An Introduction

My garden is 100ft long and quite a strange shape. Its on a slope and North East facing. I never wanted a garden with that aspect but the top of the garden is South facing, which will be ideal for my vegetable and cutting garden.

There aren't many plants in the garden, which means I have a blank canvas and plenty of space to grow my favourites.

This is the first time I have had the room to grow a dedicated veg patch. I was inspired by Carol Kleins programme Grow Your Own Veg. She really is inspirational and gets very excited when she pulls up lovely fresh veg and takes them straight to the kitchen to cook.

The first veg I have planted is Garlic. The packet didn't have a name, so I have no idea of the cultivar. I bought a soil testing kit and my soil is neutral. The soil looks pretty good, so I have just dug it over and enriched it with Eco compost and sprinkled some dried chicken manure pellets over the soil. I will give it a proper manuring next Winter.

There is not a lot else to do at the moment. As I don't have a greenhouse, I am not going to grow many plants which you need to grow from seed in pots. I am concentrating on buying seeds which you put straight into the ground when the soil has warmed up. But I am chitting my seed potatoes in the summer house. I have bought two varieties. Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple. Charlotte are a smooth new potato and Pink Fir Apple are long and knobbly and delicious to eat.

I am spending my time planning which vegetables and flowers to grow, at the top of my garden. I have bought some Dahlia tubers to plant out when the frosts have gone and I am looking through my Sarah Raven catalogue at the mouth watering flowers to grow.

I am heading off to Heligan next week for some plant photography. I am dusting off my Hassleblad film camera to get some architectal black and white shots of plants. I am so used to using my digital camera, it makes you quite lazy. There is no room for error with film!