The vegetable garden is a little way down the hill from the house and barns. There is an excellent reason for this.

The vegetables are irrigated by a spring fed pond that's on a level with and at the end of the barns.  I know you are wondering about that pillar sticking out of the pond. Well it has a pipe in the end, such is the force of the water bubbling up from that spring it is actually spraying out from the top of that pipe. Of course because the water is held in the pond, which is teeming with goldfish, it is not mountain spring cold when it reaches the plants.

We can only envy her when we are hauling water up from our 10m deep well for the cunning thing is that she merely lifts a sluice on the pond and that water goes flowing down irrigation channels to the vegetable garden.

The private water supply is also invaluable when it comes to keeping stock. At the moment Miranda's horses, in the past a herd of Limousin cattle and about a hundred years ago the fish farm belonging to the monastery that gave the property it's name.

The open aspect of the garden also means that whereas currently our plants are suffering from the humidity as it's either raining or hot and sunny a dozen times each day, her plants are well ventilated so she has no sign of the dreaded blight on her potatoes.

To get an early start to the growing season and combat weeds Miranda plants through black plastic. This suppresses weeds and warms up the soil. Just look how disgustingly healthy her courgettes are.

In fact everything looks quite lush and healthy.

Of course there is the horse contribution to take into account as well.

This equestrian property is currently for sale