Living here at The Old Station most certainly demands you to, at the very least, be prepared to spend time in it’s sprawling multi level gardens and grounds.

Luckily for me, and the Old Station, gardening just happens to be both my pleasure and passion and I’m most content and happy when working outside.

I especially love the challenge of keeping the weeds under control which is, as a stand alone chore, an essential and often deeply satisfying task.

This year the garden, which I’ve been building over the the past five years, is showing signs of maturing and my planting is starting to come together.

Some particular triumphs are the results achieved from a pack of Geranium Madrense (Madeira Cranesbill) seeds that I bought in Tresco Abbey gardens whilst on holiday in the isles of Scilly back in 2018, I have nurtured these plants from seed over the years, without too much expectation of success so I’m delighted to see that the two maturing plants are looking rather impressive and I’m even hopeful that they might just flower next year, fingers always crossed.

During our time holidaying in the Scillies I was inspired by the stunning towering echiums that I marvelled over in the assorted cottage gardens in St Mary’s and beyond, I have been growing the white version ‘Tower of Jewels’ from seed and they are already impressively large plants.

I’m led to understand that when they shoot up, they go for it… I shall update with photos when they flower… again hopefully next year.

I’ve always been a flower gardener first and never really ventured into vegetables and fruits before but this year, after the joy of my first time planting runner beans last year (how quickly they grow and how rewardingly abundant in bean pods they are!) I’ve decided it’s now time to go for it and ‘grown my own’.

Thanks to Tim’s hard work, I’m now the proud owner of no less than seven raised beds across the garden, not all are in action I hastily add but, all are being tested with small crops and part of the future vegetable rotation plan in some small way or another.

My most encouraging new raised bed is generously filled with strawberry plants, in my nod to living here in the Tamar Valley which is famed for it’s strawberries and daffodils – which is my project for November…

I have bought my plants as runners online from a specialist grower – Cambridge and Marshmallow varieties this year – they both have encouraging reviews on the internet and I’m delighted to confirm that mine were a success so next year and beyond is looking good for strawberries…