NICK ALBERT

Year one at Glenmadrie. This was our first vegetable plot. Soon we would expand the planting area to the right, adding a 50' polytunnel. The wall on the left will become part of our greenhouse.

One of the vegetable plots alongside the polytunnel.

With the cool climate in Ireland, polytunnels and greenhouses are a real asset if you want to grow fruit and vegetables in quantity.

The small fruit orchard we planted on the hottest day of the year.

It seems we're heading towards another excellent harvest.

Fruit bushes line the side of the polytunnel and help to protect this vegetable patch from the wind.

Lesley and Honey hard at work.

Year one. Our front lawn destroyed by heavy machinery. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs...

Many years on and our front lawn is almost unrecognisable from the time when it was torn up by diggers and well-drilling lorries.

Our Laburnum put on an excellent show each spring, complimenting the colourful flower beds.

We leave about 25% of our land uncut to encourage the wild flowers to grow.

Amber inspecting part of our driveway.

On the west meadow we have planted Ash, Alder, Oak, Cedar, Horse Chestnut, Lime, Holly and Conifers.

These second-hand doors and some leftover wood became a practical and attractive entrance to our greenhouse.

Our greenhouse.

A wall of roses on the outside of our greenhouse.

Home grown tomatoes and cucumber. Delicious!

Harvest time. The apple gives some scale to the huge cabbage and cauliflower.

Although potato blight can still be a problem in Ireland, most years we get a bumper crop.

Harvest time.

Succulent cabbages.

A magnificent crop of delicious curly kale.

Every year Lesley makes jams, marmalade, grape jelly and chutney from our autumn harvest.

Even when we're up in the clouds, Glenmadrie can seem heavenly.

Broom, beautiful contrasting colours.

One of the many hundred sweet smelling roses we have at Glenmadrie.

Everlasting Cornflowers.

This Rhododendron flower is as big as a soccer ball.

A colourful bed of Dahlias, attractive to those important pollinators.

The simple beauty of an Arum Lily.

A pretty Aquilegia.

These Spindle flowers are good for attracting bees. In autumn birds will enjoy the fruit.

This Magnolia Grandiflora lives happily in our greenhouse.

Clematis is another flower popular with the bees.

Allium, part of the onion family - smells like it too.

The humble dandilion grows easily on the uncut areas of our meadows.

Pieris - flame of the forest.

The seeds from this sunflower are a special treat for our chickens.

A magnificent Dahlia.

Himalayan Balsam is popular with bees - too popular. They won't pollinate any other plant while this is in flower. That's why this invasive plant has to be reported and destroyed whenever it is spotted in Ireland.

One of our tallest pine trees catching some early morning sunshine.

We have dozens of White Hawthorns around our land. The early spring blooms attract the bees.

During the harsh winter we keep the wild birds well-fed. In return they keep the midges and mosquitoes under control for the rest of the year.