The Orchard and Shrubbery

THERE WERE NINE APPLE TREES...

...in the orchard when we arrived, most on dwarf root stock. A range of traditional varieties: Ribstone Pippin, Laxton, Peasgood. Egremont Russet, Howgate Wonder, Chivers Delight, Ellisons Orange, Sunset, Newton Wonder, and two very old local trees yet to be identified. Most years the Sunset has produced the heaviest crop.

In 2018 the spring seemed particularly late thanks to the heavy March snow, but at last in early May we had some apple blossom. These late blooms were safe from spring frosts and we ended up with a bumper crop. 2019 was also a great year - the best so far - but in 2020 many trees were hit by late frost and others suffered heavily from squirrel attack when the apples were just forming. We really need to get a shotgun. Worse, in the Autumn roe deer cleared most of the ripening apples that had been missed by the squirrels - perhaps we need a Kalashnikov. We had a few apples to eat, but nothing like enough to juice, let alone make cider, unlike in previous years. Fortunately, not being able to host workaways because of Covid meant we still had apple juice and cider from 2019.

We have now planted another ten apple trees in the orchard, plus three pears and a szechuan pepper. We have also planted 14 cordon apples in the veg garden, two plums and two stanadrd apples. Many of the apples are local cider varieties from Adam’s Apples near Honiton. This should keep the squirrels and deer well-fed for years to come. who knows perhaps we’ll also get to perfect our cider making technique. Many of the new trees fruited well in 2021 but we had to remove the young fruits to help the trees establish. So far (late July) the main orchard crop looks promising but the squirrels have begun to move in - with any luck they will just do our thinning for us.

River Corner East

THIS CORNER OF THE GARDEN...

is quiet and currently more neglected than the upper slopes of the garden. Across the river is a meadow, belonging to another property where you can sometimes see a horse or some goats.

This is where we have recently planted two new willow trees and a dozen willow cuttings. We have also removed much of the dense regrowth sprouting from a fallen Western Red Cedar to open up the space around a crowded Oak tree.

In the spring and summer of our first two years at St Olaves we had to tackle the Himalayan Balsam that seemed to be gradually taking over this corner. .

Hillside and the River Teign

Eucalyptus above the River Teign, Murchington Chagford

This view is from the East side of the garden, where there were three large Eucalyptus trees when we moved here in 2017. Two have since blown down in winter gales - their roots aren’t up to coping with Dartmoor’s high winds and thin soils). Closer to the river the large fallen tree is probably a Beech. The tree to the right of the picture is a c40 year-old Chinese Pine.

THE 'CARRIAGEWAY' ...

is the main path that runs from the house down to the river . On the hillside below the carriageway are a number of specimen trees, some dating from the original plantings in the late 19th Century.

Old Oak tree on the hillside at St Olaves

There is a beautiful old single Oak in the middle of the water meadow. This supports many ferns, moss and lichen. There is also a damaged but surviving Cedar of Lebanon. Further down the Carriageway a flight of granite steps leads up to a Coast Redwood, with great views across the water meadow.

The Kitchen Garden at St Olaves

This walled kitchen garden was once a thriving vegetable garden supplying produce for the house. Apparently at one time cauliflowers grown in the garden were sent up on the train from Moretonhampstead to London for the owners when they were staying in their London residence.

The walled kitchen garden at St Olaves

 The previous owners planted  two apricots (Jennycot and Bergecot) and a Peach tree (Avalon pride) against the high south-facing wall. We have added a pear and a quince. Here there are still the remnants of the apparatus used to shelter tender plants.

Much of the Eastern end of the garden is raised beds and a small greenhouse, with lots of aromatic plants and herbs. The plan is to restore this area to a more productive vegetable plot and to increase the number of beds and experiment with 'Hugelcultur'. Winter mustards did well in the cold frame over in our first winter, and the garlic and broadbeans sown in October were also a great success. Over winter we created four new vegetable beds, and have since enjoyed impressive crops of beans, mange tout and courgettes, although the potatoes have been more hit and miss thanks to the prolonged drought. 

One of the early tasks was to tidy up the fruit cage, which has summer raspberries, thornless blackberries and tayberries, which had all got a bit out of hand. Joe was great at helping with this back in August 2017. We have now added a very productive Gooseberry bush, and some autumn fruiting raspberries are now thriving just outside the fruit cage, and in 2023 were still cropping in November.