Prinknash Abbey Walled Garden
Stroud Valleys Project volunteers and our project officers have worked hard to transform the walled garden in the grounds of the abbey into a productive kitchen garden, which provides fresh fruit and vegetables to be used or sold in the Abbey cafe.
The garden was in a somewhat neglected state when we took it over, but is now looking well cared for which is very much appreciated by the public who visit the garden for a walk.
We also run occasional events on the Prinknash site – see our events page for details of anything coming up.
We also have a video which was made a few years ago by Devlin Price for which we are very grateful : Prinknash video
Spring 2024: Preparing for the season ahead by Katherine Hallewell
We have been working hard all winter in the garden at Prinknash, dodging the wet weather to get the beds ready for the new season. In midwinter we dug out our leaf mould bay for the first time, spreading the crumbly rich harvest on the grateful beds. In January we were clearing out the shed and greenhouses to make space for the spring sowings.
Ruth brought the Wild Shed group to Prinknash over the winter months and their help with reclaiming some overgrown beds was much appreciated. There has been one upside to all the rain – the newly created wildlife pond is full to the brim and eagerly awaiting the arrival of new pond plants! Fred will be joining us at the end of April to assist with planting it all up.
Martin Hayes of the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust joined us once more to continue teaching the art of restorative pruning – both the volunteers and the apple trees were very glad to see him. The heated and cold greenhouses are now full of baby plants, just waiting for a break in the weather to take their places in the garden. Our next exciting project for the spring, with the help of Richard and his group, is to build a hot compost bay that will turn our pernicious weeds into delicious compost.
We are looking forward to the season ahead.
Autumn 2023: Prinknash Update by Katherine Hallewell
It’s been another season of astonishing bounty in the walled garden at Prinknash Abbey. Harvests began in early spring with sugar snap peas aplenty (a firm favourite with everyone – is there anything tastier than a freshly picked pea?).
We continued into the summer with courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers and purple beans in seemingly unending quantities. Autumn stars have included beetroot, kohlrabi, kales, leeks and of course, the winter squash that currently adorns the drying area of our greenhouse bench. We have tried some interesting new varieties of vegetables too this year: white courgettes (yummy and prolific), Asturian tree cabbage (outrageously enormous leaves and a perennial too), Sutherland kale (delicious and very hardy), and Mooli radish which grows so fast you can practically watch it happening. We will be planting Elephant garlic for the first time this autumn.
As we head into the winter months we have a few big jobs on our to-do list, one of which is to line the new wildlife pond, freshly dug in the bottom part of the garden, so that it can begin to fill with water. Other tasks include some editing in the existing herb beds, to make room for a wider variety of culinary herbs and also establishing new perennial flower beds for cut flowers.
And of course none of this would be possible without the energy and enthusiasm of my volunteer team, to whom I am exceedingly grateful..
Huge thanks goes to them – their input, inspiration and company is greatly appreciated by me and the whole team at the Abbey.
Spring 2023: A new dawn at the Abbey by Katherine Hallewell
The garden at Prinknash is beginning to awaken. We spent many chilly winter days spreading a soil-conditioning mulch on the beds, which we are now beginning to fill with lovely young plants.
Janet and Carla began the growing season by planting out the broad beans that we raised from seed in March; early sugar snap peas and baby lettuces made their way into the polytunnel at the start of April and we have young chard, turnips, beetroot and tomato plants all close behind. The garlic that we planted in October last year is already looking exceedingly robust.
Martin Hayes from Gloucestershire Orchard Trust returned to the garden in April to teach us more about pruning fruit trees.
This time we focused our efforts on restoring the pear arch. As a result, we produced plenty of pear tree prunings with young flower buds on them. Rather than adding these to the compost heap, we shared them out amongst the volunteers so that the blossom could be enjoyed by us all in our homes – a real spring treat.
Autumn 2022: A garden of earthly delights by Katherine Hallewell
Volunteers have been enjoying bumper harvests all season at Prinknash Abbey Walled Garden – beetroot, turnip, French beans, basil, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers have been just some of the stars of the summer. All have sold well through the cafe shop, and some have made their way into the delicious soups that the cafe creates each day.
The tree fruit crops were exceptional this year – apples in abundance – and we were lucky enough to meet volunteers from Painswick Orchard Group earlier in October who shared some freshly pressed juice with us. It was utterly delicious!
As the leaves begin to fall and the temperatures drop, we’ve turned our attention to putting the beds to rest for the winter and bringing in the last of the crops. Our winter squash harvest – three wheelbarrows-full – is now safely stored in the greenhouse, skins ripening and hardening so that we can enjoy them throughout the colder months.
It will soon be time to begin raking the fallen leaves again, piling them into our brand-new leaf mould bay and jumping up and down on them!
This is absolutely one of the most rewarding tasks of the season: making a valuable soil improver from free plant matter that literally falls from the sky.
What could be more satisfying?
