2014 season @ashfarmcampsite

We are open.  Campsite flag is flying.

If I could figure out how to "fly" a twitter widget on blogger, the blog would have twitter button too, but I am not very html literate, so instead all I can do is signpost the reader to @ashfarmcampsite to follow us on twitter.

 Signs are repainted with the new tariff for 2014.

Log bags are ready and waiting to burn for £3 per bag.

Kindling as always is free until it runs out.

Posh compost toilet has had a repainted box, still skyblue but no ditsy flowers this year. Clean and mean!

New shower unit in the outdoor shower. I love having a shower late at night under the stars...who's going to be first to try it out?

The corner box in the changing-room has been varnished this year.

Mats and cushions still add colour to the changing-room.

And we have added a small lending-library bookshelf, for use whilst staying with us, particularly favouring cornish settings or authors on the 'girly' shelf. And we can thoroughly recommend St Ives Bookseller, Fore St, St Ives for buying your own copies should you get entangled in a story (also on twitter @stivesbooks).

The @gjwalljoinery man has been out strimming madly to make everything look ready
and the picnic benches are eagerly awaiting campers.

The campsite paddock has been mown by the horses, allowed to recover and is now ready for tents and campervans. As always it is a little uneven, so airbeds or campbeds are recommended (it is a paddock, not a purpose laid lawn for tents, but we still think you can sleep well). And we have a managers' tent this year.

The garden I tried to terrace and plant with succulents and lay paths up to the picnic area, has grown a little wild over the spring, but very pretty with the pink campions alongside the echiums. So for the moment it can remain wild and pretty. I have all summer to weed, to reveal what lays hidden within!

Easy to forget

At this time of year, as our opening date approaches I tend to find myself very critical of our campsite and feel slightly disheartened by how much still needs to be done to fulfil my visualisation of what we could achieve. It is easy to forget how much we have already done to reclaim the site from ivy and blackthorn (which I do like in symbiotic quanitities) and which the pigs have loved to eat.

The voice of reason is usually my other half, Graham, who reminds me just how overgrown the area was and how many trips to the dump and how many bonfires we have had!

It helps to look at some of the before and after pictures - although, why is it one never remembers to take the before pictures, until half-way through or until one has already reached the "after" stage! 

So, as I sit having a coffee in the cottage, on a particularly precipitous morning, I thought I would share some 'before', 'in-between' and 'after' pictures on the blog.

Tiny piglets installed for clearing the blackthorn and hawthorn and brambles in the campsite paddock.

Job done, although we did have to use a digger to get the roots out - there is a limit to what pigs can eat and shift - but we hand raked and seeded the reclaimed land and look what the cornish rain and sun produced......

a lovely new camping area with a view!

When we first started clearing in the reservoir garden, you couldn't even see from one end to the other. We now have a clear view, a lot of green and a tree fern, a date palm and a copper beach planted with light filtering through to help them grow.

The pigs helped clear the entrance side of the old reservoir garden, down towards the campsite facilites, but then the area all looked a little barren and brown, as this is halfway through picture shows.

Again, light, sunshine, rain and some garden furniture, brings out a whole new colour scheme.

There were piles and piles of 'tipped' garden and building debris from local cottage renovations and goodness knows what, just dumped on the land,

 but slowly we have dug and pinchbarred, raked and shifted the rubble, recycled the slate

and cut back hedging to stop walls falling down and tried to bring out what we think nature intended.

New hedges still need planting and weeds controlling and apologies that these photos are not all the exact same angles, but I think they portray what I am trying to get across.

I must not forget.

And finally another winter is over and we have had our first family tentover....albeit a little colder overnight than I usually like (mental note to self we are only May and I need duvets and warmer nightclothes next time) and had our first campfire and toasted marshmallows, celebrated with a glass of prosecco for me, which goes rather well with the marshmallows I have discovered!

Perhaps the message is this, that although it is easy to forget, it is also easy to remember.  And for the moment we are just waiting for opening day on the 23rd May and for the campers to arrive, to share the adventure with us.

Cornish Hedgeing

Peaking through a cornish hedge at the vistas beyond has got to be a great past-time.

