Stage 1 – Plants Moved to Distington
This is a brief summary of progress with the New Nursery. The site in Norfolk was up for sale and we needed to move our plants north 300 miles. This happened during the first half of August 2024. First, we had to find a specialist haulier who deliver plants to nurseries across the country using a very large articulated lorry. Then, find a way to get the plants from the Norfolk site to the haulier’s lorry which was too large for the local roads. Andrea and Daniel who help me in Norfolk were brilliant with packing things up, loading the danish trolleys and transporting the irises to the haulier two miles away.
We were very fortunate to find a good friend near Workington who grows bedding plants and had spare space in his nursery at this time of the year.
New Temporary Home
Stage 2 – New Nursery Site
This is what we found on the edge of Cockermouth.
It is called St Helen’s Walled garden and is part of the local estate and was used as a Kitchen Garden until fifteen or twenty years ago before being let to a Community Trust who did little with the site over the last ten years. The site slopes steeply (the picture does not show this adequately) and this required some levelling. To our enormous relief we were hugely fortunate to find an excellent local groundworks contractor Mark Bell.
Levelling
The weather in Cumbria is always challenging and tackling the groundworks over the winter was the only option. We had to use Terram to cover the the ground after levelling down to a clay base. We then used sixty tons of road planings on top to stabilise the site (below).
A Level Site
The site has now been marked out ready to take the two reclaimed Polytunnels and work to erect the larger tunnel began two weeks ago and should be complete next wee. First task digging holes to take the hoops, then erecting the structure, getting the levels right and finally backfilling with concrete. Then, it’s fitting the door posts at either end, applying the bracing to the structure to give it added rigidity…..and finally fixing the polythene! We need a team to put it on, and critically, a warm day to do it. Never taken for granted in Cumbria! You can see how far we have got.
Getting There
Next Stages
Immediate priorities – Once the first tunnel is erected, we need to move the plants from Distington before the space is required for the new crop of bedding plants. Then, concentrate on erecting the second tunnel and clear the rest of the plants from the Nursery.
Ongoing challenges – We do not have a dependable water supply as yet and are investigating alternatives, including rainwater capture and the possibility of opening up an old well. Failing this, we will have to connect to a new water supply, but this is extremely costly at a time when we are still incurring costs of getting the tunnels up and running. Rather a balancing act!
What happens next – The final stage of the project is to create a series of raised beds to grow irises outside against long south-facing wall. I am really keen to do this and demonstrate that our irises will grow in the north. First, we need to complete a retaining block wall, backfill with surplus subsoil from levelling the site, and then start to create the raised beds using the retained top-soil. Here, the real challenge is to get the drainage right. This will take another year to complete, but hope to make a start over the Summer. These are exciting times for our New Nursery.
I will continue to keep you posted in future issues as there project develops. I will also provide more details about the Iris Collection in Lincolnshire.
