Last year we set up raised beds for Hügelkultur, the method recommended by the permaculture specialist Sepp Holzer, according to which a kind of dam of ‘garden waste’ is used for growing vegetables, and which can also provide good compost and rich soil culture.

Our orchard was planted around the end of the nineteenth century. Several apple trees from this time have since mutated into gnarly, moss-covered creatures. Nonetheless, they provide a crop of tasty apples every year.