From the campsite field you can see across farmland towards Trencrom Hill and on a clear day you can see Hayle Towans. Today is not a clear day, the early morning cloud is lingering but I still love creating the glimpses and I love the greeness of the english countryside.

Our campsite paddock hedge, unfortunately has seen better days, it has fallen away in places and brambles and blackthorn have taken over and pushed parts of the wall down rather than binding them together.

But, there are also pretty pink campions and foxgloves, nettles and ivy creating a network of hedge and wildlife cover. Ultimately though, it could do with a rebuild.

When the equine 'mowers' are in action, I put an electric tape fence along the top of the hedge, to ensure the ponies don't think the grass is greener on the other side and hop over. Trouble is the posts and tape highlight the undulations of the hedge and highlight its disrepair. Looks like a dragon's back!

Perhaps if there are any able cornish hedgers out there reading this, they'd get in touch and aid it's recovery.

Whatever the mowing-machine in use, it will require emptying and when the ponies are in the campsite paddock, that means I am to be found with wheelbarrow and bucket on a daily or twice daily ritual, keeping the paddock clean for future campers and their tents.

Other hedgerows on the site are fighting back and the osteospermum I planted in the reservoir garden hedge is mixing with the campions and looking very pretty. There are some pinks in a pot waiting for a home too.

And the honeysuckle is thriving. Unfortunately the weeds in my succulent beds are also thriving and I need to find time to tackle them into submission.

But, there are so many other little chores to do, in time for opening on May 23rd and I am sure campers won't mind if I garden whilst they camp. As ever we are a work in progress and not as well manicured as a purpose built campsite, but we try our best.

April update and easter wishes

The tree fern seems to have survived both the transplant and the winter. New fiddleheads peeped out at the beginning of the month

and with the warm sunshine last week they have unfurled into green feathery fronds for all to see and I have unwrapped the trunk, watered and sprayed and I think it is looking alright.

Have wanted a Phoenix Palm for ages, I love the architecture of the pineapple shaped base of the date palm when they are mature, but cannot afford the well grown ones, which seem to come with a £250+ pricetag. So have been looking out for a reasonable priced small one. Searched high and low last week and finally tracked one down in a favourite local garden centre (should have looked there first really) - Hardy's Exotics http://www.hardyexotics.co.uk - Have repotted for the moment, but left it in a pot, since I am not completely sure where it will "live" and don't want to plant out only to regret its placement.

The funny part of the story is, that, having popped into another larger store with an orange logo this week to pick up some lobelia for tubs and pots, there were millions of date palms for sale in varying sizes!! Never mind, happy to have supported the local business.

The new chickens have started laying prolifically and found some new hidey holes to nest in and managed to lay a golf ball and a plastic boule!

The go-kart has had to be adapted to allow for egg collection and transport back to the cottage, fits perfectly 2 half dozen egg boxes and a couple of goose eggs.

The egg box holder also has a ring attachment for the puppy, so she can trot along behind the cart.

The go-kart is not just a workhorse though, it is also for zooming down the lane, watching out for traffic and ruining the soles of any shoes or boots being warn in order to apply brakes!

The grass has started to grow in the reservoir garden, as have the hydrangeas I have transplanted. Not so the bay branches, which I stuck in to make a hedge, on the off chance they would grow. Dead as the dodo. However, maybe in the winter I will plant some bare root plants. Bay is great for starting campfires, so it would be a preference hedge, rather than beech, despite the fact I love and covet a Devon beech hedge.

Dom isn't the only one having fun though. James has had his slack line out for a trial run, although if you look carefully you can idenify the "washing line" used as a training tool!

Although the sun has been out and I have managed a little gardening at Ash Farm campsite, I have also had to spend quite a lot of time in the cottage garden at home and paint the outside of the cottage whilst the whether held. However, in the reservoir garden the grass has been strimmed and in the campsite paddock the ponies have been let in to graze and mow for me in preparation for opening on May 23rd. 

And today, a gift from heaven on easter sunday, some rain to make all the planting grow. Wonderful. Rain also gives me the excuse to stay in with some chocolate and a couple of movies. Lovely.
Happy Easter all.