Got a couple of cattle grids you don’t want (In the UK!)? The HoBB Gardens will gladly re-cycle them; contact us!

If you pop and visit HoBB Real you’ll find out why. You will experience a tight bend at the top gate then a slope. These two ‘features’ stop delivery vehicles driving down so they unload at the top whilst blocking the lane to traffic.

The horse and cart ruled when the Farmhouse and neighbouring Vineyard were originally constructed as so few courier companies use them now, some changes need to be made. Thankfully we have the space to built up the land at the top, to the same level as the lane, and provide a pull-in and construct a cattle grid. Have you ever constructed a cattle grid? Fancy constructing another? Let us know.

When the cattle grids are found/ acquired or otherwise ‘obtained’ there will be a lot of work involved putting them in so we’ll need a fair few helpers. At the moment, the site for one of the grids is hosting a Reed Mace bed – very grand plants that are great for flower arrangements and their fluffy seeds can be used to insulate or provide a soft pillow filling for a camper’s night. They sometimes make an appearance on the HoBB dining table for a tasty change to regular vegetables and it is fun to put their pollen into pancakes and omelettes.

All volunteering follows the example so wonderfully set by www.wwoof.org

Waves from the green hills and valleys ~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant

Have you got any interesting, hard, large seed pods in your garden? This rather complicated door design for the HoBB needs seeds from around the World to make it happen.

As a features artist, I have designed many doors and gates but this one is special and it is for the HoBB.

We are collecting the largest of dried seed pods from friends around the world to produce this artistic door and donations [of unusual seed pods] are very welcome. As we are in the UK, we have already got things like chestnuts and small fir cones so we are looking for sub-tropical and tropical seeds that will be new to us. They may seem regular and common to you but in the UK they will be strange and wonderful.

The door is one of our ‘team artworks’. Many artists visit the HoBB to produce artworks that need a group to create. This door just needs the right shapes to represent the “Harvest of Nature” and to show how different it all is. I can see the door going on tour eventually, when it’s not swinging at the HoBB!

~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant