Holt Farm Organic Gardens by Sally Gregson


In the lush green farmland of North Somerset, overlooking Blagdon Lake in the Mendip Hills, lies an almost unique garden: it is one of a bare handful of organic ornamental gardens, certified with the Soil Association. Tim and Sarah Mead are very proud that their garden at Holt Farm joined Highgrove, Clarence House and Ryton Organic Gardens in January.


Sarah has a mission. She would like to see every gardener subscribe to the ideals and ideas of growing vegetables and flowers sustainably and without damaging the delicate eco- systems of the soil. She would like to see it become so wide- spread and commonplace that there should be no premium paid for organic produce and that organic gardening and food should not be the preserve of the wealthy few.


The gardens at Holt Farm are set within their own certified organic dairy farm. The ornamental vegetable garden has been run on strictly organic lines for several years so it made sense to include their beautiful modern garden of swaying grasses and perennials. Two years ago Sarah took the decision to close the garden while they prepared and applied for its certification with the Soil Association.


But Sarah did not want to compromise on the planting. She and Head Gardener, James Cox, did their research. They discovered the few nurseries that produced plants according to the strict guidelines, and those they were unable to source they grew on in quarantine conditions and propagated themselves.


The farm is in the lush green farmland of North Somerset, overlooking Blagdon Lake in the Mendip Hills


leaning over his gate.


Round the corner another remarkable area has been created. Tall white birches, Betula utilis jacquemontii, stand straight and serene against the dark surrounding shrubbery. Sarah plans to cover the ground with Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) so that for a fleeting few


weeks in spring it will become a sea of blue. She enjoys the thought of so transitory an experience: a twist on an English bluebell wood in May.


At the entrance to the gardens lies an area of more native meadow planting: the Somerset Garden. In spring wild flowers create a tapestry beneath pollarded willows, reminiscent of the Somerset Levels. But these are willows with a difference: they are the orange-barked Salix alba ‘Britzensis’. The meadow theme is picked up again across the drive where clouds of ornamental grasses, Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ and Stipa gigantea are punctured by spires of burnt apricot Eremurus ‘Cleopatra’, and blue Iris sibirica.


Opposite the meadow lies the entrance to the potager, Sarah’s “posh vegetable garden”. The passages into and through the formal beds are marked with decorative ironwork arches. Giant metal artichoke heads and sunflowers echo the archways and the flowers beneath.


The raised beds are constantly being worked, planted and cropped. Compost from one of the huge heaps by the car park is worked into the soil as often as possible. And James feeds the soil with Holt Farm’s own home-brewed ‘compost tea’. This evil-smelling liquid is nectar to all the soil bacteria that condition the ground, break down the nutrients and make them available to the vegetables. The proof that it works is visible to all.


The gardens at Holt Farm are set within their own certified organic dairy farm


And they tackled some serious problems. In the main garden alongside the house, overlooking Blagdon Lake, the island beds had become completely overrun with bindweed. When James turned it over during the winter every forkful resembled spaghetti. The top 60cm was laboriously worked over time and again until it was clean. It was replanted this May, but they recognise somewhat ruefully that the bindweed will inevitably return. However, having cleared the vast majority they are determined to attack each and every shoot that dares raise its head.


With two years’ hiatus there was time to create new areas too. On the other side of a farm-gate a small field has been ploughed, harrowed and sown with a special meadow mix of non-native seed that will flower continuously until October. It brings a whole new dimension to the farmer


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The resulting health of the crops means that they are much less vulnerable to pests and diseases. But nevertheless precautions are taken. Slugs and snails are every gardener’s enemy. At Holt Farm every bed or row of vulnerable veggies is surrounded with ground oyster shells. Slugs and snails do not cross this barrier. It demonstrably works. Oyster shells are readily available from agricultural stores sold as a constituent of chicken feed.


When any of the raised beds lies fallow between crops, a ‘green manure’ is sown. According to the species used, the crop is either turned into the soil within six to eight weeks of sowing, or left to occupy vacant ground until the spring. It conditions the soil and there’s little chance for weeds to invade. Those that do are relentlessly and regularly hoed before they become a problem.


All along the broad beans, runner beans and peas French Marigolds (Tagetes) are used to raise generations of Hover Flies whose larvae and adults eat aphids for breakfast, lunch and tea. And in the nearby glasshouse where young vegetables, tomatoes and peppers are raised James uses biological controls. Encarsia Formosa is a parasitic wasp that predates Whitefly, and Phytoseiulus persimilis feed voraciously on Red Spider Mite.


Country Gardener


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