Cae Non

Oh my goodness. A perfunctory look at this blog shows that I didn’t write any posts at all in 2016. Whoops. So not only is now a good chance to share what is on the horizon at Cae Non in the year ahead, but to recap on what happened in 2016.

2016 was the year that Cae Non matured in a lot of ways… the trees are all well established now and areas of the site are starting to look more like a wood and less like an open field. Though young, many of the alders and birches are now between 12 and 16 feet high, with trunks thicker than my arm.

The Alder and Birch trees that we planted are now forming a young, dense wood…

Unfortunately, in some places the trees are too thick and will need thinning as they grow. In others we planted the trees far enough apart to create a light, open wood that will be lovely to relax or work in.

Most of the trees are planted to create a light, airy woodland – dense enough to kill the grass but open enough to walk through and explore!

The Willow Beds have grown up amazingly – we will soon be ready to harvest our first willow for use in green structures.

In terms of the herb garden, last year didn’t see too many new developments. The raised beds I built and planted a couple of years ago are now mature and giving their gift of medicinal herbs to my dispensary. I didn’t have much free time to build or plant any more raised beds… but I did decide to try something different.

Instead of building raised beds, I made beds out of mulching membrane held in square frame which looks like a raised bed but is held against the ground and is a no-dig system. The three I built last year have done amazingly well so far and I have built another 6 already this year. I have also started vlogging (video blogging) and one of the videos deals with building these beds – so I will share that here in the coming days.

The beds on the right of this picture were build and planted in 2016 – so far they seem to be working really well!

2016 marked the second year I taught my short course ‘a year of herbs’ down at Cae Non. This time with a bigger group and nicer weather than 2015. It is always lovely to share this place and what we do with it and our way of life with others – and such a privilege to be able to inspire others to heal with plants and herbal medicines. The course is running again in 2017 and there are still places – take a look at the prospectus here and facebook event here.

2017 will bring more posts on this blog and video blogs from Cae Non as due to starting my vlog, I will be making regular videos at the Cae Non herb garden. The priority at this time of year is to get as much planting area as possible to accept the plants that are already sprouting in our windowsills. This means that there will be more beds full of medicinal herbs at Cae Non and Cae Non will contribute even more to my dispensary than before.

In addition to the smaller herbaceous plants, there are many medicinal trees, and my attention is starting to turn towardsplanting a medicinal arboretum. This will be a large grove of medicinal trees, planted in three dimensions, a bit like a permaculture food forest but medicinal in nature. I have a shortlist of at least 10 trees to go into this new grove and will be posting about it shortlist. Well, that’s about all from this post – keep your eyes peeled a I Will post more soon!

In the mean time, have a flick through this wee gallery:

2016 into 2017

The Willow Beds have grown up amazingly - we will soon be ready to harvest our first willow for use in green structures.

Most of the trees are planted to create a light, airy woodland - dense enough to kill the grass but open enough to walk through and explore!

The Alder and Birch trees that we planted are now forming a young, dense wood...

Some of the new mulch-sheet beds for growing herbs - to be planted spring/summer 2017

The beds on the right of this picture were build and planted in 2016 - so far they seem to be working really well!

Unfortunately, we haven’t made as many posts to this blog for a while – mainly due to me being tied up with university commitments. But Spring has well and truly sprung here in North Wales, and this makes a great time to write about our successes from work over the winter, what we are doing now in the busiest season of the year, and my plans for the summer ahead.

Stone Pathway

Spending a penny without getting your feet muddy!

Over the winter during the dead time of year, Holger invested a large effort in getting some of our most used paths up to snuff: He has been spreading hardcore on the muddiest paths and topping it off with quarry stone from our local quarry. This makes a really big difference to the path from the gate to the Hafod, and from the Hafod to the loo cubicle. Even at the wettest times it means dry feet at the end of your walk. They really do look lovely, and much more clearly defined as ‘paths’ than the muddy stretches of ground we had before! I didn’t have much time to spare, given that I was only in the area for two weeks over Christmas, given the poor weather at the time, and limited slots of time during the days of a family holiday, I put my (somewhat basic) knowledge of woodworking into practice: I made a new beehive. This is different than my existing hive – it isn’t a National beehive, it is a long-hive of the top-bar design, and is supposed to be healthier for the bees and easier to manage for the bee keeper. Whether this proves to be the case or not, we’ll see. It certainly looks lovely, and I will post more about it in time. Speaking of the bees, they came through the winter very well: they were still out and about foraging up until November, and were pretty much dormant until March. I had worried that they would run very short of stores of food, given that they swarmed so late last year: Not to worry; they were absolutely fine. I did supplement them with two pound boxes of Fondant, which they slowly ate, but on the first inspection of the year in March, they still had two brood frames of honey stores. I added another brood box to the hive, and the colony should keep on growing. I may very possibly split the colony later in the summer (either into my second National, or into the long hive). The herb garden is just starting to grow for the new season: It is looking a little grey, but healthy. Some of the larger perennials didn’t actually die down this winter because the weather was so mild: this has also given them a head start. The biggest concern for the present time is to build more raised beds; expect an update on this very soon!

Alder Catkins

And the trees are coming into leaf… The Alder trees have catkins on them, which is precocious as they were only planted 3 years ago. The Willow beds are romping away, and even the Oak trees are coming into leaf. It’s heartening to see that individual trees are noticeable above the sea of grass as they are growing larger. Another step in the birth of a woodland. We hadn’t planned on ordering or planting any trees, but ended up planting almost 100 trees that we had waiting in pots from various sources. Cae Non is really starting to feel like a working project now, rather than just the birth of an idea. Gillian has been running her Earthwalking course at Cae Non over the winter, and it is heartening to see the place used for learning and spiritual succour. I am looking to run some day-courses on medicinal plants and growing herbs over the summer, and using herbs at home during the autumn. All in all, it feels like things are in a much better state now than they were last spring!

All set to celebrate the midsummer, only the weather was proving a bit fickle and moody so to be on the safe side, we erected our teepee tent and prepared to celebrate under-cover if necessary. Here everything is set for the festivities to begin. It is good to know that in summer we can also use a similar arrangement to shelter us from rain, wind or sun if we wish to hold some of the workshops and discussions outside when the weather is a bit too potent for our vulnerable human condition. As it turned out, we never went inside the tent; chilly and a bit wind-blown we gathered in the grove of baby oak saplings where we also later lit a blazing bonfire around which we sat, sucking on delicious lollypops purchased from the old fashioned sweet shop in Harlech.

How can one man on his own carry/move an exceptionally heavy picnic table with built in benches half way up a field? No, it isn’t by levitation, although we had considered just about everything else! Holger managed to balance it on our little two-wheeled trolley which we normally use for transporting sacks of coal and logs, cylinders of gas and that sort of thing at home. With some judicious balancing and the use of a couple of pieces of string, he succeeded in pulling it all the way from behind the hard standing (where it had languished since January) to its new position outside the Hafod. Now we have somewhere permenant and stable out of doors to prepare food, eat meals, wash up, or simply sit in the sunshine!

Here the table is already in use – preparing for a barbecue; note the Bratwurst brought by Holger’s relatives from Germany and infinitely superior to anything you can buy here.