Creating a New Garden

We’ve been in our ‘new’ house for almost two years and in that time have spent most of it focused on the big jobs (like heating and power) and inside the house improving and decorating the main rooms, we’ve still a few rooms left to work on but now the time has come to start developing the outside spaces with their future in mind.

Having watched far too many You Tube videos and been inspired by too many Pinterest posts, our dream to live a life of self reliance and off grid is one we keep making steps toward. You could also say that we’ve spent too many hours watching The Walking Dead and other apocalyptic dramas unfolding on our TV screen and now wish to create our very own safe haven and ‘compound’ where we can survive if the proverbial hits the fan!

The chickens were purchased in June 2022 and have been laying well. We have four - two Pekins and two Silkies. The eggs aren’t the biggest but they are the perfect size for a breakfast bap and seem to be the most delicious eggs in the world but we may be biased! The chickens have also added some chatter and character to the garden, bringing joy along with their productivity.

Next step was to create some vegetable beds and try our hand at growing our own. We didn’t plan this at all well and so didn’t grow a lot in 2022, other than some spinach, lettuce, potatoes and butternut squash. The day the husband and I had a Spanish omelette made with our own eggs and potatoes served with a mixed leaf salad also grown by us and picked just before serving, followed by an apple and blackberry crumble with our apples and foraged blackberries, was a day of such joy and pride. I’m a big believer in the simple things in life being the most important and this was one of those events that has been mentioned many times since as one of our big successes! That meal became the catalyst to planning for 2023 and the two beds of veggies have become 8 beds plus additional pots, a rejig of the garden and addition of many compost bins and water butts!

Seeds purchased, planting calendar devised, we next realised we needed somewhere for the seedlings to be started. Our window sills on the sunniest side of the house are either limited or under threat of Poppy Dog Destruction so greenhouse solutions were investigated and we decided to buy a 6 x 8 greenhouse to get us underway, with long term plans of a bigger greenhouse elsewhere in the garden in a few years time once we’ve got ourselves more established with this growing lark!

It’s currently 23rd January 2023 and we’ve constructed the frame of the greenhouse and next will add the glass before building some staging and a little potting table. I took great pleasure in hunting down old paving stones which I arranged and then set, as a central path in the greenhouse. I am trying to control my keenness and not expect too much or try to do too much growing this year but I’m not sure if I can maintain this state and may just end up trying to grow every vegetable on the planet in my 8 little raised beds!

I also have plans for a small fruit tree area and a covered fruit cage as well as growing some of our own flowers too. The flowers are being chosen either because they are beneficial in permaculture style gardening and so will either attract the right predators or repel unwanted pests (I’m particularly excited to be trying to grow marigolds around the chickens for example), but they are also being selected to be pollinator friendly, specifically for our 270 other species of bees not particularly for the honey bees who generally prefer the flowers en-masse found with trees, hedgerows and larger areas of planting.

The garden already has a pond, insect houses, bird feeders and other wildlife habitats but more will be added as we add planting - our desire is for the garden to be a hub of activity for wildlife from microscopic up; a healthy and strong, shared ecosystem that provides sustenance not just for us but for insects, birds and mammals too. We will be following the no dig principles in a hope that a rich mycelial network will evolve supporting the plants within the garden and on the outer edges too.

I’ll journal here as we progress and hopefully will share the fruits of our labour too.