Hello From Orkney.

[Naturenut]

Hi folks. We've finally got ourselves a home of our own and it comes with a very big garden. We love wildlife and most of the 2 1/2 acres will be left to it's own devices as it is quite wild but the garden around the house does need some training. I'll be asking lots of questions for sure and would appreciate your help

[veggiechicken]

Hello Naturenut and welcome! Anyone who chooses to call themselves a Nut is going to fit in well in this Madhouse By the way, this is meant to encourage you to join in, not put you off Look forward to hearing more about your garden.

[bramble]

Hello Naturenut and welcome. I hope you'll have a good summer to get stuck into growing and planting.
Enjoy and feel free to ask any and all questions.

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Naturenut

[Jardiniere]

For years I wanted to live in the Orkneys...instead I moved south. Looking forward to seeing pictures of your garden! Please!

[Newton]

Welcome naturenut........look forward to hearing all about your growing. You could be our most northerly member.....?

[Glutton4...]

Hello, and welcome to the Madhouse!

[KittyColdNose]

Hello Naturenut. I am a newby too and would love to hear how you get on. Orkney is a beautiful place

[Bigmallly]

Welcome to the vine NN.

[Sheneval]

Hi Naturenut - welcome and enjoy

[Naturenut]

Hello From Orkney.

Thanks folks for the warm welcome It's been a bit of a nightmare getting here.....we came up on holiday in 2001 and fell in love with the place. We put our house up for sale in 2008 after many holidays in Orkney proved that we wanted to move up but it took us 4 years to sell the house.
When the house had been on for a year a friend here who knew we wanted to move up offered us a cottage to rent. Three years later our house was sold for £45 less than it went on for and we started looking for a property to buy. Prices had risen here like everywhere else and the only cottages we could afford were in very poor condition.
We found Millfield and even though the roof leaks in many places and there are many many jobs to be done to bring it up to a good condition, we fell in love with the place. Don't know how we'll solve the roof problem as we haven't got the money to have it done for us but we'll just have to manage somehow.
Dave works from home but has to go down to Preston every few weeks to head office for a week at a time but if that means we can live here then so be it. Best thing we've ever done, wonderful place, wonderful people and the views!! Sure the weather isn't great at times like this but we have very little snow and the winter temp isn't as bad as you'd think......it was worse on the Lancsahire coast! Once I get my head around it I'll post an album on here for those who fancy a look. Please bear with me as I'm a novice gardener with poor eyesight
Cheers, Claire.

[bearded bloke]

Hello & welcome

[Peppermint]

Hello and a wave from towards the top end of the mainland

You sound just like us - our roof doesn't leak but the wind blows straight through the old part of the house (or hoose ). We managed to buy ours last year. Lots and lots to do! We have one acre to work with.

Things that we have learnt:

* concrete in the posts for windbreak netting (several of ours have come out this week)
* take no notice when you are told that garlic doesn't grow up here - it does
* the veg gardening night class at the college is great (we learnt a lot there)
* it's worth experimenting as something might turn out to be perfect for up here (the turnips from Real Seeds are so easy to grow)
* take on the garden a bit at a time. If it's overgrown the perennials are a bit a job to get out. We've been marking out a plot at time.

We still can't believe we live here - there are days I drive home from work with a huge grin on my face.

Edit to say: I've just realised - we've been here 19 months!

[Jardiniere]

Peppermint and NatureNut...please can I (we) know what islands you are on? Whoops just noticed that youre on the mainland Peppermint ....silly me.And Nature nut you location is Burray.....what a twit I am.....ignore this post ...ignore this post.....

[Peppermint]

Waving to you Jardiniere from the west side of mainland Orkney (which sounds odd I know, but that's what we refer to biggest island as).

Then there are the North Isles (Westray, Sanday and all the others) and the South Isles (Hoy, Gaemsay and the rest). Naturenut is on a south island - Burray - but that is actually connected to the mainland by a road on the Churchill Barriers. Though, when the weather is rough the barriers are closed because the waves come over the top

Here is a map showing the layout of the islands

http://www.visitorkney.com/images/places/orkney_map.jpg

And a map showing it in relation to the top of Scotland. Just travel to John O'Groats and keep on going

http://www.go-orkney.com/scotmap.jpg