Starting from Scratch

For many it is the ultimate dream, to create a new garden from scratch. When you start with a clean slate anything is possible and the downside of having no mature trees or plants is offset by the chance to plant only those things that you love.

That’s the opportunity facing Angela Smith, who last year swapped her village garden in Renfrewshire for a one-acre field in the hills above Langbank.

Angela trained in horticulture and floristry with Renfrewshire District Council and as the Royal Horticultural Society’s development officer for Scotland, she is better equipped than most take on the challenge, but even so, turning a former sheep pasture into a garden is still a monumental task.

“We started work on it last June and it has come on really well since then,” says Angela, who has been helped in her endeavours by her husband, Adam.

Their first priority was to make sure that the stock fence which surrounds the garden was secure.

“There are more than 1000 sheep in the fields around us and we don’t want them getting into the garden, not only because of the damage that they may do, but some things such as daffodils would be poisonous to them.”

Next Angela and Adam began planting trees to act as a shelter belt, opting for pine, rowan, silver birch, yew and small-leaved lime trees as well as a selection of fruit trees.

“Most of the apple, pear and plum trees came from a very good nursery but I am also growing some that I picked up at the local supermarket. In my work with community groups I need to know if the plants that they can easily get hold of will perform for them, so my aim is to trial these in the garden.”

An acre is a big space to fill, but a 5 metre-wide strip has been left undisturbed around the perimeter.

“We’ve got clover in there, but I want to see what else pops up and I’m growing some yarrow that I can add to it as plug plants.”

These wildflowers and a beech hedge will provide food and shelter for birds, invertebrates and small mammals.

So far Angela has installed five raised beds for growing vegetables, and she has dug out three circular borders where she plans to raise annuals and perennials for cut flowers.

“I will colour co-ordinate these, with one border for white plants, another for blues and lilacs and a third for pinks.

She also has a comfortable cabin where she and Adam can relax and enjoy the fruits of their labours, as well as a new greenhouse where leaves and herbs are already providing salads.

Sowing in earnest began in mid-February, with supplementary heat and lighting helping to bring on early growth and throughout spring Angela will be starting off vegetables and bringing on the flowers that will fill out the framework of beds and borders that are now in place. And meanwhile a group of new arrivals - six ex-battery hens that are now enjoying a free-range existence - are settling in nicely, while there has also been a constant stream of friends and family visiting to ask Angela’s advice about growing food and flowers.

“It is lovely to be able to share the garden with others,” says Angela, who has spent much of the last two years using gardening therapy to assist groups of people who were suffering from social isolation and bringing them together in a safe way to share skills and experience.

Now, as her first full year of growing gets underway, she is excited about how the garden will continue to develop.

“Already we are picking herbs, in a few months it will be flowers and vegetables and in a few years we will be picking our own fruit.”

Angela’s Advice

One thing you must do when sowing seeds, says Angela, is to warm up your compost in advance.

“You wouldn’t like to plunge your feet into cold, wet compost and your seeds don’t like it either, so a week or so before you start to use compost move it into a greenhouse or shed in order to raise the temperature before sowing.”