Green space

We are really lucky in that we’ve a large garden that stretches back about 25 metres and is roughly 5 metres across. However we struggle with bindweed, nettles, and brambles in the soil.

The back third of the garden was used as a rubbish dump by prior owners and tenets. So it’s an ongoing adventure of discovery as to what we find under the ivy that is prolific here. This part of the garden is heavily shaded by self seeded trees that we need to get a handle on! Especially the yew if we can, which is highly toxic. We’re always worried about our pup and next door’s dog around this time of year when the berries and cones are covering the ground as if a sea of red grapes ready for pressing. It’s so easy for them to get on their paws and mistakenly lick themselves in a grooming session! Eeeek! Next to this is a very tall holly tree, so more poisonous berries and dry prickly leaves all over the place. It’s a challenge for sure!

This year we took drastic action covering any growing patches of weeds, bar the pond, rockery and a long thin bed alongside one of the fences. We ended up using a black weed suppression fabric, that much to our annoyance is some type of plastic. We’ll keep reusing it for the next few years between the garden and the allotment as a way to ensure that it is fully used over its lifecycle. Then in spring we’ll uncover it and dig everything over by hand to remove all of the weeds roots. Despite the frustration of the weeds the soil in parts of the garden is really healthy, so we’re hoping a few months of covering will improve some of the areas where it’s not so good. But as we’re planning a wildflower meadow with some raised planters throughout instead of a lawn, we’re not too worried about the soil being good for growing food directly.

We’ve made the decision to turn the long usable bed into a multi purpose plot of flowers for cutting and to grow food that’s both visually interesting and delicious. This bed has a Victorian path that we’re still uncovering alongside it that runs, we think, the length of the garden. I love this space, it has so much potential. By keeping the access to the path it will allow for easy harvesting. Although stopping the dog from peeing on plants is a whole other saga! Hopefully once he’s got his wildflower meadow he’ll leave the plants alone! We’ve raspberries, blueberries, some more robust herbs such as sage, sorrel and curry plant here surrounded by whatever flowers have survived the slug and snail Armageddon this year! Which isn’t much sadly. But next year should harbour a bounty of garlic, onions, fennel, dill and whatever else we can get cheaply that grows there.

We tried to create an edible teepee this year with sweet peas, cucumbers, peas and beans growing up it. Despite planting nasturtiums around the base alongside some poppies as a distraction tactic, very little survived the onslaught of the snails and slugs. Next year though hopefully we can get this idea to work.

The quarter of the garden closest to the house has crazy paving, an old coal bunker, and an old outhouse. So this is pot territory. Anything up this end we grow in pots. This year we’ve tomatoes, chillies, herbs and potatoes. In prior houses I’ve managed to grow herbs and tomatoes in very small spaces such as on balconies as a way to be self sufficient. It requires a bit of planning but also it’s worth a punt to see what happens. One of our biggest issues is seed sovereignty which I’ll go into in more depth and cover in another article.