Managing two hectares of wilderness

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We’ve been struggling for six years to carve a decent garden out of two hectares of heavy clay soil. We are lucky to have lots of water with a series of wells and springs, a pond, and a river, so even in dry weather we are never short of water.
The vegetable garden is manageable and we are trying increasingly to work it in the deep mulch fashion…. lots of organic matter on the surface and planting from modules into this, with additional compost. We can get a sustainable compost made from forest products in the locality, so no problems using unsustainable peat.
Keeping flower gardens weeded is the real problem as we have loads of horsetail, docks, Japanese knotweed etc. We are trying to plant in thick clumps and although the foxgloves have established, lots of other perennials have been lost. We are currently planting along the pond and river side by cutting down all the reeds and establishing clumps of canna, day lilies, hardy geraniums, ligularias etc. Some have established, but some have perished.
We thought it would be a milder climate here, but last winter we had minus 21C for a few days, and even the fig trees have been cut right back; lots of other plants lost completely.
We have established some sub tropical plants in a conservatory made out of ruined old buildings built into the hillside with solid stone walls. We’ve covered this with polycarbonate panels and found doors and windows for free at the local tip. We manage to get a really good crop of edible passion fruit here, but the guavas died back last winter and we lost the majority of the tender hibiscus. We have some pomegranates and citrus which we hope might fruit one day, as well as feijoas which are doing well.
The main dilemma is when to cut the weeds and grass as in spring lots of wild flowers, including orchids, come through, and we hate to cut them down. then when you start cutting in June or July, there are so many snakes which can be cut to pieces by the large mower! Last year I even killed some levrets (young hares) in the long grass by standing on them accidentally in the long grass.
One huge area amongst the trees has seeded with salsify, which produces a whole sea of purple flowers in the morning at this time of year; we are leaving them in the hope that they will seed again all around the plot. We can harvest both the flower buds which are very tasty and of course the roots in the winter as ordinary salsify.
We sowed a mass of phacelia a couple of years ago, which makes a wonderful bee and insect plant, and this is still coming up all over the place.
Our garden is wonderful, but getting the balance between just leaving things to go wild and managing and cultivating it is very difficult and frustrating.

• 17 May, 2009
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