A Recycled Somerset Garden - August 2015

Post author: My daughter Sophie from Somerset, England

"It all started it from a garden of brambles, that is it was full of rampant blackberry bushes and other long term weeds.  

We started clearing it just as I became pregnant with our first child. Home veg was the value we wanted our baby to experience and grow up with, healthy and pure. So it was a real labour of love (excuse the pun).

The first year we lived here, we only just finished the vegetable patch area as we were concentrating on renovating the house itself. Everyone told me it was too late at the end of August to plant veg, but I did it anyway and loads came up !

Our vegetable patch and the recycled greenhouse

This year, 2015, with the new baby on board the garden has become totally green !  

When I began to wean her, her first foods were from our own garden. She started with pureed carrots, and then parsnips, and so on.  

We got other people involved in the garden with the sunflower competition. Once they are finished, we will keep the seeds from the flower heads, to be dried and re used for flowers next year, or for bird seed during the winter and for cooking in the kitchen. Sunflower seeds can be a great snack on their own or in a nice homemade bread. Yummy !

When we initially cleared the old garden we saved some of the plants that were already there when we bought the house. There was a Day Lily for instance, which was beautiful when it came out this summer.

Never waste plants, they cost a lot to replace. We have a grape vine which we recycled from another house. We cut it right back when we got it first. It is now flourishing and is starting to work well in hiding a block wall at the back of the garden.  

In my next Wild Cottage guest post, I will tell you all about the recipes we use for our garden produce, how we preserve things for the winter and the yummy things we cook with it all.

Meanwhile, here are some more photos of this summer's garden (August 2015)."

The beginnings of our herb bed

The bay tree

Mint in a pot to keep it contained !

Runner beans grown up bamboo sticks

Our own chillies from the greenhouse

Red and white onions almost ready to lift

Some of our white onions

Rhubarb patch !

Elephant garlic - this is just one clove !

Normal and elephant garlic

My husband's precious fig tree

Lovely lettuce

Runner beans harvested for freezing and dinner

Sage bush with lots of new growth

Burren Drive

From the top land above Carron

To the Atlantic Ocean at Fanore, Co Clare

Aquilegias - Spring 2010 My Garden Collection

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (ok plastic)

Roisín is learning how to wind me up very fast ! Every time she ran around - she knocked the cold condesation down onto me argghh

No sliding here - claws are great for mountain climbers ! Imagine what they do to my tunnel :(

Dex watched and said nothing....

And then - Oh such sweet revenge - She couldn't get down ! I had to lift up a bucket for her to climb into and bring her down...

First Spring Colour in the Garden

These are a few strawberries and radishes that I grow in the tunnel - means I get to eat them earlier !

You can see a small row of early carrots too hidden in between if you look carefully...

Later on this bed will be full of cucumbers, basil, coriander and tomatoes mmmmmmm

These are 8 Patty Pan (scallop) yellow squash plants - this photo was taken about a week ago or more - now they are bigger and potted up into larger pots. When the frosts are gone I will plant a few outside and a few in the tunnel (I cover all bases).

Shopping Trip to the Kerry Mountains

This was the first real close up sight of Kerry's MacGillycuddy Reeks as we headed south towards Killarney.

They are called Na Cruacha Dubha in Irish, meaning The Black Stacks. However, today they were far from black. In fact they were all white and looked magnificent.

We had driven down as my mate John was buying a new toy. Once he had paid for it, he suggested I get behind the wheel (mad mad man) and I drove straight up into the mountains, out of Killarney.

Believe it or not, John had never been to Kerry before. So I got to be tour guide as I had previously lived down on the south west coast for a few years and am very familiar with the area.

We stopped for a coffee (I had hot chocolate as it was a tad chilly) at Lady's View. The above photo is the view from in front of the cafe and shop (the only thing up there apart from plants and rocks). It looks down over the lakes towards Killarney.

The whole place is just stunning...

Hmmm who said leprechauns weren't real ?

Last but not least - this stunning beauty was the reason for our trip.

It's a 2002 Land Rover Freelander 2 litre TDi...

And I want one !!!!!

I opened the savings account this morning :o)