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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 3 Autumn 2020
September, October, November Sadly three months after lockdown easing at the beginning of summer, the infection rates are climbing sharply. It’s hard not to fear the worst, that we are sliding headlong into a second wave. We knew the pandemic was far from over and we’d all resigned ourselves to this happening come the winter, but we certainly didn’t expect it so soon. Luckily the garden is still providing me with a refuge from all the bad news. And after such a fabulous weather year, it just carries on giving. The late flowers of the Heleniums, Asters and Rudbeckias, just to mention a few, are still providing lots of colour.…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 2 Summertime
June, July, August As the calendar clicked over into June, lockdown restrictions eased slightly. People in England were allowed to meet outside, up to a maximum of six. And here in Wales we could meet outside with one other household. This marked the point where you could see your friends and family in person again, as long as you stayed in the garden – which was fine with me! 1st June – Life in the pond So I start the summer period in the same place that I started the spring period, by the pond. This time though watching my newts. I’d been desperate for a wildlife pond for years,…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 1 Spring
March, April, May. As we progressed through March 2020, coronavirus was becoming more and more alarming. When Italy put their country into lockdown, followed by Spain, panic buying ramped up here. As everyone else clambered for toilet rolls, my biggest concern was, have I got enough compost? I knew that as long as I could garden I could cope with anything! On 23rd March 2020, Britain followed others into a nationwide lockdown. Like so many people I found myself stuck at home. I am not a keyworker and I can’t work from home. So there it was, an unspecified period of time off work, with nowhere to go. 24th March…
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The Pizza & Olive Patios
Garden transformation Part 20 – Making a patio There were three seating areas in the garden when we moved here eight years ago. I really approve of lots of different places to sit in your garden, as it gives you a different perspective. It also encourages you to sit and enjoy, which as a gardener is something you sometimes forget to do. First area – The Summer-house The first, was a small area half way down the garden that we are still in the process of turning into a summerhouse. It’s an ideal spot as it gets the sun most of the day, and early evening. Second area – The…
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Making a Mediterranean Bed
Garden transformation Part 19 – Dreaming of an Olive Tree Those of you that have been reading this garden transformation series from the beginning, know by now that the whole garden design started with the raised vegetable beds. Getting food growing was the top priority. I then drew the garden out to scale and set about slotting in all of the other priorities, such as the Greenhouse, Pond and seating areas. Even though the garden is mainly a kitchen garden, flowers are extremely important. Mainly because, flowers bring pollinators. Without these wonderful little insects we would have very little food indeed! Also because I am a self-confessed plantaholic, that struggles…
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Easy, Purple Sprouting Broccoli Soup
If you grow your own purple sprouting broccoli, you’ll know that once it starts producing, it can go a bit mad! With all that super flavoured broccoli you certainly don’t want it going to waste. Why not make a quick batch of soup. The soup only takes forty minutes from begging to end, with a twenty minute sit down in the middle – can’t be bad. Enjoy some for your lunch, then freeze the rest for another day. This recipe is the same as many others, it doesn’t require exact measurements. If you have more broccoli, use another onion. Purple Sprouting Broccoli – Around a dinner plate full when chopped…
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Planting the Magnolia border
Garden transformation Part 18 – View from the Kitchen. The magnolia border is a rectangular border 8ft wide & 11ft long. It is in the corner of the L-shaped patio, and the bed you look out on from the kitchen window. The plan of the garden all started with six raised vegetable beds and everything else grew out from them. As these beds are symmetrical it left two rectangles just off the patio. The one on the left is the quince bed, which is included in the kitchen garden, with artichokes. On the right-hand side is the magnolia bed which is part of the ornamental garden. Looking out from the…
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Let’s get stuck into the garden makeover!
Creating the Pathways
Dreaming of a pond
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Digging up the lawn
Garden transformation Part 17 – What no lawn! Lawn hater? No of course not! I love a beautifully manicured, luscious green lawn as much as anyone, but not enough to want to look after one myself, a lawn through my eyes is another border waiting to happen – more plants to buy. Considering how much I love gardening, I’ve never liked mowing the lawn and that goes for my husband too. At the risk of getting hate mail from all of you lawn lovers, which in Britain let’s face it, is a lot of you! I think a lawn is the highest maintenance area of any garden – that’s if…
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Creating a Woodland border
Garden transformation Part 16 – Colour at last! The woodland border runs down the right-hand side of the garden in front of the holly hedge. It starts by, what is now the bamboo bed and finishes by the large yellow Irish yew tree ‘Taxus baccata Fastigiata Aurea’. It is a partially shaded border. Winter 2013 – Spring 2014 When we moved here there was no border down most of the hedge. At the end nearest to the house there was one very large conifer that started on the patio and spread around the corner. Then two more conifer trees down the length, they had grown over into the hedge and…
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Creating the Pathways
Garden transformation Part 15 – A long walk. We’ve ended up with 237 feet/72.2 metres of pathways, mainly the consequence of having such a long garden! The raised vegetable beds have also contribute though. It’s certainly good for our step count, especially if you keep forgetting your tools! The vegetable beds were the first part of the garden to be designed, there are six of them and we wanted descent pathways around them. The main priority was to make sure we could comfortably wheel the wheelbarrow around. June 2014 As we both hate mowing grass, we had no intentions of keeping any lawn. Each time we took a little more…
