Bell House Gardening : the Edible Garden

To celebrate Edible Britain, this year’s theme for National Gardening Week, Bell House are thinking all things vegetable.  

The winter cabbages and garlic planted in the winter will soon be ready to harvest, the broad beans are flowering ready to produce their pods.  We’ve earthed up the early crop potatoes and have seen our first asparagus tips appear.  Rhubarb was picked and used in Zita’s cookery course on Sunday and the banana plant has emerged from behind its winter fleece.

The lettuces and newly planted herbs are growing away and in the greenhouse, broccoli, coriander and sunflowers will wait until the last frosts are over.  Our volunteers are growing cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, radish, beans, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and chillis on their window sills and these will come into the garden soon to grow on in the beds or spend the summer in the greenhouse.

In the summer we plan to finish our Wednesday morning sessions with lunch from the garden.  We’ll use our produce for cooking courses held at Bell House, and provide the house team and volunteers with fresh herbs and seasonal veg, much like the original Georgian and Victorian gardens, three times the size.

We garden every Saturday and Wednesday from 9.30 to 11.30.  New volunteers are always welcome, from beginners to experienced gardeners and every level in between.  Some of us are there regularly, others come when then can.  Our aim is to be sociable, garden, learn new skills and promote wellbeing, all in our beautiful walled garden.  

Photo credits - Sara Lloyd

Matt repairs the ha-ha

Having repaired the beautiful Georgian wall that divides Bell House from College Road, Matt has returned to work on one of the last surviving ha-has in London. Built in 1767, it was designed to protect the garden from passing livestock (sheep and cattle were driven along College Road to market in London). The name ha-ha is thought to derive from the expression of surprise as people discovered what they thought was uninterrupted grass was actually a hidden wall. Unlike a fence it is invisible from Bell House, leaving views which would have stretched for miles in Georgian times.

Working outside in this hot weather brings its own issues. Matt must ensure that the traditional lime mortar he uses (its flexibility helps protect the brickwork from future damage) does not dry out too quickly. Lime mortar gains its strength, in part, from carbonation: the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Just because a mortar is dry does not mean that it has carbonated and if the pointing dries before enough carbonation has taken place, the mortar will crack and weaken. So Matt has been starting work very early, spraying the brickwork with water to slow down the process, and finishing before the heat of the day affects the mortar. Come past Bell House around 7am and he will already be at work. Luckily because he is a traditional craftsman, working only with his hands, there are no intrusive noises to disturb the neighbours. Once Matt has worked his way along the ha-ha he will work back again, replacing any missing bricks.

The retaining walls of the ha-ha, which stretch towards the road and support the pavement outside Bell House, are buckled and need complete replacement. Together with Nicholas Garner, Matt has devised a structure that will support the load placed on the walls but also be visually sympathetic to the location. A hidden metal and concrete structure will be faced with recycled Georgian bricks.

We hope that our commitment to repairing and maintaining Bell House in this sustainable and traditional manner will help preserve the house for the next 250 years of its history.

The Bell House medlar tree

In the garden at Bell House is a magnificent old medlar tree, lending its shade to the gate leading to the walled garden. It’s certainly an ancient tree and may even have been planted by the Wrights, who built Bell House in 1767. Its gnarled branches extend out from the shelter of the garden wall and the trunk leans precariously, requiring a sturdy pole to prop it up.

By rights our medlar tree should be in the kitchen garden, from where it is planted, as its fruit is edible. Medlars need bletting (maturing and softening) before they can be eaten or cooked but once bletted, it has a flavour that’s been likened to both an apple-pear and a super-charged date and can be eaten raw or preserved. The Elizabethans valued its sweetness as a winter food in the days before the arrival of sugar and medlar jelly was popular with the Victorians and Edwardians as a Christmas conserve.

Put some medlars into an earthenware jar, stand it in a saucepan with boiling water nearly to the top and keep it boiling gently over a slow fire. When the medlars are quite soft, pass them through a fine hair sieve, and weigh the pulp, and for every pound allow one and a half breakfast cups of coarsely crushed loaf sugar and half a teaspoonful of allspice. Put all the ingredients together in the preserving pan and stir them over the fire with a wooden spoon until thickly reduced, skimming occasionally. Turn the cheese into moulds and keep them in a cold place.
When ready to serve, turn the cheeses out of themoulds on to a dish.
(The Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery by Theodore Garrett, 1891).

The Bell House medlar tree is very attractive particularly in winter when its intricate twisting stems are highly distinctive. Simple white flowers and glossy green leaves in spring give way to its unusual fruit in autumn. Medlar trees are self-fertile, so you only need one and it is fairly disease and pest resistant, certainly the Bell House medlar is a healthy specimen despite its age. In the autumn we hope to make medlar jelly from the Bell House tree, we’ll keep you posted.

If you are interested in Bell House's beautiful Georgian garden you might like to join our lovely garden volunteers. Just turn up on Saturday mornings from 9.30-11.30. Novices, experts and all ages welcome, coffee, croissants and friendly co-workers provided.