This winter has been a busy time in our forest garden. Many new trees have been planted and now all that hard work is starting to show some rewards.
This is a short post showing just a few images of what is happening to some of the plants in our forest garden this May 2014.
Our new Service-berries (amalanchier) are already looking stunning in their first season.
We planted a hedge of them just on the edge of our forest garden to create an additional windbreak protection from south westerlies (something we get a lot of).
Their spring foliage has opened this spring in a gorgeous salmon pink at the same time as their pretty white flowers – promising berries this June. The leaves will turn green as we go into summer and then we look forward to further colour in the autumn.
They are a welcome site everytime I go past them on the track and a real tempter into the forest garden itself.
These rowans are a further wind barrier (believe me we do have wind here!) and you may notice the tree closest to the camera is bent in a classic wind worn shape whilst the following trees are more upright. Our home is just to the left of this picture and protects the higher trees, whilst funnelling the wind at the lower ones.
These trees are in their 4th year and are standing up to the wind well. They also produce a lot of berries that the birds really appreciate.
This frame is within our forest garden. the bars have a huggel bed at their feet and a series of fruit trees and fruiting climbers are scrambling up each of the bars with herbs at their feet.
It will take a couple of years to really get established, however it is already showing great promise and will become a lovely sheltered space for visitors to come and enjoy some food during their stay. We aim to build a clay oven here! Perhaps pizza with one of our artichokes?
