BARREN FIELD to PRODUCTIVE PLOT | Organic fruit & vegetable growing in Mid Wales

Watch us transform a barren hillside field into a productive fruit and vegetable garden over a period of several seasons. Our patch is on a terraced hill with some history attached! The leftovers of the Welsh woollen industry locally have given us a head start in creating our wonderful fruit and veg garden. (You can also find out why our YouTube channel is called The Tenterhook Times).

Over the years we experimented with numerous crops until we found our favourites and now each season has settled into a regular routine of propagation, growing, watering and harvesting.

Our organic garden is on a steep hillside in the Upper Severn Valley near Llanidloes in Mid Wales in the UK where we enjoy a temperate climate.

Watch our Passive Solar Greenhouse video – https://youtu.be/-baJgKYVC3Y?si=qJY0RjXn077tj2cW

Watch our Irrigation video – https://youtu.be/SSkHyOv-I-s?si=4EWDUjTJJeRtup6k

Watch our garden videos – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLavq4kmeyKEHbPexXG16UOiY0BwcyLgMb

0:00 Introduction
0:52 A little bit of history
1.58 Fruit & veggie terraces – the origins
2.10 First steps – creating the veggie terrace
3.32 Soil fertility
4.17 Planning crops & keeping records
4.45 The fruit terraces
6.33 Polytunnel
7.07 Passive solar greenhouse
7.24 Garden shed
7.32 Irrigation
8.13 Crops
10.02 Challenges
11.41 Tips
14.01 In conclusion

Tune

William Titley’s Waltz played at a traditional music session at Welsh Mountain Cider near Llanidloes in February 2023.

My Twitter | https://twitter.com/JacNewey
My Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/jac.newey.9

When we moved here some years ago now this small hilly plot above the river 7 which is now a fruit and veg plot had been grazed be by Resident horses it was just grass and Bracken surrounded by GS broom and brambles it had potential we told ourselves but where to start in our

Mind’s Eye we had a vision of a lush productive vegetable plot with fruit trees and bushes and perhaps a small indoor growing space to extend the season at each end but the hill was steep not to mention wind swept and Rain soaked for much of the year it was also

As we later realized a frost pocket just waiting for the right conditions to strike down tender plants in their Prime what gardening makeover Miracle could we ever hope to achieve in such a spot this video shows how we transformed a barren field into a productive organic fruit

And veg Garden in mid Wales in the UK first a little bit of history in the mid 19th century over 150 years ago now this south facing Hillside was terorist so that Woolen cloth produced in the small flannel Mills locally could be hung out to dry on large frames in the open air

This was part of the finishing process of the fabric the Woolen industry was a major employer in mid Wales in the mid 1800s which is hardly surprising when you think of the number of sheep on the land back then as well as today in those days the Sheep’s fleece was highly

Valued compared to modern times the drawing frames which used to stretch across our Hillside were called tenters and the cloth was held in place with t hooks hooked metal nails to stop it shrinking as it dried we occasionally find an old tender hook while we’re gardening which reminds us of the

Industrial nature of this rural spot in the past the name of our YouTube channel was inspired by the site’s history so if you’ve ever wondered why we call it the tenter hawk times now you know after the decline of the Woolen industry in mid Wales in the late 19th century this land

Was mainly grazed or neglected but The Terraces remained and their existence did us a massive fa whilst long and narrow they provide some of the few flattish areas on our patch they were the obvious place to transform into a long for vegetable garden in the early

Days our time was limited as we were juggling renovation of our small abandoned Cottage with work commitments we were desperate to start growing however having been inspired by our time woing in the US New Zealand and Australia at every available moment we would be on the first Terrace we called

It the veggie Terrace digging out new beds by removing rough Turf to reveal infertile Stony soil this was long before the concept of no dig gardening had become a thing as the Terrace was so narrow there was only room for one bed about 1.5 M wide so gradually a string

Of beds of different lengths developed across the hillside below was an untouched grassy slope Left To Nature and above three further Terraces yet to be developed the banks between The Terraces were left untouched allowing wild flowers to thrive the Terrace was not uniform in shape along its length in

Fact it wobbled all over the place as did our garden beds but finally we had somewhere to grow our first veggie crops the amazing thing is how much we managed to grow in the early days considering how poor the soil was in our first year we had crops of peas broad beans

