DUNMORE COUNTRY SCHOOL

23/08/2026

Save your tomato seeds 🍅
Scoop seeds + liquid into a jar, add a little water, and leave 3–4 days until a white skin forms. Sieve, dry 3–5 days on the windowsill, then pop into a little sachet. 🌱

21/08/2026

A Normandie is a beautiful way to get two crops in one space 🍎🍐

It’s two cordons combined: a low apple cordon and a pear cordon just above it. The result is incredibly compact, but this year it showed another big advantage.

Because the apple cordon is so low, it helps shade and protect the soil from sun and wind, reducing evaporation. Add a thick mulch of BRF (shredded wood), and even through this very dry year, I harvested a massive crop of apples and pears without watering.

Two crops, less water, protected soil—and all while helping regenerate the soil.

21/08/2026

19/08/2026

One of the best-kept secrets by gardeners is to protect your precious soil. This is what I’m going to use. 🌿I grow my vegetables side-by-side so their leaves block wind and stop evaporation. 🥬💨But underneath, the soil is never bare! I recycle everything right back onto the ground:Old vegetable leaves (like cabbage or Swiss chard)Hedge clippings ✂️Meadow cuttings 🌾Tree prunings 🌳The living plants protect from above, and this mixed mulch protects from below. Zero waste, total protection! 🍂✨

15/08/2026

Homemade Pizza on the BBQ with our kitchen garden produce (except the olives)!☺️
Tomato purée and Einkorn dough made from scratch.

13/08/2026

A little garden loop 🌱

For beginner gardeners: think in small, closed loops.

When you prune your apple tree, don’t automatically throw the branches away. The smaller prunings can be chipped or chopped and used as mulch around your purple sprouting broccoli.

One part of the garden feeds another — simple, useful, and circular. 🍎🥦.

12/08/2026

🌳 How I grow pears with almost no extra water.

I have a very tall mixed hedge around my kitchen garden — wild cherry, hazel and grey willow.

It gives flowers, fruit, nuts and food for bees. But it also protects my pear trees from wind, cold and frost.

The problem? A huge hedge also needs a huge amount of water.

So I use the hedge to feed the pear trees.

During winter, I coppice some branches and lay the dead wood and branches directly around the base of the fruit trees.

As they slowly decompose, they feed the soil, build fertility and help it hold moisture.

So instead of removing the biomass, I turn the hedge into fertility for the orchard.

The result: biodiversity, shelter, beautiful pears — and a huge reduction in the need for watering.

🌱 Work with nature, not against it.

03/08/2026

‘Usui’ is a brilliant Japanese pea variety because it’s so versatile. 🌱

Harvest the shoots, enjoy the green peas, or dry them for hummus or soup. Versatile crops like this help build a more resilient food system.

02/08/2026

Roveja peas 🌱✨

An ancient Italian heirloom dating back to the Neolithic Age! 🇮🇹 These tiny, multi-colored peas are packed with protein, rich in minerals, and have a deep, earthy flavor somewhere between lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans.

After a 24-hour soak and a slow simmer, they become creamy and perfect for hearty soups, pasta, or the traditional Umbrian dish farrecchiata.

A rare ingredient once nearly lost—now proudly protected as a Slow Food treasure. 💚