Have garden, will travel

For Stephanie Hafferty it wasn’t just about moving house, it was about moving garden too, as she set off on a new no-dig gardening adventure in West Wales

- Stephanie Hafferty

The estate agent asked: “What kind of house are you looking for? How many bedrooms?” I said: “What I need is about half an acre of garden, with enough space for a polytunnel and vegetable beds.”

So I’m moving home, leaving Somerset where I have grown in my garden and allotment for 20 years, and raised my family, for a new adventure in Wales. Of course, the house needs to have enough bedrooms, be secure and warm, and within my budget, but as many gardeners will agree, the most important consideration is the garden!

The cottage stands in about half an acre on a hillside overlooking the Teifivalley, high enough for far reaching views to distant mountain ranges, but not too elevated. There’s a back garden with sheds and a flattish lawn, a small side garden, a gravel front garden, and a good-sized sloping orchard with established fruit trees and space to erect a polytunnel. There are trees in the hedgerows and some flower and shrub borders, but much of the space is weedy grass, a blank canvas. Ael Y Bryn, ‘the brow of the hill’: we have found our new home.

PACKING UP!

It’s time to pack up the garden in Somerset.