The Making of Veddw
This is a series of posts telling the story of how we made Veddw Garden over the last 38 years. From two fields to a proper garden. Easy!
Making Veddw Garden – a Love Story: part 1
And out of what felt to be the ruins of my life, I turned to an ambition to make another garden.
Making Veddw Garden: part 2: we arrive
I really had no idea what you had in mind, either. I think if I had, I’d have been freaked out. I don’t actually think you ever said “one day all this will be a garden”. I’d have thought you deranged.
Making Veddw Garden: part 3. The Front Garden
Then somehow, I do not know how, I discovered Ruth Stout. We had no internet, no Amazon, the local library was great but not so much for gardening. I used to trawl secondhand bookshops looking for affordable garden books and I must have found her book somewhere. She changed my life and made Veddw possible.
Making Veddw part 4: what did we do next?
We got married Today: We have a wedding Homemade clothes Smelly sheep Piles and piles of wood Tipar (what is tipar??) Making paths Bird Baths and Pergolas Wedding! A fun filled occasion at Newport Register Office.
Making Veddw: part 5. The Meadow
It’s stressful, you know, this conservation thing. You feel judged all the time – hence the counting of orchids, which varies wildly from year to year. If there are lots, you feel very worthy and chuffed. If not – a witless wildlife failure.
Making Veddw 6 The things which w̶e̶n̶t̶ we got wrong in the Meadow
But sometimes, you do feel as if the garden gods are maybe a bit on your side. We visited a garden sculpture exhibition and found it! Octo, by Stuart Stockwell.
Making Veddw 7: The Veg Plot In its lost glory
Now, at some point we visited Barnsley House, Rosemary Verey’s garden. Charles was much taken with the potager. Which is a fancy name for a veg garden made on very formal lines and designed to be attractive as well as functional.