#01 Garden
Where it all started...
It all started when we moved into our first proper home together in the suburbs. Having spent years living in city centre apartments and skyscrapers, we finally had our own proper garden! We had tried growing herbs and vegetables on our little balcony in the city, from small pots of coriander to tomato plants crammed into a grow bag, but with little success. You can imagine how thrilled we were with our new space and the thoughts of endless possibilities!
As soon as we had moved in, we started sketching out ideas, planning how our garden could look. Who knew it was such hard work brainstorming ideas between two designers?! After a few pints of beer, we finally settled on a layout and started cracking on with setting out the garden. With some extra timber we had leftover from building our pergola and decking, we managed to create some raised beds. We formed a long set of beds along the side of the garden that caught full sun throughout the day and a sunken bed along the back of the garden for partial-shade plants.
The increased soil depth in the raised beds gave us the opportunity to grow root vegetables, so we went for carrots and parsnips on the upper beds. As for the lower, shallower beds we figured shorter harvest vegetables would be a good contrast to the root vegetables above, so we went for courgettes, rockets, and spinach. The rockets and spinach were growing so well we were on a salad marathon for a good few months! The courgettes turned out pretty well too, we managed a few pots of ratatouille, a lot of pasta bakes, and the courgette loaf cake was an absolute treat!
The carrots and parsnips developed later on in the year, we made sure there was plenty of nutrients and water fed to them during the warm summer months. We also grew a small patch of spring onions close by to help with pest control, something called ‘companion planting’, which has proven to be quite effective, although we did lose a few small carrots to some sneaky slugs! Yikes! For a couple who love their roast dinners, it was great having the unlimited supply of carrots and parsnips from our own garden. We had so many carrots and parsnips, we even treated ourselves to the occasional carrot and walnut cake and crispy honey mustard parsnips! Yum!
We knew we wanted some fruit trees to complete the garden, but we were cautious that fruit trees could become too big and potentially dominate and overshadow the garden. After researching online and taking advice from our trusty local garden centre, we settled on a James Grieve apple tree and small cherry tree, both placed at each end of the raised bed - for symmetry of course! The first harvest was poor, as expected, as both trees were working hard to settle in, so we didn’t have any luck with the first year’s harvest. This year however, with some help from the summer sun, we managed to harvest 2 dozen apples from our little apple tree. The smell of apple pies and porridge topped with apple puree in the mornings was amazing!
It’s now time to start our first crop rotation system and try out some legumes and fruits this time! Fingers crossed and we’ll keep you updated soon! 🤞