There’s straw and hops (from a local brewery) on the beds and woodchip and straw on paths. Cloches have been made by an ingenious method (twenty years ago he was an engineer) using the metal rod mesh that reinforces concrete as the beginnings of a structure, which then hold canes. More canes carry green mesh, which is pegged down at each side, but easy to lift. There’s a wormery in a stack of old tyres, and strawberries growing in a stack of three milk crates bound with black cling film, capillary matting between each. Squash, courgettes etc have been planted into straw bales that were first soaked in an old paddling pool filled with water, manure, compost, fish blood and bone - again wrapped in black plastic, both to absorb solar gain, and hold in heat and moisture. These are watered through upturned water bottles with bases removed, and held in place by metal rods (same material as cloches). And this metal is used again for a leaf mould bin, this time covered in chicken wire, and holding on top quite shallow trays for growing salads. This is in a shady area under a tree, so a tripling up of space, and molluscs can’t or don’t climb wire.

The long narrow beds have been raised by digging out a spit of earth from the paths between, and piling this on top - so no wooden sides which will rot and harbour slugs and snails. The depression left is then filled with straw, and this kept topped up. As it rots it feeds the root run of the plants.

The whole garden has in fact been claimed from lawn by covering it in a thick layer, six to eight inches, of straw. This not only killed the grass in about three months, but also perennial weeds: as well as dandelions and dock, he’s had success with couch grass and ground elder. The straw used is barley: wheat is sometimes sprayed with a desiccant, so would not be appealing in an organic system.
Anyway, under all these mulches and treatments - or treats - everything looked deliciously lush.

Andrew is also an exponent of the Quick Return (QR) composting system pioneered by Maye E. Bruce.
http://www.qrcompostingsolutions.co.uk/Composting_Accessories.php
And for details of his garden and plants for sale see http://www.gcplants.co.uk/

We are still planning the Harvest Celebration in Haltwhistle on September 17th and if you would like to sell/swap/give away/demonstrate anything harvest related, please get in touch!