Turns out I am very much a Summer person. I used to prefer the cosiness of Winter but the long days, balmy temperatures and everything every just growing and blooming and blossoming have truly won me over.
I feel like I've finally worked out gardening! When I first moved into my house I was so excited about having a garden but once out there trowel in hand it scared me, there's something about having to learn new things as a fully fledged adult that is much more scary than when you're a kid learning things all the time. How would I ever know what to do? So I stuck to bedding pansies from the garden centre, branched out sightly into bulbs in the Autumn...
Turns out the secret of gardening is COLLATERAL. Things will die. Things
won't grow at all. Things will be tenderly raised from seed, lovingly
transported to a carefully prepared space in the garden, only to be
brutally massacred by slugs on there first night alone. But now I
understand this it is all ok! The trick is just to assume that
approximately 50% of what you grow won't survive and just plant LOADS.
Growing from seed makes this much more affordable - I'm not so bothered
if I lose 50p worth of seedlings as I am about £5.00 of courgette plants
from the organic supermarket. And actually, the more you plant and lose
stuff the more you learn by trial and error - I think I'm more of a
70/30 ratio now.
So this year I have just had a constantly rotating stock of seedlings in any inside space I can find, and have been enjoying the benefits, edible and aesthetic. My second tip is containers - I'm going to do a whole post on small-space city gardens as even though I have a bed, my containers have been vastly more successful. It's a lot easier to control the environment of a container.
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| Ellie-cat also appreciates my efforts |