Potatoes and onions we put a small plastic Greenhouse at one end of the Terrace to sew and propagate young plants and grow tomatoes under cover it also provided some shelter for us when weather was at its wetest and windiest we quickly realized that if we wanted a really productive veg Garden we needed

To introduce some fertility into the beds we attempted many different approaches acquiring rotted horse manure from local Stables starting our own compost heaps in the early days we CM composted Bracken as it was plentiful on site as plants grew we also sprayed liquid seaweed and Scattered chicken

Pellets over the years we have built up fertility but it’s a constant B metal as winter rains can quickly wash away the goodness in the soil we built two large raised beds at the back of the poly tunnel and top these up with fresh compost each year these were very high

Cropping we also grew some crops such as potatoes and chard straight into well- rotted compost beds and these also did well each winter we plan what we want to grow The Following season and Order seed usually from the organic gardening catalog anything we forget about we can

Often then pick up locally we plot out the beds and have done for well over two decades now in the early years we also kept records of crops successes and failures until we just accepted that there is no such thing as the perfect garden year and every year is just

Different we just enjoy the produce that does well each season Once the veg Terrace was on its way we soon started planning the next phase growing fruit we had no idea then what might prove productive in our climate and at 200 m above sea level in our Frost pocket we

Did some research and chose fruit trees and bushes supposedly suitable for the conditions with three remaining Terraces available for planting we allocated the one above the vegetar for soft fruit including gries red and black currants plus Summer and Autumn raspberries there was also an area for rubar the third

Terce up the hill was planted with young fruit trees cooking and eating apples for example Bramley Discovery and Lan’s Prince Albert also pears and plums we knew patients would be key and St the Nutri carefully as the narrow Valley can turn into a bit of a wind tunnel during

Winter Gales the fruit bushes settled in very well and started cropping immediately the following year which was wonderful we made jars and jars of jam and froze huge quantities of fruit to keep us in crumbles over the winter we later introduced other fruit such as blueberries most of these are taken by

Black birds and we don’t like netting as birds can get trapped we tried Logan burries and tab burries too but neither did particularly well and also planted two gorgeous crab apples called Laura to help with pollination of our apple trees strawberries have always proved challenging once squirrels Bank fs and

Birds have tucked into the Delicious Fruit there is very little left for us we now grow strawberries undercover in our shed herv Tre to shed with a sunny growing area our most successful soft fruit is the Autumn raspberry Autumn Bliss we also grow the golden variety all gold Autumn raspberries thrive in

Our damp cool climate recent summer droughts have taken their toll on most of our garden but but these raspberries rarely fail to impress to round off our new plot we also added a large poly tunnel in the second year for tender crops such as tomatoes cucumbers and

Corett the growing season is very short Outdoors here due to late and early frosts July is the only month when we have not seen a frost we once saw our runner beans frosted to the ground on midsummer’s day we also planted a fig tree a grape vine and a bay tree in our

Poly tunnel which we erected on a gently sloping site just below the vegetar this poly tunnel was amazing value for money lasting 23 years before we replaced it with our passive solar Greenhouse the greenhouse is now the most productive space in our entire Garden check out the

Link in the description below to the build of this amazing Greenhouse which shows the crops we harvested in our first growing season Once the poly tunnel was finished we removed the small plastic greenhouse and replaced it with a garden shade to store garden tools and equipment from the other side of the

Valley the layout of The Terraces and poly tunnel was very clear to see all our garden water is pumped up from a spring lower down the hill to a tank at the top this water is then gravity fed to two Taps one on the veg Terrace and another originally in the poly tunnel

But now in the greenhouse again we’ve already produced a detail video describing our irrigation setup details and Link in the description below what we’ve noticed over the years is a subtle change in the climate here particularly over the summer months drought months are now extremely common June 2023 was

One of the driest months we have ever experienced and we struggled to keep up with watering or irrigating our outdoor garden beds keeping our outdoor crops well watered is now our biggest challenge in the veg Garden let’s look at some of the most successful outdoor veg crops over the years we’ve

Experimented with hundreds of vegetable varieties many of them non-commercial seed from the Heritage seed Library run by Garden organic we were actually seed Guardians for the library for over 16 Seasons growing and donating seed from Heritage veg varieties to be given out to other members potatoes every year we

Grow several beds of potatoes usually a mix of first and second earlies which do best here as they require a shorter season though a main crop is often tried too favorites are Charlotte foremost pink Gypsy Swift and kastel we also enjoy experimenting with donated potato tubers from Friends peas we cut Hazel

