Our 6m x 6.5m south facing kitchen garden has been in the making since the spring of 2016 when we bought our first blueberry bush and an apple tree and chucked them in to a corner of our garden. Little did we know at the time that this would ignite in us a passion that would escalate quickly to include another apple tree, more blueberry bushes, a greenhouse and 11 raised beds.
You might be wondering why we’ve opted for wooden raised beds considering the small space. Surely it would be better to grow directly in to the soil? Well this is a new build home we’re in and, as you probably know, the gardens are notorious for being full of compacted rubble. Ours is certainly no exception. It’s a shame really because our home is built within East Lothian, which is renowned for its rich, arable landscape. Alas, growing in to the soil was very, very difficult so we opted for raised beds, which have worked a treat.
Despite the small space, we grow so many things in our garden: potatoes, garlic, sweetcorn, squash, peas, tomatoes, courgettes, carrots, parsnips, swede, beetroot, beans, apples, blueberries, leeks, cabbage… and the list goes on. What I’ve found though is that I have to be really on top of successional sowing if I want my garden to be productive all year round and I also have to disregard the rules sometimes e.g. there are times when crop rotation just can’t happen if I want to make the most of the space.
We love our garden for many reasons but the top three have to be that it nourishes us physically with lots of beautifully organic food; it provides an area in which we can let off some steam and forget the stresses of the day; and, most importantly for us, it provides such a wonderful experience for our children, who love to help in the garden and have a really good understanding of where food comes from.
