We are surrounded also by wild brambles, or blackberries, which are now in flower and covered each day with buzzing insects - bees, hoverflies, flies, butterflies and countless others which I have yet to identify.
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| Mangetout blossom |
I wanted to share a little more about how we're gardening. Since we opted to expand our container garden this year, we've had to buy about ten bags of peat-free, organic compost. But we've been composting our kitchen and garden waste since arriving here, and hope to have our own source of compost soon. We mulch everything. This both keeps down on weeds, and conserves water in the soil. I collect spent bracken stalks and leaves for mulch, plus I use grass clippings (before it goes to seed) which I spread thinly over the garden. It dries quickly and makes a light, useful mulch. I've also mixed in sheep's wool around the edges of the garden beds - we live in sheep country, so there is plenty of wool strewn about the fields. I've been told it also has the added benefit of deterring slugs - it seems to be working, though I suspect that the weeks of warmth and sunshine have been the true deterrents... and perhaps also the resident frog that we see each evening in the garden...
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| Courgettes (Zucchini) in Container |
Our water is piped in directly off of the fell, and though there is of course plenty of rain here, we are still very keen on water collection. For this purpose we are using a large green bin in the field garden and several smaller buckets in the container garden. I'm also making nettle 'tea' for fertilising in another bucket - I fill up the bucket with nettles, add water and let it sit for a few weeks - this solution, diluted and added to the watering can, is a good source of nitrogen for the garden (which supports stem and leaf growth), with trace amounts of iron, magnesium and sulphur also. It is particularly helpful for plants grown in containers which need their soil regularly topped up with nutrients. If I was growing comfrey, I would be doing the same with it - it is especially useful for flower and fruit production due to its potash content.
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| Freshly harvested Courgettes |
Our courgettes are growing especially well - I grew them from seed and now have four containers full - which I hope will be enough for two adults. I'm picking them every few days now, when they are about 4 inches long. We're using them both raw and cooked, and are about to experiment with making both bread and muffins with them.
Gardening, and the gathering of wild foods, by their very nature, bring us into alignment with the seasons. Eating seasonally - having access to vitamin-rich, freshly picked fruits and vegetables, experiencing flavours and textures that are entirely different from what we can purchase at the supermarket, and saving countless food miles by growing as much as we can within our own backyard - this is both a revelation and a joy.