This beautiful water colour of Cistus Cottage was a gift from one of our very talented guests.

The original can now bee seen in Cistus Cottage.

Thank you Val, you are very kind!

The shared front garden of Rock and Cistus Cottage has  always proved to be a challenge. Delabole is 723 feet above sea level and this together with the high winds of winter have provided tricky gardening conditions.  We hoped to create a usable space that our guests could enjoy, while keeping the on-going maintenance to a minimum. Being keen gardeners and drawing on inspiration from some of our favourite Cornish gardens, like Trelissick, Trebah and Trewithen, we set about planning the new garden.  The area is enclosed by a solid slate wall, which provides a degree of seclusion and we wanted a place to sit where you would be able to watch the world go by. To create this we decided to increase the patio area, making a more versatile space, construct a new central feature bed, with a long sweeping border following the curve of the wall. The patio was extended using completely recycled Delabole Slate.

The project took about six weeks, split across three lots of two weeks. We started in early January 2013, the weather was foggy and wet. This time was spent stripping out the existing plants and removing the unwanted beds. Tons of soil were removed by hand. Using wheelbarrows the soil was removed, wheeled round the side of the cottages, up the road, into the back garden. It was then hoisted, barrow by barrow, up a 4ft bank into the back garden, a truly exhausting task. The soil was  then recycled and used to even out the lawn in the back garden of Cistus, where there was a distinct trench left from an old path that had once been there.

The April visit, saw bitterly cold temperatures and howling gales, but work continued, using the wall to shelter from the elements. July in contrast brought some fantastic weather and the project was completed in glorious sunshine. Wooden garden seats were positioned to get the best of the sun and the beds were planted up.

The plant selection consisted of foxgloves, hardy fucshias, Crinums, Festuca glauca, hollyhocks and flag Iris. Cornish palms and an Olive tree were also added to give structure to the beds. The garden will now grow and mature, providing changing interest through the seasons. The new design has given the illusion that the garden has doubled in size and is truly a garden to enjoy, we hope our guests will too.

Please play the slide show below to watch the garden take shape.

This made me laugh! I feel that some Cornish Folk are a little tired of the tourists letting it "all hang out"!

Enjoy that relaxing Cornish air, but make sure you are dressed appropriately!

ha ha.....
BTW please feel free to send us any more funny Cornish signs you may find on your travels.

Here's another one.....I love t! Why can't all local councils have a sense of humour!

One of the projects for 2013 was one that we hadn't really planned for. At the bottom of the adjoining gardens, at Rock and Cistus holiday cottages, there is a slate built out-house. And yes you guessed it........these were the original conveniences for the cottages.

The bad storms of 2012 had taken their toll on the buildings, causing the slate roof to collapse. Not too much of a problem considering the holiday cottages do now have modern in-door conveniences, but a nuisance none the less, as they had served as useful storage sheds for a number of years.  

The first step was to 'make safe' the remaining structure. Which really didn't leave much secure storage!

After trying the out-houses for comfort, it was decided that probably the best use of the buildings was to keep them as garden sheds, rather than restoring them to their original use!

The original seat (now complete with woodworm) would have originally had a bucket strategically placed beneath it!

The buildings were rebuilt slate by slate using traditional building techniques to restore the sheds to secure working storage areas. We now use them to house all the essential beach holiday equipment, buckets and spades, surfboards and windbreaks. It is also useful for keeping logs for the wood-burning stoves dry for the Winter and if we ever have one...... the new BBQs to use in the Summer!