Stone walled vegetable garden

This summer we carried on making good progress on a walled vegetable garden that we have been working on. Many of the original walls that bordered the garden were derelict and so we completely rebuilt them and raised the height and also changed the line of some of the walls. Newly quarried stone was mixed in with the original stone that could be salvaged. This allowed the walls to be strengthened but also maintained the local character of the walls. Because many of the boundary walls were raised to over 5ft we used many courses of 'through' stones to bind the structure together.  We accentuated the curves in the line of the boundary walls to reflect the curving shapes of the whole garden

Planting up around the curved entrance way

Curving boundary wall

Originally the garden had been on one level with a slight gradient. However, when we re-landcaped the area we decided to divide the space into two tiers on different height levels. The higher level was retained by a low wide curving terrace wall. After the earth had been moved to form the raised level, we constructed the retaining bank wall, finished with large flat toppers.

Starting work on the garden after the groundwork

Working on the retaining terrace wall

Once the boundary walls and the retaining wall and two stone staircases were mostly finished, we could then lay out the planting beds using reclaimed bricks and the a crushed stone underlay has been put down ready for the gravel to go on the paths between the beds. A lot of the perennial plants have already been planted so the structure of the garden has become clearly visible and it finally looks like a garden as it greens up. Most of the permanent herb bushes have been planted and we planted lines of lavender along the top of the terrace wall so that, as it grows, it will spill over the wall and create a nice effect.

The main veg beds filled with chard, kale, broccoli and basil

Runner beans, leeks, artichokes and lavender

Lavender flowers planted in a row behind terrace wall