Building a truffelerie

Holly oak, hazelnut trees and truffle spores.

The left corner of the yard is an unattractive space - dominated by the tank and the shed. Typical of our whole backyard the ground was covered with pine bark.

This unattractive corner was a horrible space to mow particularly in summer when the grass dried off and is the planned area for our future truffelerie.

For preparation some treated pine off cuts that were sitting along the shed were removed. The shed has just a dirt floor and the pine was bridging the gap between the shed wall and the ground. These have now been replaced with bricks.

The white pipe for managing the tank overflow runs along the fence and was never buried. It had become full of water and heavy to manoeuvre. For fear of building a mosquito breeding ground the piping was removed.

There are three existing hazelnuts that have been grown for nuts and as a screen between out house and the neighbours. It is planned that the truffle hazelnuts will continue along the fence in this space.

For truffles the soil in the space needs to be built up and it is planned that the beds will be edged and paved.

A truffle infused hollyoak was grown in a container. Hollyoaks are very slow growing trees. They eventually grow to over 12 metres. It is often said that you can plant a young Quercus ilex tree and you will be old and the tree will be still small.

This tree will be managed in the garden by hedging and growing in a large half barrel. This protects the truffle spore infused roots from contamination by microbes in the roots of other plants.