Working the land...

Last year the boy and I grew tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce, a bucket full of lovely potatoes and an array of herbs on our balcony. At the time it was just his balcony, but now we are co-habiting in bliss I can claim ownership of this little stretch of 'land' outside our kitchen window.

This year we have claimed some land of our own. My Grandmother lives in North London and over the winter, before my Grandfather died, we spoke to them about taking over their greenhouse, fruit cage and a small patch of overgrown earth right at the end of their garden. They are happy to have some young people, enthusiastic and giddy at the sight of so much space to work with, to take it all in hand.

It was a tall task but once you are bitten by the growing bug there is little that you can do. The desire to have some land, something that you can dig and grown in is just too much. The idea that we couldn't grow anything this year was just too much to bear, or being confined to the balcony again when this wonderful piece of land was available. I'm also quite particular, I'm only interested in growing vegetables, growing something just to see it flower seems overwhelminly pointless, if you can't eat it then why would you bother?!

Throughout March and April we have been preparing our patch, ready to sit back and watch everything growing. the fruit cage has raspberries, strawberries (in their own raised bed), red- and blackcurrants and somewhere in there some blackberries. I say somewhere in there, the whole of the ground was covered in weeds and a bramble had come over the fence, possibly from the alloments that back onto the garden, possibly from next door, or possibly both! The boy spent whole days with the thickest gloves we could find on pruning everything that looked vicious and thorny. Talking to my Grandparents it appeared that they had had a blackberry bush but confusion with the gardener meant that it had been dug up. But then, in amongst the current bushes we found treasure, two small shots with no thorns, growing up from in amongst the brambles. We have high hopes that this is the blackberry my Grandparents planted, a thornless variety to save my Grandmother's arms from a similar fate to the boy's! It has been carefully weeded around and has begun to grow - watch this space!

Gardening is a cheap pursuit, a few good tools go a long way. But not that we would know as we are surrounded by the most amazing array of tools. My Grandmother's greenhouse has pots: terracota pots, pots that she made herself, plastic pots that she has saved, trugs, a little stand to kneel on when you are planting, trowels, forks, tools to plant out seedlings, canes to prop up tall plants, hanging baskets and more. The garden shed is an aladdin's cave of everything that a gardener needs. Every tool and gadget, garden wire, plant food, the netting for the fruit cage, spare clips for the greenhouse. Everything is perfectly placed, tidied away, even though it is years since anyone used these implements for gardening they are laid out like someone was in there just yesterday.

And so, yesterday we went to check on progress, plant a few last veggies and weed amongst the fruit. This year we are growing strawberries, raspberries, red and blackcurrants, maybe some blackberries, potatoes, broad beans, mange tout, onions, spring onions, carrots, courgettes, aubergines, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, chillis, rocket and parsley. On the balcony we have a dwarf apple tree and our herbs have come back all over again. We are going to add a few tomato plants and some lettuce that we can pluck, freshly grown, to add to our meals. It is hard graft but watching things grow is just about as exciting as the summer can get!