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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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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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Building the raised vegetable beds
Garden transformation Part 3 – 2013-2014 In September 2013 a month after moving in, I started my garden plan. We’d already decided to build a 160ft long south facing wall (the Great Wall), which was going to set the tone for a walled kitchen garden. The centre piece was to be six brick built raised vegetable beds. I’ve never really understood why people put their veg patch as far away from the house as possible. I suppose the idea goes back to the days when you had staff to grow your vegetables and retrieve them for you. But back here in the 21st century! When you get home at night,…








