Kitchen Garden
Kitchen Garden
The Kitchen Garden has probably seen the most change throughout us living here over the years. It started out with a wonky little oaktree, flower bulbs of unknown origin (from memory maybe iris or daylilies?), grass and a load of bindweed. Throughout the first few years it became an area that I cleared with the help of my mum and planted up with lots of lavenders, rosemary, salvia, a California lilac, catmint. lots of good stuff for the bees. Yet somehow it did not manage to survive. When in 2018 I sowed some seeds from a Dutch supermarket (AH moestuintjes) that my mum sent me, the bug for growing my own food begun. I cleared the now overgrown area again, this time with my best friend and build two raised beds out of an old shed and a couple of pallets. Little did I know about growing food, spacing, frost dates, or not to sow an entire packet of nasturtiums and a whole packet of calendula seeds in each bed 🤦♀️ - Safe to say it quickly became overgrown again and the battle with the bindweed was a tough one.
Fast forward to 2020 when everyone and their neighbour went into gardening, and I rebuild the raised beds into one big one, got rid of the oak tree stump (thank you my love) and took my time building it. Again made out of what I already had and bits given to me by neighbours this time. I used 4 pallets for the base 'box' and some more to fill in the gaps. Old roof battens from my neighbours kitchen roof renovation to strengthen the inside and for the top edge to sit on. The lids to my raised beds in the greenhouse are of the same batch of wood. Last year saw the addition of the tunnel arch and scaffold board raised bed (which was the potting table in the greenhouse before that) and I think we're now complete structure wise. So far I've grown various chard, spinach, tomatoes, marigolds, calendula, lemon balm, lemon curd thyme, lemon verbena, nepeta (catmint), lemon mint, various kales, celery, celeriac, kohlrabi, cosmos and nasturtium in it. last year I tried cucumbers but they failed - they're going into the greenhouse this year.
This year feels like the biggest and fullest set up yet. The tunnel will see squash, beans (to dry) on the big raised bed side, with mangetout and peas on the other side. that bed will also have kale, sweetpeas, calendula, climbing beans and nasturtiums. The big raised bed will also have kale, calendula, cosmos, carrots, chard, peas/mangetout, endive, nasturtiums, courgette and celery. A stunning mix of colours, flavours, upright, climbing, and spreading plants. Just how I like it ☺️