garden & pasture
Gardening at the donkey court! The
donkey court is situated in Flandres, Belgium (see
map)
Our aim is to create a green surrounding which is comforting and good for our
animal companions and which is relaxing for ourselves! We also strive to attract
wildlife to our garden, making the garden a safe haven for birds, reptiles and
other animals
 swallowtail butterfly on cat mint |
 green frogs near the pond |
 privet hawk-moth found in the garden - 12cm |
 bramblings, greenfinches and treesparrows on birdfeeder |
front garden and drive
The front garden was
a mess when the building constructors left: a lot of sand and deep furrows of
all the trucks and cars. On top of that we discovered many bricks while digging
in the front garden (as if we already didn't have enough debris after the renovation
works on the house!).
Gradually, the front garden in shaping up and turns into a colourful delight
in spring and summer.
 June 2005 |
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The front garden is separated from the garden adjacent to the drive by a path leading to the front door (dolomite gravel - all the paths around the house are in this yellowish gravel). Alongside this paths are shrubs of St John's worth (hypericum). In the drive, there's a rowan and walnut tree which are decorated with several birdfeeders in wintertime (see photos of birds on birdfeeders).
 rowan and walnut tree in drive January 2006 |
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 papaver - drive |
garden and pond
We've just recently started with
the laying-out of the garden, so it is still in progress. The garden is bounded
from the street with a hedge compiled of groups of indigenous shrubs (hawthorn,
blackthorn, spindle tree, bird cherry, privet, etc), which we planted in
the winter of 2000-2001. The garden is bounded on the south west side by several
poplars.
Central feature in the garden is our pond, which we have a good view on from
inside the house.
 The hedge with indigenous shrubs (summer 2005), planted at the end of 2000. Compare with this photo, when the hedge was just one year old. |
 The pond in the garden (fall - September 2005) |
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The pond attracts many animals. It
is a delight to see the barn swallows skimming over the water in summer time,
to drink or to catch insects.
In between the garden and the pasture is the chickenrun. It is shielded from
the garden by a chestnut fence. Chestnut fences last a lifetime and need no
resin.
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 Corner in the garden in front of chestnut fence summer 2005 |
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 The water of the pond is cristal clear - summer 2006 |
pasture
The pasture is about 4000 m2. We divided the pasture into two pieces, divided by a hedge, so the animals can easily be switched from one piece to another after some time.
 middle hedge, protected by electric lines |
 willows in the pasture |
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Around the pasture, we're planting
several indigenous shrubs and trees (this labourious work is still in progress).
We also planted several willows on one side. All the trees and shrubs have to
be shielded from the animals, otherwise they would just eat them to pieces.
We put electric nylon lines on three heights alongside the hedge and also around
the willows.
In winter, we spread the wood shavings from the donkey stable in between the
shrubs (to keep weeds to a minimum).
herb garden
Unfortunately, We started with the herb garden in 2008 on the inner court. This is adjacent to the kitchen. The structure of the herb garden is formed by more then 350 box wood plants, to form hegdes.
 poppies on the inner court (June 2006) |
 Structure of the herb garden box wood hedges (summer 2008) . |
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 Seen from the inner court: the kitchen (left), the back of the living room, the veranda (right) |
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