No Dig Gardening, books and Winter Colour

The light at this time of year is really beautiful, the colours have a real vibrancy.

As well as the autumnal colours and foliage, I'm cheered to see a few flowers adding their brightness too.

With the days shortening and nights getting longer I've been catching up on some reading and finally got myself a copy of Charles Dowding's 'Organic Gardening: The Natural No Dig Way'.

I highly recommend it - I haven't quite finished it yet, but I love the idea of leaving the soil structure as intact as possible and minimizing disturbance.

I had already come across the idea of 'no dig' gardening in permaculture literature and I'm enjoying looking into it further and using it, hopefully exclusively, on my plot.

I already learnt this year how silly it is to weed and leave bare soil (and what a waste of resources / nutrients that can be) as nature is very quick to recover it. From now on I'm a complete mulch convert.

I tend to grow my plants in modules anyway and that suits a mulch system, as the plants have germinated and strengthened before being transplanted through the mulch.

I love what Charles says about how healthy plants generally suffer less from pests and diseases.

I also love his ideas for successional sowing - similar to Joy Larkcom - she has great ideas for creative vegetable gardening too.

There are a few things in Charle's book that I've had different experiences with e.g. rocket - luckily nobody told me not to sow it until after midsummer, so last year I had a great crop all summer - with no problems from flea beetle. Maybe the leaves did bolt slightly early - the the flowers are so pretty that I don't mind much.

Another great book that I got to read recently was Masanobu Fukuoka's 'The One-Straw Revolution' which looks at one mans journey of discovering natural farming techniques in Japan. It has a great feel to it - feels very wholesome to me.

So, thats my inspiration sorted for a while. Now all I need is my garden. It is challenging being over two hours away from 'my' garden, although I am lucky to have my aunts garden here, which is very natural and lush, and a few pots of things to keep my green fingers happy.

I must admit to getting itchy fingers and also longing to have my garden properly up and running. I want to see the seasons go by on my own plot, watching the successions of planting and harvests etc Patience must be a virtue I'm still cultivating!

Anyway, there is distraction here, for example a few experimental winter salads in pots in my aunts barn. They won't feed an army, but I like to see things grow .. and to see how much they WILL grow over winter.

Here are some late sown lettuces (sown end Sept / early Oct) which are coming along just fine.

My calendula was still blooming earlier this week (although now sulking after a couple of nights of hard frost).

I love these violas, which have self seeded in cracks at the edge of the bed near the front door.

Surprisingly, the tall shrubby Escallonia is still happily flowering away and has been for months now.

Of course, there are still a few roses too. They don't have much scent when picked, but when I dry the petals on the radiator the room is filled with a delicious lingering scent.

My aunt's ornamental pyracantha also gives great colour this time of year.

I love how it has crept over the wall, so we can see it from the house now.

The girls are doing fine also - and add bucket loads to winter cheer.

Here's Benny, patrolling the drive.

Here Anna and Esmie are having a great time rummaging through the leaves and undergrowth.

Here they are again, setting off from the doorstep out into a hard frosty morning.

Wonder if the frost will turn to snow soon?

It's trying to snow as I type.

Until next time ...

My kind of gardening

Well, I've planned my vegetable beds, started off my broad beans and onion seeds. What now?

The site is still closed for the moment, so, I fall to dreaming about the garden and gardening.

The beauty of nature is a constant inspiration to me - from cloud patterns in the sky, to the feel of a breeze or the unfurling of a flower - I find it truly magical. The blending of individual plants to create a garden is true alchemy in my mind. I must admit that nature creates the finest gardens of all, but, isn't imitation the finest form of flattery?

..............................................

I've always been a fan of the cottage garden, not too formal and brimming with a colourful mix of flowering plants and vegetables. I love a garden that can be productive and beautiful all at once. I find myself increasingly interested in the productivity of my own garden, especially since starting to grow my own food and herbs. These days I like everything to earn its keep! Does it taste good, look good, attract beneficial insects?

(A good book for mixing vegetables and flowers in a potager style is Joy Larkcom's 'Creative Vegetable Gardening')

I've always practiced organic gardening, as I find chemicals (fertilizers, insecticides etc) unnecessary and prefer things as close to nature, the better. I'd rather put up with a few aphids than spray. I like tending to my plants anyway and that helps me catch any problems early on.

As I've become more interested in my garden being productive on many levels, I've also developed a keen interest in permaculture. Permaculture is, in essence, a design system modeled on natural ecosystems and the connections between the different elements within it.

(This book, 'permaculture In A Nutshell', is a great introduction to the subject.)

In terms of my garden I see it as a way of making my space as harmonious, productive and sustainable as possible. I'm really only at the start of that journey now. We haven't even been on the site for a year, so I'm still looking to see where is windy, where the frost pockets may be, where the sun falls over the seasons. I have placed the polytunnel as close to the house as is feasible, as I know from my last garden that I need to be able to SEE my vegetables in order to tend to them well.

As the old saying goes ' the gardener's shadow is the best fertilizer'. Hence, the kitchen garden will be as close to the back door as possible, with pots of herbs right outside the back door.

My love of vegetables doesn't mean that you won't be seeing any flowers in my garden. There's always room for a few flowers in the raised beds and the tunnel, and they can be valuable for attracting pollinating insects, as well as looking great (and being edible if you use nasturtium or calendula) and sometimes being good companions for certain veg e.g. basil and tomatoes.

Last year I loved the flowers of the flax and how their petals fell like confetti onto the squash leaves below.

I also couldn't be without my sunflowers (or their tasty seeds), and the marigolds always make me smile.

One of the most exciting types of garden, for me, is the forest garden. This really is aiming to mimic nature by adopting the layered structure of the forest edge - the most productive part of a forest (here I am back to productivity again - I sound like a businessman preaching to his workforce .. yet, why not, it's just getting the most out of a space and doesn't detract from the beauty or vitality). The canopy can be fruit trees, then a lower layer of nut bushes and fruit trees (on smaller rootstocks), followed by soft fruit and then a ground cover of perennial herbs and vegetables. The late Robert Hart's garden in Shropshire is said to be a great example of this.

I can hardly wait to have a go myself, but I imagine I'll have to wait a year or so before I'm really ready to do it. Priorities are to keep the polytunnel going well and to get the kitchen garden started. Mind you, there's no harm in getting an area ready - I can always start it off with a few potatoes to get it up and running and clear the ground. Hmm, I'd better keep reminding myself that we do still have a house to build!

Rumor is that it shouldn't be too long before we can get back on track with the build, so I'll dust off that lovely hard hat and start crossing my fingers.

Growing our own and gardening over time

Now I'm away from site for a few days my mind turns to growing stuff. There is just so much that I want to grow. I relish the idea of eating our own home grown veg. It isn't just the taste factor, it is the thrill of seeing the plants grow from those first tiny sprouts into full grown beauties.
I get awestruck whenever I stop to think about the abundance of nature- how one plant, one fruit even, such as the tomato, provides us with so may seeds, so we can keep growing and always have some to spare. That image always helps me feel supported by nature.

The thing is - I want to grow EVERYTHING. I know that we'll be busy building and I keep saying that we'll start with a few things in pots around the house this first year, but I'm desperate to really get started. I'm not sure if we'll have time to make the raised beds this spring (and it is good to have time to really plan where they are to go) - but we could try a couple.
To ease my desperation to 'get started' I've decided that we'll get a polytunnel this spring. That means that we'll have somewhere to start plants off (Sam is very adamant that I won't be using the windowsills in the shell of the house for plant propagation - how well he knows me!). Actually, I think the polytunnel will be great here in Leitrim for keeping the rain off and giving shelter to the plants (and any washing - I've seen many a polytunnel with a line of drying clothes down the middle. I guess that is 'cos we get a lot of rain showers here - but sometimes sun inbetween them).

I haven't always been obsessed with growing veg. In our last home in Cambridgeshire, England, we had a sweet garden mainly full of shrubs and flowers.

We had a small potager, but never really used it enough. It was our first owned garden and I just loved pottering round it. I wasn't bothered if it got a bit wild and weedy, I just adored wathcing things grow, flower, self seed etc.

Since then, the obsession with growing our own has grown within me. It isn't in a 'lets reduce food miles' way, it is more a fascination that I CAN do this myself and that I'll know my food will be of good quality and well loved. It pleases me to be a part of the growing process - part of the natural cycle in a way.

I haven't grown much in the past two years since moving. I could have made an effort (we live with my aunt and she is happy with us doing some planting in her garden), but I feel like saving my energies for our own garden. That being said, I did try a few things last year, the most successful of which was our tomatoes (bought as plug plants), which despite the rain and lack of sun thrived in my aunt's glass roofed barn. I also tried sweetcorn and squash but they got washed out. I grew garlic in pots and the next generation of them were sown in December in pots, to take down to Leitrim. Some of them already have tips showing (see below - garlic and strawberries).

I have also started a few tomatoes from last years seed. This was by accident as I left the seeds to ferment for too long (you ferment the seed for a few days in the pulp to remove the inhibitor for sprouting) and a few had already started sprouting. I couldn't dry them so thought it best to plant them. I also started a batch of basil at the same time - both pots are on the windowsill (while I'm still allowed to have them there!) and I use an old cheeseboard with a clear plastic cover as a propagator.


I'm not sure how I'll whittle down my wishlist of veg to grow this year to a manageable size. I have visions of trying grains, such as quinoa and amaranth, as well as the staples like potatoes, onions, carrots, peas, cabbages, herbs etc. and I still need time to help build the house .. unless we go live in the polytunnel for the summer :-)

Over the past couple of days my love of growing flowers, shrubs etc for scent and wildlife has been re-kindled, so it will be interesting to see how I marry productivity and beauty. There will be flowers in the veg beds, but also wildlife areas. Eventually, I'll have have a wooded area - and a forest garden (with edible plants). That is one of the perks of having such a big plot that backs onto woodland .... I can give a sense of the woodland extending into the lower field and then, as we get nearer the house it becomes more intensely productive.

Permaculture books call this zoning - having the things that need most attention nearest the house, for example the veg beds, rather than having them tucked away at the end of the garden where they're easily out of sight and out of mind. I like that idea - and it makes it easy to use produce when it's ready - as you can see it out the window of the house!

Anyway, it's time to go buy some seeds before I'm sucked into the build again.