After last year the one thing that I have learnt is most important is that we need to be there regularly. The more we are there the more we can do, the more we can monitor and the more that we can get from our kitchen garden.
Also on this year's target list is take our own balcony in hand. Last year we managed to do some great growing at my Grandmother's but to the detriment of growing anything on our own balcony a mere arm's length from our kitchen. This year, despite having had a baby at the start of the year, I am much more disciplined about just opening the window and climbing out to spend 5-10 mins watering and tending to the balcony garden most days. Already the balcony is flourishing with herbs, two types of mint (already harvested for a delicious mint tea), potatoes and our little apple tree, this year covered in apples.
At my Grandmother's things are progressing well, but I can't help still being overcome by the amount of stuff there is to do all the time and the fact that I'd love to be there more often doing as much as I can. The babe does try his best to join us but really it is the one activity for which he is far too small, all my efforts to try and garden whilst entertaining him have come to not much and so my boyfriend and I take it in turns to baby sit while the other gets down to business.
As per last year we are tending the soft fruit cage with raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants, blackberries and this year's additions of blueberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants. The greenhouse is home to our tomatoes, a bed of ever replenished lettuce, two cucumber plants that we have our fingers crossed will grow, two pepper plants, a weedy aubergine plant and our spinach seedlings before they are planted out in the bed. And out in the bed, potatoes (ones planted this year as well as the ones that were killed off in last year's frost making a comeback), peas given to us by my Aunt, two rows of red onions, a lone courgette plant and a pumpkin that we bought at a local fair.
But there is more to come. This week I've planted another three courgettes on the balcony and three pumpkins from a packet of seeds I didn't even know we had! I'm also planning to put in some mange tout next week. These late additions will be started on our balcony and then moved to the garden, taking residence on the sunny patio and hopefully therefore taking off in no time at all.
As we begin to see the fruits of our labour I remember already why I love doing this so much. The triumph of finally harvesting spinach after trying two years in a row and getting nothing feels like I have earned the right to eat a fresh and tasty baby leaf spinach salad. Our first lettuces are crisp and tasty. And watching the pea pods begin to swell reminds me why it is that I do this.
And this year there is an added bonus, over the summer as we start to harvest our veg we will also be weaning our little boy. Digging at weeds and thinning out veggies knowing that these could be some of the first foods that he eats really does make this even more worthwhile.
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