and allowed me to give him a cuddle (I then embarrassed him hugely by bursting into tears! You could almost see him giving me an exasperated look as if to say ‘Get a grip, woman!’)
It was nice to spend some time back in Somerset, but also a bit strange as I felt like a returning exile but with no home of my own. Yet again, my house is up for let as my tenants have given notice. I am trying not to worry too much about this at the moment but it will, of course, prevent me from continuing my preferred lifestyle if I don’t find tenants soon. I am now back in Cornwall and will write more about that later.
I found my host’s house very easily, as I had driven up that road many times on my way into Bristol over the years, and was made very welcome. She has about 30 acres of land, most of it is rented out to other people, but she has a cider apple orchard in front of the house, a walled flower garden to one side and a forest garden to the other. All the apples from the orchard are sold to Thatchers, so I heartily approved of that! I was intrigued to finally find out what a ‘forest garden’ actually is – I had been due to go to an established one in Wales just before Xmas, but the host forgot I was coming and was fully booked. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to plant a garden in a forest, but that’s not it at all – it’s all about planting a garden like a forest (or wood, if you prefer) would grow naturally. You start off by siting the largest trees – sweet chestnut, almonds (if you live in the right climate) etc.: then underplant with smaller trees like apple, pear, plum, quince, hazel, damson, bullace; next come raspberries, loganberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries: and finally, perennial vegetables and herbs. This makes best use of all the space available, and every layer is productive. In addition to this planting plan, Bryony had planted a shelter belt of willows on two sides of her field and an edible hedgerow (hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, crab apple, etc) on the other two sides. Hers was quite a young forest garden as she only started it about four or five years ago so all the trees are still quite small, but you can get an idea of how it will look eventually, especially as she had drawn a plan with tracing paper overlays of the planting scheme.
I stayed at Chew Magna for two weeks and during that time I planted a few plants in the walled garden; tied in a climbing rose and a honeysuckle over the rustic arch; tied in the willows that are being grown to make a willow archway in the forest garden; fed the cider apple trees with a seaweed compound; sorted out the old and new log piles; picked up some of the apple tree prunings in the orchard to be used for kindling next winter; planted up some tree saplings that Bryony is growing on to form a small woodland at the top of her land – these were mainly ash, but also a few oaks, beech and holly, so a good mixture; tidied up the two courtyard areas and sorted all the empty plant pots into size order; constructed two new compost bins out of pallets and baler twine and filled them with rotten apples interleaved with straw, as this makes a really good compost after a couple of years; and mulched some of the eating apple trees with manure.
On my days off I caught up with Dave and Jeni and also some of my friends. I must apologise to all those friends in Somerset that I didn’t get round to seeing – I just ran out of time, but I’m sure I’ll be back that way again sometime soon. Dave treated Jeni and me to a meal at the Oakhill Inn at Oakhill on the first Sunday that I was there. For anyone in that area I recommend a visit as this is the third time I have eaten there and the food has been consistently good. On the second Saturday I went to a Jumble Sale at Coleford with my friend Karen and her friend Lorraine. Of course, I needed more stuff for my car like a hole in the head, but I do like a good bargain, so I had to have a look! I ended up buying a small blue teapot for 30p (haggled down from 50p!); a hardback copy of The Cranks Cook Book for 50p (this will come in handy on my WWOOFing journey as I am sometimes expected to cook and my vegetarian ideas run out after pasta!); a pair of original Crocs for 30p (original price £30) and a pretty lace tablecloth with a butterfly/moth motif (40p) – not a bad haul for someone who wasn’t going to buy anything!
I also suddenly remembered that I still owned a pony (rather a large thing to slip one’s mind, you’d think, but he has been out on permanent loan for many years, now). Anyway, I was fairly close to where he lives, so I drove over to see how the old chap was doing – he’s doing extremely well and obviously landed on all four hooves when he found Sam, as I think he is very well looked after. He doesn’t get ridden much now as her daughter lives away from home, but he is a good companion to her old thoroughbred, and I don’t think he misses the exercise – he was never a great one for unnecessary exertion! I got the impression that he did vaguely recognise me as he strolled over and nuzzled my face and allowed me to give him a cuddle (I then embarrassed him hugely by bursting into tears! You could almost see him giving me an exasperated look as if to say ‘Get a grip, woman!’)
It was nice to spend some time back in Somerset, but also a bit strange as I felt like a returning exile but with no home of my own. Yet again, my house is up for let as my tenants have given notice. I am trying not to worry too much about this at the moment but it will, of course, prevent me from continuing my preferred lifestyle if I don’t find tenants soon. I am now back in Cornwall and will write more about that later.
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