The Secret Garden is planted with a mix of fruit and flowers. The boundaries are made up of espaliered apple trees, passion flowers, thornless blackberries, willow and roses.
The ‘door arbour’ has grape vines from which hang bunches of sweet black grapes in early autumn.
Hops also twine their way up the edges of the door arbour having escaped from the pergola they were meant to cover until, one day, a fig tree will provide a shady spot to sit.
This year, for the first time since it was planted, the fig tree has produced a bountiful crop of figs.
One of our followers on Instagram suggested make fig jam. Perhaps to sell to Members and friends through the site shop.
How to eat figs
As well as just eating them fresh from the tree, a simple way to enjoy figs is just to cut them into wedges and add to salads. The classic starter is to wrap them in parma ham . They’re are also delicious raw on a cheese board instead of grapes. They can be grilled or roasted which makes them even sweeter. Here are a few ideas ideas for delicious deserts that can be made with figs: