“The times they are a changin’” once wrote Bob Dylan, and for me, never has this been more true.
Since my last blog post here in 2018, I’ve moved from my much written about potager garden in north county and relocated to my new allotment space, which I’m now happy to call ‘potager’, once again. In getting to this place, there has been difficult times, not only in gardening terms, but in my personal life as well, so I’m very grateful for the support of family and close friends, and of course my friends on social media too.
For this new allotment potager, it’s a different space and setting, and the soil conditions are currently somewhat less favourable, however, I’m quite content with the move and now beginning to see the garden settle into its place I now call ‘home’. This for me as you can imagine, is a big deal. There’s nothing worse than being passionate about plants and gardens and not having a place of your own to work from ...
“You know it’s one of Hugo’s gardens if you see arches, roses and sweet pea there”
When out looking at a friends garden at the weekend and discussing ideas, one of them humoursly commented that you know it’s one of Hugo’s gardens if you see arches, roses and sweet pea there ...and you know what, he’s completely right !
For arches and similar, this is never truer than in a smaller garden, where ground space is limited, sometimes the only option we have is to grow upwards on trellis, pergolas and posts. To this end, I’m going to fashion some recycled old posts I came across into a lovely arch over the entrance to the potager. I’ll then create a nice covered area for sitting under close by the shed, probably planted up with honeysuckle and jasmine, for those longer summer evenings of scent. Add to this some upright posts to train some deliciously smelling roses around, and we’re definitely in business.
On the sweet pea front, I was so late sowing them this year, and things were so up in the air regarding moving, that it’s something of a small miracle they’re back in flower this week. You know summer has arrived, not when we get our first week of sunshine, nor when the summer solstice occurs, but when the first flowers of sweet pea appear and you experience the amazing fragrance they produce. Yes, summer has started here in the potager, and don’t mind about the weather, get outdoors as soon as the weather is any way reasonable, and enjoy!
“ It’s fair to say you like your flowers”
Being part of an allotment community is great. Lots of people with lots of different garden styles and interests. For some it’s all about vegetables and salads, others it’s about fruit and others again it’s about flowers, and for many it’s a mixture of all of the above, depending on the space allocated and amount of time people are willing to spend there. So you can imagine for someone like myself, being interested in meeting fellow gardeners and hearing what they’re about and what they’re growing, this is really interesting, and some of which I hope to share and feature in future blog posts. One allotment friend comment recently that it was fair to say I like my flowers ... while this is very true, I also like to blend in plenty of fruit, salad and vegetable growing in a blended kitchen garden approach, hence the name ‘potager’, a French term meaning ‘for the pot’, and referring to the this mixed style of gardening, although my interpretation does have a good dollop of cottage gardening woven through too.
As you can gather by even the small amount I’ve written here, there is plenty to be getting on with. Top of the list is as mentioned already, working on some of the structures, along with modifying the existing layout to better fit what I’m aiming for. As always, my funds are very limited so I rely on reusing, reclaiming and recycling to achieve that which I’m looking to do. To that end, I came across some hoops from an old small polytunnel (or hoop house as they’re sometimes called), so watch this space (and my hugh_cassidy Twitter feed) to see what I get up to with these ...
“Slugs, snails and garden trails ...”
It’s that time of year again, when the mollusc army is munching away at our lovely fresh greens, decimating the young fresh growth of seedlings and diving head first into our sun ripened strawberries ... yes, it’s carnage out there and no matter how experienced a gardener you are, these lads and lassies will impact on your plants and gardens.
So how do I try to minimize the damaging impact they have on the plants and flowers here? Well my main weapon of choice is beer traps. This is where I’ll set a smallish jam jar half way into the soil, then half full with beer (Budweiser is still the favourite with them) and then ensure there is a roof to stop the rain diluting the beer (I normally prop an inverted plate on a couple of bricks). I find these very effective for attracting the slugs into, and once they enter them, they rarely leave. From time to time I also use the iron based slug pellets (definitely avoid the dangerously toxic metaldehyde based ones), and on damp days where the slugs come out in the evening I have been known to go have some chats with them, scissors in hand ... and then I have the odd piece of slate carefully placed for slugs to hide under, and which I’ll then ‘harvest’ them from when I check them during the day ... and after a few days, before they get too fermented, I'll empty them into the compost bin and refill them. When it comes to slugs and snails, there are lots of other ideas out there that people talk about, so well worth seeing what suits you.
