Devon Cuttings
GARDENERS CUTTINGS
a look at news, events and happenings in Devon
My dream farm – dreaming for real this summer
Fancy a go at running a smallholding?
Watching programmes like My Dream Farm or River Cottage can be both inspiring and wonderfully frustrating when what you really want to do is get out of your armchair, get your hands truly dirty and decide once and for all if smallholding and increasing self- sufficiency is genuinely the life for you. Debbie Kingsley and Andrew Hubbard run courses on their 108 acre Devon farm for budding smallholders who want to test their dreams before taking the plunge into the good life. With all those lambs, piglets and ducklings running round the farm, summer is a great time for beginner smallholders to join the two day Introduction to Smallholding course (5th and 6th June and 1st and 2nd July).
Participants have found the days truly inspiring, and go home full of ideas and plans, and a real sense of what is involved in creating their own dream farm. On 10th July farmers and smallholders who have holiday cottages or B&B’s to advertise, or just want to put their farm or smallholding on the web, can join the one day D.I.Y. website course that teaches you how to create and maintain your own website without tussling with complicated programming languages.
Debbie and Andrew have been thrilled with the feedback they’ve had from participants and savour comments like this from one happy couple: “We feel so lucky to have found this course and meet such lovely hosts who are happy to share secrets of smallholding and are so down to earth; we would highly recommend to anyone interested in or about to start smallholding”.
For more information about grants, courses and dates, call Debbie or Andrew on 01837 810569 or go to
www.smallholdertraining.co.uk
The ‘Good Life’ is back
The Good Life is back – and not just in Surbiton. From the suburbs to the city, the countryside to the town, thousands of people are planting spuds, beans, peas, salads and herbs. This new trend has even infiltrated Devon’s most prestigious farming and countryside event, The Devon County Show – 20th-22nd May. For the winner of the Prince of Wales Award is Wembury Allotment Association, near Plymouth. The award, which comes with a cash prize of £1,000, is aimed at rural community organisations which are helping to build local sustainability through initiatives such as communal composting, vegetable growing and floral decorations. The Wembury Allotment Association benefited from the National Trust pledge to create 1,000 new allotment plots in response to public demand for the space to grow their own fruit and vegetables. About two hectares of land was set aside for 40 plots, some of which are split to give as many people as possible the chance to enjoy the pleasure of growing their own produce.
Country Gardener
Devon gardeners appear on TV’s Landscape Man
Devon gardeners Keith and Ros Wiley will appear on Channel 4’s The Landscape Man, one of six programmes following the building of a different garden or landscape over a year. Keith made his name as a brilliant gardener at The Garden House at Buckland Monochorum in Devon. He now runs his own business, Wildside Nursery, half a mile down the road. The way he and his wife, Ros, transformed a flattish field into a Mexican courtyard, flower garden, canyons and a series of water gardens, was the subject of the first programme.
The Wileys gambled that their participation would reap invaluable publicity for Wildside Nursery. But the strain of filming left them with mixed feelings. “Because the project was so all-consuming we were very glad when the filming finished, just so we could get back to normality,” says Keith.
“Gardening, the way I do it, is not a stressful occupation,” he adds. “But I found the processes of filming and the unreality of deadlines for the all- important ‘final reveal’ stressful.”
Keith was surprised at the effect filming would have on him. An example was the time and effort involved in carving out the canyons and ponds, which he had originally thought would be a three-year project. Instead, Keith tried to finish them within the 11-month filming deadline.
“I knew it would be hard to complete the work on the ponds, and we missed six months of work on the nursery trying to attempt it. As a result we had no plants for sale in the autumn,” he says.
“If you have loads of money it’s different. But we felt outside our comfort zone. We did three years’ work in 11 months.“
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