The Barn at Easington

Wet Wednesday gardening update ☔️ 🪏 🌱

Fortunately, mother nature's watering can, the rain, held off whilst jobs were completed in the garden today: beetroot and chard were planted, weeds were tidied and the onions received some plaiting. Meanwhile in the kitchen, more jobs were underway; it was a hive of busyness- chopping, slicing, peeling, boiling, mixing and any other cookery term you can think of! Harvested food from the garden, sweetcorn, beans and courgettes, were used in our meal; a colourful array of delicious ingredients combined to make a delectable dish of Gumbo. Whilst eating, mother nature tipped her watering can, we watched and listened as the ground received a good watering.

A Play Date with Plants
At The Barn, today, we arranged a play date with Mother Nature! We released our inner children, as we explored various plants such as Lavender and Mugwort, learning about their soothing and healing qualities. We mixed potions and lotions and can't wait to see how they turn out in the next few weeks.

Today in the garden…

Whilst the bees 🐝 were busy collecting pollen and nectar in the corner of the vegetable garden, there was a 'hoe down' taking place in the main section. From planting beans and rocket, to tidying up path edges and relaying woodchip paths, everyone was busy and engaged with our 'wonderful world'; someone commented that 'being in the garden is good for my soul.'

A new skill, willow fence weaving, was put into practise today, to protect the vegetables from hungry bunnies. 🐇 🥕 Some delicious vegetables were also harvested to feed the hungry humans at lunch time, for which a scrumptious coconut curry was made. 🥥 🥒 🥔 🫘 🥬 🫜

It seems that we'd had a visit from a very talented gardening fairy during the last week too! 🧚🏻‍♂️ 🪏

Wow! We were presented with a luscious, mini jungle of produce today 🥬🫛🥒🫜🧅🥔

With Kath in the driving seat, there was no time to waste, as we allocated jobs and embarked on turning the garden into a hive of busyness, weeding, harvesting, feeding, chopping, planting and watering. A beautiful basket (woven by Kath) of potatoes was delivered to the kitchen, where they were transformed into tasty potato wedges by today's fantastic chef, Marie.

Ellie had also prepared a peach pie for us to share-delicious from the beautiful peach tree which grows against The Barn wall 🍑

The Research & Development Team for the Growing Hope project had an informative and inspirational visit today; we ventured to a small village, and tucked away behind some beautiful houses, was a wondrous garden, where nature truly thrives. We met with a local herbalist, who shared some helpful tips with us and points to consider when planning the apothecary garden, before she showed us her plethora of medicinal plants and herbs. A favourite among them was the Marsh mallow plant, due to its velvety foliage and soothing properties. After, we visited another herb garden, beautifully presented within a labyrinth which upon on reaching the end, you were welcomed by a comforting chamomile carpet. Thank you to you both for sharing your wonderful gardens with us- we look forward to you coming to visit us when our ideas and inspirations begin to take shape.

A Wednesday Growing Hope session this week and it was another hot and sticky day but that did not stop our team max out their efforts and enthusiasm ☀️

We weeded, watered fed the polytunnel crops and harvested peas, broad beans, onions and removed the leeks that had bolted due to hot and dry conditions. We also headed to the bottom field to have a look where the creeping thistle has recently been strimmed to allow us to make sense and observe the spacial dimensions of the new garden area. We raked up the clippings which was tough work in the hot conditions and had a relaxing meditative moment with Marie.

In the barn's kitchen Sheelagh cooked up another fantastically flavoursome dish and she also managed to blanch some peas and beans for the freezer 🫛 🫘

What a wonderful morning the research and development team had!

Today, we ventured to The Secret Garden, where we were welcomed by a bubbling kettle over an open fire, ready to make a cuppa alongside some delicious snacks- thank you Rhiannon! After a quick catch-up Rhiannon, the creator of The Secret Garden, gave us a tour, explaining how things were accomplished as we went, such as using raised beds due to limited capacity for digging. Everywhere we looked, there was something to discover and take in.

The array of smells was beautiful and we've gathered lots of ideas for our exciting project at the barn. We can't wait to see them come to fruition. Thank you to Rhiannon Williams for showing us around The Secret Garden; you truly are a horticultural magician. X

Growing Hope gardening session today in the glorious sunshine ☀️

An hours blitz in the vegetable garden allowed for weeding out imposing dandelions and thistles amongst the leeks and salad bed, clearing weeds from the paths and applying a fresh layer of wood chip, transplanting the chilli's we have grown from seed, sowing seeds of rocket to replace the old and bolted rocket that was pulled up...and also the usual weekly routine of feeding the polytunnel crops and harvesting what was needed for our own lunch cooked by Sheelagh

On the menu today was pasta and a beautiful salad made from harvested peas and radishes amongst other things! 🫛 🫜 🍉 🥗

We also spent an hour becoming more spacial aware in the wildflower field and faced the challenge of working out how to measure the existing space plus the new garden space in very tall meadow foliage. We managed to get an estimated measurement but agreed that further measurements will be necessary in the winter when the meadow growth will be much shorter and accessible.. however we can now begin to get approximate dimensions down on paper for us to start the design process and visualisation of the space.