Own Grown Gardening

On the weekend, I planted out some of my pea plants for the season, a couple varieties. 'Meteor' is a dwarf variety I'm trying for the first time this year. The other is an early sugar snap variety called 'Sugar Ann'. I grew it last year. They were crisp and delicious straight off the plant. So good, I'm not sure a single one made it as far as the kitchen door, but I'm digressing before I even start. As I planted out these seedlings, I though it might be nice to give you a bit of a flavour of one way I protect the precious soil around my plants. I use wool. When I say wool, I mean raw sheep's fleece. Now, you might be wondering, how does one obtain raw sheep fleeces without owning livestock? Well, In the UK, and particularly here in Devon, there are sheep dotting the hillsides all over the place. I tend to contact local farmers directly by email. The UK Fleece Directory is a priceless resource. I love the fact this website has a section that breaks do

I'd never heard the term propaganda gardening until today. This, however, does not mean I've never contemplated the concept. I just didn't have a name for it previously.  In fact, I've already planted one. Back in the autumn, I planted up my front garden as a tiny orchard garden. The popular term for it would be 'forest garden', but I always find that phrase a difficult one. It feels rather misleading. To me, the word 'forest' conjures up images of vast tracts of giant sequoias, or other such climax tree communities.  This is why I prefer 'orchard garden'. Mine, less than 10 square metres, contains plum trees, apples, black currants, red currants, gooseberries, and at this very moment flower seedlings galore of every description. I threw down literally every wildflower seed I collected last year. Ah, we can't forget the punctuations of daffodil and crocus bulbs either, not yet flowering in the crisp February air. My own little propaganda ga