Growing a sustainable food garden : from mud to spud!

A gardening journal: no 1. By Jane

Blue Patch HQ has a wonderful garden. If you live in a big city, you know what an utter luxury a garden can be. Flowers in the spring, barbecues on lazy summer evenings, the odd bit of herbs to sprinkle and the list can go on.

Being the busy bees that we are, we sometimes take the opportunity on a summer day to sit out in the sun for lunch, however, most of the time the space simply has to fend for itself.

And it does fend for itself after a fashion, turning into a wonderfully wild space. The problem is the fruit trees are no longer productive and plants that should be attracting pollinators have gone to seed.

But no more. We’re on a mission to do practical food gardening on a budget.

Take one garden in Dulwich, London, add two gardeners, Toto and Giuseppina Gallo and dig!

You can follow their progress as they transform a tangle of weeds and brambles into a larder-garden, rich in habitat to encourage biodiversity and brimming with vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers.

The garden will feature ‘sample beds’ showcasing different approaches, from biodynamics and organic herb tea to ‘easy to grow’ edibles.

We’ll link to useful courses so you can discover unique and inspiring approaches to ‘growing your own’.

Amazing luck! Giuseppina happens to be a fantastic cook, so we’ll be exploring some delicious ‘garden’ grown’ seasonal recipes with an Italian twist.

organic food garden in Dulwich, London

Progress already…Look at the footprint of the garden after one and a half days of weeding. The project has begun.

how to grow food in your back garedn

Weeding has begun

Mole, champion of garden snails and dedicated frog fancier (she won’t harm them) will be helping throughout the project. Coming up next…from blank canvas to garden design.

How to grow food at home

Mole, ready to help

Reader Tip of the Month:

Susan from Henley recommends broad beans. Easy to grow and you can freeze them too. The seeds must go in immediately though – so get your skates on. In the next blog Susan shares a tried and tested method for protect seedlings – so start to collect discarded plastic bottles before they head off to landfill!

Dovetail Greenhouses

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