The garden at the Old Vicarage, Leigh on Mendip, the flourishing spirit of Asterion & Co.

Led by Jude Rice — who also heads up growing at Bath City Farm — the garden has been restructured around principles of regeneration and abundance:

  • A soil-first, no-chemicals approach

  • Dense planting, polyculture beds, and habitats for wildlife

  • Thriving populations of frogs, toads, pollinators, and natural predators

  • The guiding mantra: bare soil is dead soil

Formal areas — the yard, terraces, rose quadrant, and gravel garden — have been sensitively restored. New additions include:

  • A thriving kitchen garden now in its third summer (designed by Christine Whateley). This provides the ingredients for our sit-down lunches and produce for one of our brilliant collaborators, The Holcombe Inn, a five-star and award-winning restaurant in nearby Holcombe, supplementing their own fine kitchen garden

  • A second-year wildflower meadow filled with yellow rattle

  • Wilding zones and relaxed mowing to enhance biodiversity

  • A perrenial edible garden where we can harvest fruit, seed, root or flower - many plants in the edible and kitchen garden are labelled to aid learning (and can be ordered for delivery)

A wooden potting shed surrounded by a lush garden with colorful flowers and greenery, with large trees in the background.
A variety of vintage gardening tools hanging on a wooden wall, including trowels, scrapers, and hoes with wooden handles.
Close-up of red and brown leaves on a branch with a bright sun in the background against a clear blue sky.