A sweet shop! That’s how I’d describe most of my garden right now, it truly feels like the window of a sweet shop (if you ignore all the cat poo and messy bits!). The daffodils, honestly, are past their best, and they’ve either been deadheaded already, or I need to deadhead them, and the tulips? Well, they are just stunning! That effort in autumn always repays us in spring, and it’s well worth every second on bended knee, with the rain pouring on my back as I plant every last one of them. Every year I say I’ll do less and what do I do? Plant more! Will I ever learn?!
Further down the garlic and the garlic is doing well in the mini wooden raised bed I made a few years ago, which has become the home of all of our garlic growing endeavours. It’s a good time to give ours a feed, so I’ve added some fertiliser from The Garlic Farm (not an advert, I paid for this!) around the plants and have watered it in accordingly. Along with tomatoes, home-grown garlic is one of those real simple pleasures and the taste is like nothing else. Last year we crushed loads, combined with butter and some parsley from the garden and made the most incredible garlic bread…can’t wait for more!
Also, this week, I’ve been scrolling back through old photos and came across this one from during the time that we were redoing the end of the garden, and it made me really reminisce about how much has changed! This was during / just after lockdown, and we sat here every single day during the rest of that hot spring and summer, and it’s really the best thing we ever did with the garden. We paid for this with time rather than paying someone to do it – we did it ourselves and the pride of then sitting down and enjoying that space as a family is something I’ll always remember!
We’re into week 7 of the new season of the podcast and this week we’re talking veg! Lucy Hutchings, otherwise known on social media as @SheGrowsVeg, built a wildly successful Instagram page and now has turned that into an heirloom seed company, with the most amazing range available. In this episode we of course talk about veg, but we also delve into Lucy’s past and why her and Monty aren’t all that dissimilar… You can listen to Nicola and all past guests, here now!
And on the blog this week….is Nat, known on Instagram as @home_at_springcottage! Much like my guest blogger last week, Nat also loves a tree! Along with her own beautiful garden, Nat is also a horticulturalist based in the National Forest (hit her up if you’re in her neck of the woods! Without further ado, over to Nat..
“I wasn’t sure what to write about for the blog, my gardening life is diverse to say the least, but what I’d love to share most with you is my passion for sustainable gardening, and I know it’s something Adam is keen on too! I’ve been gardening for most of my life, creating my own gardens for 20 years, and then professionally for 18 months. One thing I’ve always strived to do is to create beautiful spaces using natural or reused materials. Gardeners have often had a bad rep in the past for not being very environmentally friendly, but I am proof that you can have beautiful spaces that work well for humans as well as wildlife.
I use lots of natural materials in the garden, hazel is great for bean poles and fencing, willow is top of my list for obelisks, squirrel protection and fancy little pot friends (the snails are my favourite). Things like nettles, and bramble are often overlooked but can be used to make cordage to tie up your plants. Over the years I have sourced materials from various places, Facebook marketplace is a great way to get a bargain. The tiles in the yard came from a neighbour, the bricks that edge our borders came from a friend, and a lot of the pots I inherited from my uncle.
I try to implement lots of these practices into my clients’ gardens too, having recently created a pond using an old galvanised steel bath, and log piles for habitats from a tree that needed a heavy prune. I love sharing my passion for gardening with others and hope I can inspire people to think outside the box, use what you have, and be gentle with your little patch of earth. “
Hope you all have a great week ahead, and I’ll see you again,
same time next week…
View From The Potting Bench 