I’ve finished digging the new flower bed. Here it is edged with stones, incorporating the orange tree (covered for wind protection) and the pear…
We have been collecting seeds from flowers for years – foxgloves from a English country garden, nigella from everywhere because its so easy and a few unusual flowers we couldn’t identify. We have no idea of the viability of many of these seeds and even some of the packet seeds are out of date so it was time to chuck everything in and see what comes up. This is also untried territory and when digging it over I found that even within a small area the soil quality varied enormously. I had, almost absent-mindedly, chucked some soggy leaves and rotted donkey poo onto bits of the garden when I began tackling it back in November and was amazed to see how this had improved patches of the soil even in such a short time. Other areas were much less fertile and more sandy. And in parts the soil was reasonable but weed-ridden and/ or rocky.
My biggest mistake in the past has been not documenting what I’ve sown & where. So I sat on a rock, admiring my handiwork & drew a plan of the new flower garden. I identified hazards, noted soil quality and thought about what flowers would flourish under the trees in partial shade (foxgloves and campions), which would happily bask in the full-sun (Californian poppies) and the heights of different flowers. We have 3 ‘unknowns’ – we have no clue what they are, how tall they grow, what conditions they like, how deep they should be sowed so it’s ‘pot luck’ folks!
Whilst the flower garden was a satisfying project (and gave me a free CV workout in the process – always a bonus!) it depressed me that the garden proper, our precious raised beds were in a worse state than this patch of ground.
They had suffered during the ditch-digging drama. Most of them were ‘infected’ with clay to some degree or another. And all of them (bar the onion bed, already planted) need topping up with soil. As we tighten our belts for our toughest summer ever, we have had to question every expense. We had to face facts – it was crazy to spend money on topsoil that we would not recoup. How much produce could we generate this summer (Ninja Cow permitting) and therefore how much could we invest?
When we visited the garden centre today, there were bags of compost for only 4 euros. We debated and finally splashed out on 3. We knew this would barely touch the beds but wondered about having one or 2 beds in good condition and writing off the rest – marigolds seemed to thrive there last year, we could fill in with those… We were still having this debate when we drew up outside the lock-up we ‘mind’ in Sutorina and noticed the delicious leaf mould, a year’s accumulation all soggy and rotted down, piled up under the trees. We just so happened to have bin bags & old compost bags in the van and a shovel. 7 big bagfuls of yummy hummus later we drove to the campsite and began to work on rejuvenating the garden.
The good news is that with our own compost and the leaf mould, we only used 2 of the shop bought stuff and the beds are looking groovy. So for 8 euros, we might just be able to grow again. The remainder will be used as potting compost for all the seeds we are due to plant when we return from the UK. I’m taking copious notes this year of what we manage to produce and the value to us in euros.
And another happy coincidence… We’re getting ready to move the compost heap and take down the ugly pallett structure to reclaim some flat land for 2-3 tents. This means we’re letting what we have got rot down and not adding fresh stuff until it’s properly re-positioned. Meanwhile the compost heap in Topla is coming along nicely so we’re adding our peelings etc to that. Trudging across the garden with my kitchen slops has reminded me how badly it needs weeding so I decided to give the garden some attention yesterday when Steve was still feeling too cold-ridden to work. In the process I found a big bunch of coriander flourishing in the cactus bed! Indian food coming right up!
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