The woods, fields, hedgerows and verges in the valleys around Dartmoor were alive with wildflowers. Bluebells, Greater Stichwort and Red Campion were everywhere.
 Beautiful, but I particularly enjoyed seeing drifts of Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis). I have noticed them here and there in other parts of the country though never so many. The Cuckoo Flower is aptly named; the plant and the bird both announce the arrival of spring and I heard the call of the cuckoo throughout my five days at Heathercombe. 

 The Agroforestry Research Trust is the creation of Martin Crawford, a man who seems to possess indefatigable energy and ability. A drive through winding Devon lanes took the course to his Littlehempston site covering eleven acres near Totnes.
 His best known site is the two acre forest garden he has developed at Dartington Hall over a period of twenty five years. I wrote an entry about it recently (February 27th.) with examples of some of the general principles of forest gardening and Permaculture's ethos of creating food forests which generate a "permanent agriculture".

 Littlehempston is a somewhat different proposition and work began in 2011. It contains two new forest gardens, various large scale experimental plantings, nurseries and propagation beds and most intriguingly a sub-tropical forest garden greenhouse (as seen at the far end of the photograph above). It's pretty big as greenhouses go- intended to allow trees that grow as tall as six metres. 

  

 "Futuristic" is a word that doesn't seem entirely out of place here. The temperature is maintained by a 'climate battery'. In so far as I understand it the warm moist air of the daytime is circulated through underground pipes by fans warming the soil by conduction and condensating. The cooler air at night is circulated through the pipes which picks up heat stored in the thermal mass of the soil. The temperature is thereby regulated day and night- the re-circulated air has a cooling effect during the daytime preventing overheating of the glasshouse and a warming effect at night.
 I don't have a science background and I must say this is blowing my mind. The technology and research began in America and one of the leading proponents there describes it as "The magic of phase change from liquid to vapor and back again"!
 Electricity is used to power the fans overhead but the amount used is minimal whereas traditional greenhouses use a considerable amount of energy to maintain optimum temperature.

 Martin is clear that the greenhouse is intended for sub-tropical growing as there simply isn't sufficient daylight in the UK that's strong enough for fully tropical plants. I expect he will push the boundaries to see what is possible but as well as being a polymath he is a very practical pragmatist.
 I will have to make this part one of several entries about the Littlehempston visit because there was a good deal more to see. To be continued...

 Just back from five days on Dartmoor. The occasion was the second part of the Forest Gardening course which I began in February (subject of several entries back then). The High Heathercombe Centre overlooks one of the greener farmed valleys looking across to desolate hills beyond. The centre itself is perched by the edge of another stretch of bleak moorland and I took several walks into the solitude...

 The walks from Heathercombe point into the heart of the moor.

 It's fairly easy to get off the beaten track. Nonetheless there are beaten tracks which make rambling rather easier than hiking through the tufts and tussocks which resemble Sherlock's Grimpen Mire in places (though the moor seems pretty dry by Dartmoor standards at the moment).

 The remains of dry stone walls sometimes offer a viable route to follow.

 There was one sight I especially wanted to see. Years ago I saw an aerial photograph of Grimspound- the remains of a Bronze Age settlement surrounded by a circular boundary wall of about 150 metres in diameter. It's clearly marked on the OS map and as I approached the area I spotted it beyond a Tor ahead of me.

 So it was a real bonus to get some walking in but my main purpose for coming to Dartmoor was to continue the course. In particular it included a visit to see ART - the Agroforestry Research Trust - which I will write about in my next entry.   

 I'm heading off again to High Heathercombe on the edge of Dartmoor for part two of the Forest Gardening course (so there won't be any posts till early next week). NB Part one was the subject of several entries late February.
 The trip will include another session with Martin Crawford. Last time we visited his two acre garden at Dartington and he has others in the area which we'll be looking at this time round- including a glasshouse garden which sounds intriguing.

 One of the most important activities on the allotment: pottering around. Very important to potter round a bit then have a nice sit down. Job done.

 I took a walk in Wiltshire on Saturday. I find one of the best ways to deal with living in London is to get out of London regularly. There's a fast train from Paddington which takes only an hour to get to Pewsey in the heart of some very fine countryside. A pleasant stroll to the nearby village of Wilcott leads to the Workway Drove which runs up onto the hills beyond.  

 This range of chalk grassland -dotted with thousands of Cowslips (Primula veris)- offers sweeping views across the Vale of Pewsey to the edge of Salisbury Plain. Two hours out of central London and the only crowds are a few sheep!

 My route was particularly chosen to go via Gopher Wood.

 I came across this wood on a previous ramble. As you get nearer it becomes apparent that the woodland floor is glowing with a shimmering haze of violet-blue.

This is a Bluebell wood. At this time of year our native Hycinthoides non-scripta flowers here in astonishing profusion.

 But there's more. As you walk through the wood from north to south a few Ramsons (Allium ursinum) appear among the Bluebells.

 Then this sea of Bluebells meets a tide of Ramsons (or vice versa if you're coming in the opposite direction).

 To some extent they intermingle but for the most part Bluebells hold one end of the wood and Ramsons the other. H. non-scripta smells sweetly fragrant and A. ursinum is known as Wild Garlic with good reason! Senses working overtime as the song says. 

 I know of various great Bluebell woods and others that are thick with Ramsons but the combination of the two set among rolling chalk hills is quite something.

 White Dead-nettle (Lamium album) is a common wayside weed/wildflower in both town and country. Even so it seems to be especially prolific this year.
 Like other "Dead-nettles" in the Lamium family the leaves resemble Stinging Nettles but do not sting. L. album in particular seems to like growing among them, which is perhaps an evolutionary survival strategy. Lamiums are top bee plants and White Dead-nettle has clam-like flowers which bumblebees shoulder open with great determination.
 A friend of mine who grew up in the Scunthorpe area in the fifties and sixties tells me that children would pluck the flowers and suck them to get a small hit of nectar.