Gardening Adventure – Gardening Beginner!
My beginner’s garden is still very much that. I still don’t seem to know what I am doing but I think it’s coming together. Though I do know that I am not dedicating enough time to it. Still, I spent a sunny day back in April (that seems a loooong time ago) planting up my onion sets and getting some broad bean plug plants in. I think I must have a reputation for ‘playing’ at gardening still, so the onions were leftovers from my mum and grandparents – all 63 of them. My garden is far too small for that – however, I planted them all in anything I could find that would be deep enough! I’ve got Golden Gourmet shallots, Stuttgarter Riesen and a heritage seed from my granddad (all I know is that they are from his personal seed stock, Cornish in origin and taste fantastic!)
Shallots
A week ago this rogue potato plant decided to poke its head above the soil. That just goes to show how badly I turned the soil then.
Rogue spuds
Luckily for me I did a DIY soil test and found that my soil is neither too full of clay nor sand. So I didn’t need to worry about preparing the soil further. I did have the wherewithal to weed and turn my soil a week or so before I planted my onions and broad beans out. I also added a layer of Granddad’s compost (my own compost heap is very much on the to do list!) and some pungent chicken manure! It wasn’t long before the onions started shooting towards the sky! My broad beans are already flowering and the plants smell incredible. I am such a seasonal eater and always get cravings for broad beans in August – this year the plan is to eat some I’ve actually grown myself. Hurrah!
I will eat my own broad beans this year!
The list of jobs I have to do is endless – from mowing the overgrown lawn (or, wildflower meadow as I like to call it) to getting more flowers in the garden to encourage the bees and butterflies. But it’s a start.
Elizabeth is one of the Woolly Gardeners at Woolly Green. She recently moved out of London back to her roots in Devon because she loves sheep and to be nearer her family and friends. She knows she sounds like a Miss World contestant, but she really wants to leave things a bit better than she finds them 🙂