PLANTS IN FLOWER: Snowdrops, Pulmonaria, Hazel catkins, Hellebore niger (Christmas Rose), Viburnum (buds), Pussy Willow, Cyclamen, Dog Violet, Hellebore foetidas.After I bought Green Valley and once the farmhouse itself was habitable, I developed a growing wish to make the adjoining barn into an annex to the main house as it faces due south. It also has a good roof already and strong walls with many windows facing across the valley. When I applied for the planning permission, however, there were three long-eared bats discovered in the attic of the barn which liked to hang out there in the late summer for a few months. This meant that I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get the go ahead for developing the barn as they are a protected species. Eventually, by the end of 2011 I had been given the permission which I required to develop it, but only on the condition that one of the attic spaces was reserved purely for the bats. I was quite happy with this arrangement as after all, they had been living there a lot longer than me.
So over the winter months, the plans for the annex were finalized, having been drawn up by an architect a couple of years earlier and having gone through several different versions of the lay-out in the meantime. I was really excited to be doing such a significant building project which I knew would transform the whole property eventually, as part of the landscaping plans were to continue the south facing terrace all along the front of the farm. The building work itself was set to start in April, but prior to that, there was a lot to think about: not only regarding the internal work, but also the way in which it would influence the garden landscaping. Indeed, I already had lots of verbena seedlings in the greenhouse ready to plant out next spring, as well as some of the taller herbs including bronze fennel, angelica and lovage which I wanted to plant alongside the rhubarb on the south side of the barb. Rather than try to dig up the ancient rhubarb plants, I decided to adapt the bed infront of the door of the barn to a kind of potager/herb garden using all the larger-than-life aromatic specimens.