Visit Bridgenorth Harry and Jess 2025

Northern gardeners visited Harry and Jess's property in Bridgenorth recently which provided an interesting insight into the challenges of establishing a food garden in a rural setting whilst building a house and living off site.

Harry purchased the 10 acre property 3 or 4 years ago, and has developed 2 acres into productive gardens, building bed by bed. He likes to source seeds from a local supplier only a few kilometres down the road as they are well acclimatised to the local growing conditions.

Crops growing included celery, broad beans, pak choy, potatoes (Dutch Cream), carrots, corn, snake beans (Red Dragon), cucumbers (Mid East Peace), black parsnips, lettuce and artichokes. Several varieties of tomatoes (including Dances with Smurfs and Beauty King) and purple garlic were grown mostly from his own seeds.

Salsify

The orchard area is well established with cherries, apples, hazelnuts, hops and pinot grapes. Native trees have been planted back from the garden to provide shelter from the winds for the fruit trees.

Hops

The young apple trees proved to be popular with the local possums and they were not deterred by 3 lines of electric fence.  Harry has now improved the security by adding a floppy top fence around the border of the whole garden and it is proving to be a success. Other challenges include cabbage moths, harlequin beetles, pear and cherry slug and the occasional summer frost!

Floppy top fencing with native trees planted for wind proofing the garden in the background

The berry patch contains raspberries, blueberries, currant bushes and boysenberries.  Whilst not thriving as hoped, Harry explained that he his content with producing enough for personal consumption at this stage.

The young berry patch

Harry's aim is for  a no dig, no spray organic garden. Weeds are successfully managed by covering large plots with black plastic. Composting and green manure crops assist with soil conditioning.

Green manure crop ready for slashing

Harry has a dam on the property which usually dries out in summer and he has installed a solar powered bore for a reliable water supply.  The bore water feeds into a large tank and from there a pump delivers water through a drip system as well as some overhead watering.

This garden is in the early stages of development and Harry has established a veggie box customer base as well as supplying to local restaurants and organic grocers..  The aim is for the market garden to be his full time job once his house is finished.

Thank you Harry and Jess for this very informative visit and for sharing your journey so far.