Two Years at Trevisker

Two Years at Trevisker 2007-2009

by Anna Greenland

Two Years at Trevisker...

The following pages chart my two growing seasons at Trevisker Farm on the North Cornwall coast.

Both summers were wet, soggy and downright miserable, but inside the tunnel I created a colourful haven filled with a mass of organic vegetables, herbs and flowers. After a successful year at Buttervilla Farm selling produce to Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall, I was hooked on growing organic vegetables. However, having read about the huge amount of cut flowers being flown in from abroad, I also wanted to explore selling organically grown flowers to restaurants. Fifteen were keen to come on board and source their flowers locally, so I grew them an array of annuals that looked stunning next to the bright pink interior of the restaurant. I also produced little country garden posies that were sold in nearby Ripley’s deli. The tunnel was therefore a productive mix of vegetables and flowers, with every available patch of soil under cultivation. Tomatoes grew amid marigolds, ammi majus and cornflowers. Courgettes were flanked by salvias and California poppies, carrots nestled in front of zinnias and cosmos. It wasn’t all a rosy picture of success – the first year’s lovingly tended heritage tomatoes all succumbed to blight – in hindsight not helped by humidity levels in the tunnel.

This was combated the following year by improving ventilation and thankfully a bumper crop ensued. Similarly the carrots weren’t a huge fan of the stony soil and didn’t really resemble what you or I would imagine a carrot should look like...in any way...but they still tasted good! Despite some disappointments, toil and a few tears (over the blight!) my two years at Trevisker were happy, healthy and for better or worse, they taught me a great deal. You can see a video of my 2009 growing season on my blog.

Anna Greenland - www.barefootgrower.blogspot.com

Cornish shovel...

I got the tunnel up in early spring 2009 with the invaluable assistance of Hugo, Carl and Dan. The site was a small grass field enclosed by trees, which had at one tim e been used for soft fruit. I was warned by the owners of Trevisker Farm, that the stony ground would be my worst enemy and they weren’t wrong. After hiring a turf lifter, I attempted to use a small rotavator to break up the soil, but lurking just under the surface was a frightening amount of stones. I appreciate some stones are good. They improve soil structure and aid in drainage, but I was pulling up rocks the size of footballs and using the rotavator was pretty hazardous. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to undertake a sustained period of back breaking double digging.

Luckily I was also working as a gardener at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, and had benefited from the tuition of Clive – Heligan’s double digger extraordinaire. His accomplished technique and the loan of this Cornish shovel undoubtedly saved my back that first spring.

Right: Spring 09/Summer 09

This page: Before and after shots of the tunnel, first in April 2008, and again in August 2008.

Opposite page: We created a pond in the tunnel in the hope that frogs would help to keep the pesky slugs at bay.

I collected frogspawn from the pond at Heligan and watched intently as the tadpoles began their transformation. Huge thanks to Peter - 11 year old school boy and expert pond builder. I also laid down lengths of porous piping in order to irrigate the beds. This saved me valuable time with watering duties and helped to conserve water supplies by illiminating wastage.

Red Flowered Broad Beans, grown from saved Heligan seed.

Rhubarb Chard

Heritage Tomatoes

Cut flowers...

Cut flowers picked and ready for Fifteen include Sweetpeas, marigolds, zinnias, cornflowers, ammi majus, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvias, sunflowers, cosmos and euphorbia.

Zinnia ‘Giant Dahia Mix’ Right: Dahlias in bloom.

Clockwise from top: Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Senation Mixed’, Alcea rosea (hollyhock) and Verbena bonariensis.

Clockwise from top: Tuberous nasturtiums and cucumber, sunflower and mixed basket of peas, courgettes, oregano and edible flowers (hollyhock, nasturtiums, cornflowers, marigolds).

Clockwise from top: Lily basking amid the flowers, shizanthus and salvia.

I hope you enjoyed this little book. If you are already a gardener or grower, I hope you will find it interesting to see what can be produced in a Cornish polytunnel on heavy clay and stony soil...with a little perseverence! If you have never dabbled in growing anything - edible or otherwise - I hope this may inspire you to have a go.

Involving yourself in this natural process gives rise to many conflicting emotions - it can both excite you and ground you, comfort and frustrate you. Ultimately, it makes you feel alive. For me, there’s nothing more real than the feeling of earth between my fingers. So I urge anyone who has an interest to give it a crack - you won’t regret it! When I embarked on this project, I was untrained and totally green - I learnt everything as I went along through trial and error. You don’t have to be super-skilled; as long as you love what you are doing, your garden will reward you many times over.

All text and photographs in ‘Two Years at Trevisker’ © Anna Greenland www.barefootgrower.blogspot.com