Where we grow our flowers
Some of you wanted to know more about how we grow the beautiful blooms for the cabins, so here's a little look behind the scenes...
The three cut flower beds we created for my 40th birthday
As a 40th birthday treat a couple of years back, Tom helped me create three cutting beds outside our front door. Lovely to come home to, but also easier to keep on top of weeding!
They're pretty ramshackle but, come summer, overflowing with flowers. We have one bed dedicated to dahlias.. we don't dig up the tubers, just mulch heavily in the winter and keep our fingers crossed they survive.
Sweet peas in one of our cut flower beds.
And throughout the year, the other two pack in sweet peas, sweet williams, alliums, daffodils, tulips, gladioli, iris, anemones, astrantia, chrysanthemums and whichever annual seedlings survive the rabbits/moles/mice/slugs!
Our main dahlia bed is full of colour from July until October and beyond.
We've also interplanted our veg beds with roses and peonies, including the lovely lemony 'Vanessa Bell' by @david_austin_roses - perfect for Lucy, our Bloomsbury-inspired cabin. We experiment with interesting foliage there too. Our favourite last year was the gorgeous wine-hued 'red orach'.
And last year we planted up a 'dahlia coop'…
The dahlia coop
Obviously we built the coop originally for our chickens. However after we sadly lost the last of them to a local fox family, we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to replace them.
Instead, we thought we'd experiment with planting some of the dahlia tubers I'd divided (plus some extras I couldn't resist buying but didn't have space for). I also added gladioli bulbs in the gaps and sweet pea plants against the chicken wire.
There wasn't a great deal of planning involved, but I thought they'd all love the chicken manure, and be well protected from the very many things that like to eat our flowers.
Inside the dahlia coop
Well, not only were the dahlias pretty happy, it turned out to be my happy place too... Standing in there for a few minutes on a late summer evening was instantly uplifting. There's something so special and soothing about being completely surrounded by colourful flowers.
I think the chickens would find them a fitting tribute too... They loved to come and peck at the dahlias (and pumpkins and lettuce and anything else we were growing).
Now we just have to decide whether to keep the dahlias in there this year or give the coop to some new feathered friends...
If, like us, you’re missing the blooms at this time of year, take a look at our brand new flower page for news of when you’ll be able to get your hands on a bunch or join our magical spring flower retreat, dedicated to the wonder of tulips.