About me... Ian Burrow
My name is Ian Burrow, I trade as and for the larger part I am Crosby Holme Grown, although at certain times you may also catch sight of other family members. Why do I garden & grow plants?
(L to R) My grandad in the greenhouse on a large estate in Tynedale where he worked for a while in the 1930’s , my dad and then me in the same greenhouse on an open garden day in 2009.
Born and brought up in rural Tynedale I’ve had a fascination for the natural world and its interactions as far back as I remember. Being taken for walks, learning the names of the plants and animals, and helping in the family veg-plot are fond and formative memories.
Most, but not all my horticultural and natural history knowledge has been gained informally through observation, self-study, and voluntary work over decades. Figuring largely in this have been allotments and walking the countryside through the seasons. I have also eaten a lot of reference books and developed a love for the folk law associated with plants and wildlife.
In a small ex-pit village almost on the border of three counties and next to a large wood known for its ‘Christmas’ trees we had a total of three allotments, all were run organically.
Allotment 1 was shared with friends and was, as tradition dictates, an almost unbroken sward of Couch grass and Horse tail. Bringing to bear what I had learned from my dad, and that he had learned from his, we embarked on a learning curve like a ski jump. Over several years, we claimed productive veg beds from the weeds, and honed our composting technique. I continued to walk and study the weeds we were removing learning how members of the same family often share identifying features and habitat needs. Our small north-facing backyard just about succeeded in growing a few culinary and medical herbs in pots.
Allotment 2 was a bit of a gift horse, it came with a small greenhouse, a derelict chicken run, and as long as we kept it in under control the gadgie with the pigeons covered the rent. The gadgie’s dad reckoned he had pulled out all the horsetail from underneath when he worked down the pit! This plot was (apart from the old hen run) weed free, but it turned out the gadgies where both dab hands with a spray bottle, so it was also free from soil fauna and beneficial insects. The 3 x 3m pocket garden at the house had had similar treatment and was featureless gravel.
We resurrected the hen run, and after many failed attempts at hen herding learnt they put themselves to bed! The veg rotation took a year to bed in, this time we made much more use of cover crops and green mulches to boost the soil health. With an expanding family we also taught ourselves to grow, prune and train the usual selection of allotment fruit. As we took on designing the pocket garden to give interest all year around and created flowering borders around the veg to pull in the pollinators and predatory insects this is where my real fascination with cultivated perennials took off.
My day job was a bit of a grind at that time, and with an eye on a possible future change of direction I set about a RHS dip2 course by distance learning.
I then got overtaken by a whole load of concurrent events and succumbed to depression. Studying became impossible for a good while, trying to un-cabbage my head was the priority. I did eventually get through the course but never took the exam. Life sometimes throws many of us these curve balls, but it also brings opportunities. The physical activity of the allotment helped, I learnt Mindfulness, observation is a key skill for gardeners and amateur naturalists. The more I watched the more I saw, and I got involved with what is now known as Citizen Science and recorded my observations. I became a beekeeper. I began a photo blog to reinforce my positive progress. Bees will happily give you a sharp reminder if you fail to keep calm and focussed while you work with them. Allotment 3 was a private plot given over to us by a close friend. It sloped in more axis that you thought existed, had outcrops of bedrock and in short was an utter wilderness. But it was beautiful for it, and we never really attempted to tame it, we just cleared some small spaces to allow for the bees and for sitting and be-ing. Gardening and spending time within ‘Nature’ has saved my soul more than once.
As I regained my health, I accessed a Level 1 NPTC course in Practical Horticulture and though I already had many of the basic skills I also gained a bunch of practical machinery and theory ‘tickets’ as well as being part of an award-winning show garden team at Gateshead and Harrogate.
When the opportunity came to move to Cumbria and to a home with enough garden to go for it came, I was ready, and Crosby Holme Grown was born.
My old allotment blog is still available at http://17ganninon19.blogspot.com
