Country Gardener: Noted: Nice things take effort

Country Gardener: Noted: Nice things take effort

Beginning My New Garden

I'm very lucky, as I've got a new garden. We've moved house and although the garden is rather small, it was completely neglected for a number of years. I therefore have a completely blank canvas.
There's only one slight problem, I've had to give up half of the back garden for vegetables, this means my flower garden isn't quite as ambitious as I'd have liked. The good thing is that I've got the front garden to play with as well.

Because my gardens are small. I've decided to concentrate on perennial flowers and not to have grass. Instead, I've planted two thyme circles in the front garden, not only do they only need cutting once a year, but they make the dog smell good too.

I haven't started on the other garden yet, but it's definitely in the planning stage. I'm still thinking of perennial flower garden ideas, along with climbers and ferns, as it's shady. Hopefully I'll be starting on that in the next few weeks, as the vegetable garden is now slowing down.

We grew several basic crops this year, with no fertilizer or watering, just to see what condition the soil was in. To my surprise, we haven't had to water once, despite several weeks with no rain, nothing wilted at all. We've had a bumper crop of tomatoes from only 2 plants and masses of French beans.

Next year should be better, as we will be on our 2nd rotation and have compost ready to go on, when digging commences. I hope the caterpillars don't mind, but we're definitely going to net the brassicas next year.