a woman of the soil … the kitchen garden in May

 

the kitchen garden July 2013

“ I want streams and hills, rivers and seas, mountains and pastures.  I want a whole, happy, earth.  And when I’m not being overly ambitious about my environmental desires, I also want a garden with a little bit of everything in it.  These two desires are not unconnected, my happy earth will, in part, be by my ability to grow a large percentage of food in my garden, in a way that does not devour resources.”  Alys Fowler – The Edible Garden.

the kitchen garden July 2013

I have to agree with Alys on this one.  I want a flower garden but I also want to grow my own food.  My garden is medium sized and about two-thirds of it is for growing flowers and fruit trees.  The other third I use for growing vegetables.  And it isn’t enough.  There is no way I can squeeze everything I want to grow into this small space.  Even with additional containers.   I don’t want to dig up the lawn or get rid of  a couple of flower borders and put them down to veg – there has to be a better answer. 

the kitchen garden July 2013

So I have decided that my sunniest border will be a mix of flowers and vegetables.  This isn’t terribly radical – the old cottage gardeners had been gardening this way for generations.  They needed to grow their own food to supplement their diet so this was their priority but they also introduced flowers into the rows and round the edges – one thing complemented the other. 

the kitchen garden July 2013

So this is the plan – all the spare veg plants that I have no room for will go in the sunny flower border mixed in with the annual flowers that I had planned for this space.  Once I have pulled out the forget-me-nots and wallflowers I will get a better idea of what space I have to play with - I will refresh the soil and re-plant, with Cosmos and Cabbages, Marigolds and Tomatoes, Courgette and Runner beans with Cornflowers.  Well, maybe not all of those things – but you get the idea.  This isn’t revolutionary Alys Fowler did this with her t.v. programme The Edible Garden – and it is one way of using the space I have to maximum effect.

I am quite keen now I have made the decision – I think it will look pretty darn good and I can’t wait to get planting. 

Here are some pictures of what is happening in the kitchen garden at the moment.  With all the recent sun and rain everything is going great guns and looking very healthy so far.  I am hardening everything off outside now ready to be planted out.  Let the growing season commence.

shallots

broad beans

runner beans (nibbled)

broccoli

first ripe strawberries in the greenhouse

greenhouse tomatoes in their final position

chives

chocolate mint

early potatoes in containers

parsnip seedlings interplanted with oriental leaves

Over the winter I sat scribbling in  notebooks and planned what I was going to try and achieve this year – and I am on the way now, the plan is slowly coming together – perfick!

‘Til next time

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people can still plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”“
- Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.