Sticks to build supports and prefer tall growing varieties favorites are older man and purple potted for many years we also grew the shorter variety kelv and wonder and some years we have a sugar snap variety Heritage varieties are always grown each year too broad beans we like the old variety Crimson flowed

The popular aquadulce and gluster Champion carrots we grow these in old metal bathtubs to keep slugs snails and carrot fly out favorites are Autumn King 2 and red elephant onions we did okay with these growing from onion sets until onion white rot set in a couple of years

Ago so we are currently taking a break favorites are stutgart and sturon cabbage and kale once we had built a cabbage cage to keep off Cabbage White Butterflies these thrived favorites are cavalo Nero kale and SEO cabbage we also regularly grow Runner and French beans parsnips charred purple sprouting

Broccoli and leaks sweet corn did well this year the first time we have tried it here are some of the main challenges we Face growing in our climate and location Frost as mentioned before we live in a terrible Frost pocket we’ve become accustomed to using fleece as a

Protection against frosts late in Spring the first weeks in may we are frequently hit by frosts Young potato plants have to be protected every year this way basically we have to keep an eye on the weather forecast throughout the season never quite knowing when we might need

To whip the fleece out drought again pre prly hinted at but becoming a growing problem for us on our south facing Hill in the summer especially early summer we have struggled with our potato crops for the past couple of years and need to consider setting up an improved

Irrigation system if we wish to enjoy continued good crops pests Bank Falls are our most annoying pests they like nibbling on potato tubers and borrow under and through our beds to find them slugs and snails come and go depending on the weather but are much easier to

Control usually by my hand mowing The Terraces are reliant on us mowing the grass throughout the growing season to keep the paths manageable on the plus side we can use all the grass clippings we can get for mulching fruit trees we discovered the hard way that some fruit

Trees don’t like living on a wet Hillside in mid Wales pears and plums both hung on for several years with barely any crop until succumbing to canker we replaced the pear trees with further Apple varieties the top cropping apples here are Bramley and Lane’s Prince Al Bert we later introduced more

Welsh varieties including M shag greine and rosao in a good apple year we have far more fruit that we can ever use or give away and the black birds and field fairs Feast away on the windfalls here are a few fruit and veg Garden tips which have worked for us mulching we use

Moan grass to mulch our soft fruit through spring summer and Early Autumn it’s free readily available and quick to apply to suppress weeds and retain moisture other mulch materials we can recommend for soft fruit includes straw left over from the Scarecrow Festival Creations to rotted wood chip generated

On site plastic bottles plastic bottles make great small cles for young seedlings and also provide protection from mice and Bank BS we use them every year to start of peas and all kinds of beans grafting we had great fun learning how to graft our own apple trees we

Bought M26 root stocks and grafted on cuttings from a friend’s apple trees with great success about 20 new Young trees resulted and we grew some on as cordons others as freestanding trees it is so rewarding highly recommend pruning we also enjoyed pruning a young Apple sapling into a productive asalia apple

Tree over the years watering we find that on hot summer days watering in the evening is by far the most successful approach as any other time of day any water is sucked away by the hot sun baking our south facing slope shelter belt when we move moved here there was

Just a low mixed hedge to keep the fierce Westerly winds at Bay over the years we have planted many young trees around the edges of our patch to build up an effective shelter belt this included planting the top Terrace above our productive plot we planted trees we

Loved including Scots pine Red Oak wild cherry and box for additional shelter once trees began to mature and grow Bare Down Low our crops now grow with the benefits of a microclimate created by this shelter belt the real benefit though has been to the local Wildlife which absolutely thrives in this

Corridor running across the top of our plot we also planted a few ornamental trees high up on The Terraces at PA Junctions and for shelter including a couple of gorgeous Japanese maple trees and a honey locust tree seats gardeners don’t sit down for long and that’s a

Fact however we did introduce two small slate seats along the veg Terrace by cutting out level shelves with a spade and popping down slabs of slate creating a fruit and veg Garden from what was once a barren field was a no-brainer for us for over a quarter of a century we

Have been about 75% self-sufficient in organic fruit and V every year is different some crops do better than others very occasionally a crop will fail completely but on the whole we enjoy making delicious meals from fresh sweet nutritious crops whilst at the same time maintaining positive mental health through being outdoors in nature

And gardening on a steep hill Keeps Us physically fit too thanks for watching and happy fruit and V gardening all