Finally for now, while I'm working away here, I am also making a conscious effort to ensure i get out and about to other gardens. These include anything from the larger parks to the smallest patio gardens, in order to continue to generate ideas and inspire me to continue to develop my own. Does developing you garden ever stop? Well for me the answer so far has certainly been no. In each of my garden incarnations I'm always changing, evolving or developing. These are sometimes large redevelopments, or they can be smaller bed changes or adding in some extra features. regardless of how big or small, the most important factor is to continue and enjoy what we do.
Happy gardening.
Since my last blog post here in 2018, I’ve moved from my much written about potager garden in north county and relocated to my new allotment space, which I’m now happy to call ‘potager’, once again. In getting to this place, there has been difficult times, not only in gardening terms, but in my personal life as well, so I’m very grateful for the support of family and close friends, and of course my friends on social media too.
For this new allotment potager, it’s a different space and setting, and the soil conditions are currently somewhat less favourable, however, I’m quite content with the move and now beginning to see the garden settle into its place I now call ‘home’. This for me as you can imagine, is a big deal. There’s nothing worse than being passionate about plants and gardens and not having a place of your own to work from ...
“You know it’s one of Hugo’s gardens if you see arches, roses and sweet pea there”
When out looking at a friends garden at the weekend and discussing ideas, one of them humoursly commented that you know it’s one of Hugo’s gardens if you see arches, roses and sweet pea there ...and you know what, he’s completely right !
For arches and similar, this is never truer than in a smaller garden, where ground space is limited, sometimes the only option we have is to grow upwards on trellis, pergolas and posts. To this end, I’m going to fashion some recycled old posts I came across into a lovely arch over the entrance to the potager. I’ll then create a nice covered area for sitting under close by the shed, probably planted up with honeysuckle and jasmine, for those longer summer evenings of scent. Add to this some upright posts to train some deliciously smelling roses around, and we’re definitely in business.
On the sweet pea front, I was so late sowing them this year, and things were so up in the air regarding moving, that it’s something of a small miracle they’re back in flower this week. You know summer has arrived, not when we get our first week of sunshine, nor when the summer solstice occurs, but when the first flowers of sweet pea appear and you experience the amazing fragrance they produce. Yes, summer has started here in the potager, and don’t mind about the weather, get outdoors as soon as the weather is any way reasonable, and enjoy!
“ It’s fair to say you like your flowers”
As you can gather by even the small amount I’ve written here, there is plenty to be getting on with. Top of the list is as mentioned already, working on some of the structures, along with modifying the existing layout to better fit what I’m aiming for. As always, my funds are very limited so I rely on reusing, reclaiming and recycling to achieve that which I’m looking to do. To that end, I came across some hoops from an old small polytunnel (or hoop house as they’re sometimes called), so watch this space (and my hugh_cassidy Twitter feed) to see what I get up to with these ...
“Slugs, snails and garden trails ...”
It’s that time of year again, when the mollusc army is munching away at our lovely fresh greens, decimating the young fresh growth of seedlings and diving head first into our sun ripened strawberries ... yes, it’s carnage out there and no matter how experienced a gardener you are, these lads and lassies will impact on your plants and gardens.
So how do I try to minimize the damaging impact they have on the plants and flowers here? Well my main weapon of choice is beer traps. This is where I’ll set a smallish jam jar half way into the soil, then half full with beer (Budweiser is still the favourite with them) and then ensure there is a roof to stop the rain diluting the beer (I normally prop an inverted plate on a couple of bricks). I find these very effective for attracting the slugs into, and once they enter them, they rarely leave. From time to time I also use the iron based slug pellets (definitely avoid the dangerously toxic metaldehyde based ones), and on damp days where the slugs come out in the evening I have been known to go have some chats with them, scissors in hand ... and then I have the odd piece of slate carefully placed for slugs to hide under, and which I’ll then ‘harvest’ them from when I check them during the day ... and after a few days, before they get too fermented, I'll empty them into the compost bin and refill them. When it comes to slugs and snails, there are lots of other ideas out there that people talk about, so well worth seeing what suits you.
Finally for now, while I'm working away here, I am also making a conscious effort to ensure i get out and about to other gardens. These include anything from the larger parks to the smallest patio gardens, in order to continue to generate ideas and inspire me to continue to develop my own. Does developing you garden ever stop? Well for me the answer so far has certainly been no. In each of my garden incarnations I'm always changing, evolving or developing. These are sometimes large redevelopments, or they can be smaller bed changes or adding in some extra features. regardless of how big or small, the most important factor is to continue and enjoy what we do.
Happy gardening.
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