Own Grown Gardening

As you might know, a few months ago, we moved house. As part of that gargantuan endeavour, we moved our fruit orchard as well. It was a totally mad time of year, at the beginning of summer, to move the young trees. All of them, cherries, apples, medlars, and plums, sulked the entire summer. Some dropped nearly all their leaves, but thankfully all survived. I'm hoping this winter gives them a good chance to establish themselves properly. I'm feeling optimistic. I'm currently feeling so positive, I decided this week to take the orchard to it's next phase. My vision for this little orchard has always been to grow, what I like to call, an Orchard Garden. I think of an Orchard Garden as a lush green grove of fruit trees under planted with a plethora of soft fruits ( currant bushes , gooseberries , honeyberries , etc.) and those bushes still further under planted with a ground cover of strawberries , herbs , and wildflowers . I want to establish an ecosystem focused on food p...

I watched this fascinating YouTube video today, which reveals some of the reasons why the local food hub in Exeter, Good Food Exeter , closed it's doors to business a couple years ago. At face value, such a closure sounds like a massive blow to the sustainability of Exeter's local food system. But is that really true? After listening to Lynn in this video, I'm not so sure. In case you don't know what an online food hub is, I'll attempt to explain. Actually, I'll let the US Department of Agriculture explain because their definition is as relevant in the UK as it is in the USA. Here it is: a food hub is "a business or organization that actively manages the aggrega- tion, distribution and mar- keting of source-identified food products, primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail and institutional demand." This definition explains the purpose of the Tamar Food Hub of which I am a customer here in Pl...

  Now, you're probably thinking this is an odd post. To be honest, I'm thinking the same. It manifested out of an unexpected windfall of, you guessed it, alpaca poo. We decided to take a walk on the Cornish side of the Tamar River last weekend and found ourselves wondering past the gate of Mount Edgcumbe House . A little sign greeted us simply stating "Alpaca poo", one bag for £2.50. How unusual. I duly popped my payment into the smiling piggy bank honesty box and became the proud owner of a heavy bag of poo. Hahah! You can probably guess my intentions for it. In the spring, I'll incorporate it into the veg patch as fertiliser. Over the winter, I'm letting it mature in my garden's two compost bins. The worms are already getting to work on it. Pleasing to see. I must admit, it has bothered me for a while that I don't have access to any sort of livestock manure to use as fertiliser. Manure increases soil organic content and plant available nutrients . It...

It is mid-March here in Devon, England, and my two little honeyberry ( Lonicera caerulea ) bushes are just coming into bloom, the perfect time to give them a mention.    They are known for producing some of the earliest fruit of the season. I harvested my first berries from the young bushes last year, just a tiny handful. Judging from the number of flowers both bushes have this year, I'm looking forward to a much bigger bounty. I own two bushes of different varieties. One of them is the variety 'kamtschatica duet' while the other is an unknown variety. They each have distinctively different leaf shapes and growth habits though. Duet has much rounder leaves and slighly sturdier stems.  When buying them, I searched and searched for two different varieties to maximise cross-pollination between the two. Like so many plants, they produce much better harvests when self-pollination is avoided. I should mention, the handful of purple fruit last year were delicious just straight o...

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...