Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden: October 2019

Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden

Welcome to the Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden website! We are committed to organic gardening. Using the best practices from the Victorian days (i.e. lots of horse manure) and knowledge gleaned from the Ryton Organic Gardens we have set out to tame our Warwickshire clay. It’s all about sustainability, so as well as organic gardening, we’re always looking to better ways to work with our environment.

On this site you can find out about our history and the projects we are working on. You can come visit the garden and learn about organic gardening. Follow our blog to see what’s on our mind in the garden this month.

For the first 8 years all the work was carried out by just the two of us. Now we have help and are passing on our knowledge to students on the WRAGS (Work and Retrain As a Gardener Scheme).

We also find time to be involved with the WOT2Grow Community Orchard in Tysoe and have planted a 3 acre wood close to Tysoe, just over the border in Oxfordshire with a grant from the Woodland Trust.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

A busy time

The last month has been very busy. Lots to harvest, then eat, cook, freeze, store, sell or give away!

We also decided to hire a scarifier for the grass. We have been here 10 years and the grass (you can not really call it a lawn) was a weedy field that we just started to mow!

It took the 2 of us about 4 full days to use the machine, rake up the debris and wheelbarrow it to selected areas beyond the walled garden to rot down. The collecting bag that came with it was full in about 2 metres and since we had nearly an acre to do it was easier and quicker to rake up. Do not think we will do it again for another 10 years!!

The colours in the garden are glowing nicely and by October there will be lots more colours of autumn.

Vinus vinifere Spetchley Red’ small black grapes are insignificant but the autumn leaf colour is amazing

Dahlia Bishops children and cactus mixed, grown from seed and planted in a raised bed for cutting, although I prefer to leave them in the garden and enjoy the display there. Started last year and over wintered with a thick mulch, just added a few more this year.”pea netting about 8 inches above soil level has stopped them from falling over or needing individual canes for support.

Autumn crocus in full flower in September big flowers give added colour to the garden

There are also some plants that think it is spring again. The hosta are putting on new leaves, alpine strawberries not only in flower but ripened fruits and how about some apple blossom?

Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden