Sissinghurst veggie garden

Since watching Sarah Raven in Sissinghurst back in 2009, battling to supply the restaurant and cafe with vegetables grown on site, I have been curious to visit the new custom built veggie plot.

The last opportunity I had was a week previous to the airing of that programme, so there was not much to see as you can imagine. This time was a little better, but to be honest due to the dry weather I think progress on growth has been a little slow there, but there were still interesting things to see.

 

 At the entrance is an area of raised beds roughly marked out in hexagonal shapes, these contain herbs and ornamental flowers such as sweet peas. Many of the borders are edged with the Limianthes 'poached egg' plant and I spotted a comfrey patch too. You can see how the heavy clay soil is suffering a bit in this dry weather, it's very similar to my allotment.

 

Beyond the structured beds is the main crop growing area, basically a field interspersed with paths for access. Between the crops are rows of fruit, here are some Glen Ample Raspberries.

 

Some very vigorous looking chard and rhubarb

An area being green manured with Red Clover

As the board shown at the beginning, it states the garden has recently been granted The Soil Association's Organic Status. You can see many organic methods in practise, such as green manures, the comfrey patch and lots of catch crops and mulches. Here the shallots have been mulched with straw to keep down weeds. I also saw rows of leeks being intercropped with some kind of vetch which must be being used for the same purpose.

I'd love to come back in late June/early July once they've had some rain to see all the peas and beans in full glory, and see Adam Nicolson's dream realised!