I have grand goals of having a lush, fabulous garden that blooms with colour through every season, with expanses of lawn framed by banks of flowers of different shapes and sizes, all perfectly colour coded, but not too perfectly trimmed - I'm not a fan of topiaries. At all. I also dream of an abundant vegetable garden that will keep us feed without supplementing from the shops - all organically grown and flavoursome, of course.
Reality check: the soil on our property is not that fertile, and the garden is very shady - there are only a few spots that get full sun. But I've spent a lot of time and effort late last summer, and in the last few weeks, watering, composting, putting down manure etc, and I think things are starting to pay off.
And in the vein of gratitude that I started in my last post (and didn't continue very well with), I'd like to post that I'm grateful for my garden, for the sanctuary that it gives, the beauty that it promises, and the nutrition that it has the potential to offer us. I had the most fantastic crop of tomatoes the whole summer about four years ago, and I hope to beat that this year. To show you why I'm grateful, I thought I'd list some of the things I have in my vegetable garden...
Spinach ( lots of, and I have so many seedlings I don't where I'm going to put them all...)
Butter lettuce
Red lettuce
Iceberg lettuce
Parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme (really!)
Mint and spearmint
Pepperdews
Echinacea (pretty flowers, have no idea what to do with them.)
Elderflower tree (that I thought was going to be a bush. It's the fastest-growing thing in my garden)
Lavendar (French and Margaret Roberts. I never thought I'd be the one to make lavendar cupcakes)
Marjoram
Basil
Basil Mint
Pineapple Sage
Oreganum
Rocket
Celery
Artichoke plant
Asparagus plants
Lemon tree
Lime tree
Tomatoes - cherry and two kinds of normal
Texas sage
Carrots (tiny seedlings)
Fennel. (Beautiful plants, have no idea what to do with them)
Beetroom (tiny seedlings)
Baby marrows and custard squashes (seedlings to be planted out in the next week or two)
Chives
Shallots (only two - I bought them to see what would happen, will hopefully collect their seeds for more)
Spring onions
Peas
Broad/fava beans
See? I have so much to be grateful for. Now, much as I totally adore my new job at Tribeca PR, I would love more time to nurture them all, and to make fabulous food with them! ;-)
*No, no pic of my garden now - the images in this post are things I have grown in my garden in years gone by. I'm writing this in bed at 21h36 on a Sunday. Even though the moon is full, there aren't going to be any pictures... :-)
** Did you know that strawberries only bear fruit for one or two years? That's why you've got to let the runners take, to make new plants to bear fruit...
2 comments:
Wow, I'd love to grow spinach in my garden.
@Jess Spinach is the easiest thing ever to grow! You can buy the seeds at most supermarkets, and then just plant them, water them and watch them grow! When the leaves are big enough, pick them off the plant, rather than pulling the whole plant out - that way it will last the whole season. Same principle applies to lettuce - don't pick the whole lettuce, just keep on pulling the outer leaves.
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