The Estate

Fifty years ago when I was working in Manchester, the Chairman of the Local Board of Directors, universally known as “The Hon. Tom”, used to interview every new member of staff. “Where do you live?” he asked the young lad. “On an estate sir.” “Oh – what’s the shooting like?”
So rather than let you make assumptions about our estate, I am posting a couple of images today. There is a flat bit and a steep bank, where the railway sidings and the embankment respectively used to be. We cleared the brambles, willow herb and most of the wild raspberries off the bank and are steadily planting it up to stop it sliding down. We also put in a sort of path up the bank (crampons sometimes required), and made a large island bed, two side beds and just a few weeks ago added a triangular bed to give us four square metres of extra growing space, just in case. You will note quite a lot of canes already in place ready for tomatoes, climbing beans etc in due time.
We have also been adjusting our growing plan to enable us to cope with a larger than expected range of Heritage seeds. Many of the flowers have had to be deferred for a future year so we have room for exciting new things like “Aunt Madge” and “The Soldier”.
So today, we have been working on our “Estate”; tomorrow we will be preparing for Monday’s scheduled seed sowing.