My Garden

At this time of year my garden is in transition from cold, weed infested mounds of earth into rows of tasty, organic vegetables. This year I have added a lean to greenhouse and the radishes and tomatoes are enjoying basking in the sunshine. I have a peach tree and a fig from the excellent Reads nursery (near Loddon) and I am looking forward to eating my home produced fruits. The greenhouse is built against a thick brick wall that is designed to act as a heat store to keep the night frosts at bay – the other side is a lean to shed made from a recycled summer house. I have made a rubble filled trench down the middle of the greenhouse (covered with paving slabs) and will be rigging up some solar powered fans to blow hot air into the trench as a further heat store.

The garden is also in transition from the unproductive area of grass that existed when I bought the house to something that will provide as much of our food as possible. Each year I add some more growing space and there is less grass to cut – but all work and no play would be dull so there is still enough lawn for a game of lawn darts or croquet, though the moles don’t seem to understand the finer points of croquet. The earth looks a funny colour in this pic because I have spread the sawdust from cutting firewood to improve the clay soil.

Last year’s addition was this row of fruit tress that are fan trained along a path in order to fit more into the available space – the spring blossom is also very pretty. There are strawberry plants in the bed below the trees. I get a real pleasure from growing my own food and I also know that it is all organic. Last year I discovered Environ mesh and for the first time did not have to share my carrots with the fly larvae – we are still eating some carrots that we froze in December.

Future plans include replacing some of the leylandi hedge with nut bearing trees and a hibernation mound for my toad friends that spend the summer in the two ponds – and eat the slugs!

So the garden very much reflects my views on Transition – take lots of small steps towards a bigger goal - do the hard work but leave space for some fun.