I didn’t really get into gardening until I bought my first house. Before this, I never had a space to call my own, so I didn’t really appreciate the joy that gardening could bring to my life. Gardening became my source of stress relief from work, with the added bonus of food at the end of the process!
My favourite part of gardening is growing food that I can’t buy in my local shops. I seek out heritage varieties to bring diversity to my allotment — among the more exotic is the ‘Mummy Pea’, an ancient vegetable said to have laid dormant until the 19th century, when it was discovered in an Egyptian tomb.
In my first year with an allotment, I tired myself out trying to dig out new beds. Now I’d suggest something much less taxing: just clear the worst of the perennial weeds and place a thick layer of cardboard on top with plenty of organic material. Don’t worry, the worms will find their way in.
Now I understand soil more, I know that it should be full of life underground, which not only supports our plants to grow, but also feeds off carbon that the plants sequester. So by growing organically I can reduce my impact on climate change. They’re small changes you can make in your gardening that can support a healthy ecosystem and reverse climate change — yep, reverse climate change rather than just being carbon neutral.
Over the last two years I have bought a few bulk bags of PlantGrow to act as organic material to fill raised homemade trugs for my son, the ‘One Minute Gardener.’ This year we have built a 2.4m squared raised bed for cut flowers to fill our house with colour and for my son to hand some out to brighten up people’s day, as he did last year.
Derek
