Welcome to the jungle

As the house has not really been lived in for at least 5 years, the garden and land is unsurprisingly in need of a little re-taming. This autumn our main aim is just to clear what we can so we can actually see what’s there, get the lie of the land so to speak. There is a small, rather neglected vineyard which needs some attention – although quite what, is a subject we must learn. To the side of this are 3 well established fruit trees (apple, plum and pear) and we have just planted 7 more saplings; cherry, 2 peach, nectarine, apricot and 2 apple, hopefully creating a sort of orchard area as they grow and mature. Behind this and running the whole length of the property is a wide semi-wooded gully. We expect this serves as a run-off for the spring snow melt and so there is little point trying to cultivate much here, at least until we are clearer as to the nature of the ground throughout the whole of the year. What might be both nice and feasible though is to encourage more tree coverage, in particular walnuts as they grow in abundance in Bulgaria, and just keep it as a wooded glen. Up behind the house is a good size meadowy field. It will take a good deal to prepare this land for growing veggies, and so at present it is not really on our priority list. The only work we’ve undertaken round here, and sometimes I’m sure Tom feels like it has become an all consuming task, is to cut down and dig out the 2 trees growing right up against the house. After lifting the rugs in the kitchen and finding roots growing along the floor(!) preventing further damage and damp from entering the house seemed a good place to start. One month on and one tree is totally out, for the other it’s days are numbered, only the recent spell of wet weather has delayed it’s extraction.