Gardening 101

When we moved out of our flash soho pad (and by this, I mean 'studio up 4 rickety flights of stairs') the prospect of having a garden seduced us, as all good locavore yuppies, with idyllic images of growing our own veg, herbs* and flowers.

Now we have a lovely flat with many more rooms and a gorgeous little patio garden. Last year, we executed our first attempt at gardening. It went...interestingly? There was an epic battle with greenfly, in which we were eventually triumphant. A less satisfying war against slugs and snails to which we lost our peas and peppers. Never again! And then there were the tomatoes. The tomatoes grew to ridiculous heights and then didn't produce until the very very end of the season. A lack of direct sunlight, I'm told. All in all, we experienced enough success to wade in again this year. This is, apparently, how the obsession with gardening begins.

This year we vowed to shed our haphazard ways and magically become experts. So far so good, if I'm honest. Chris' parents bought us a little propagator, so we could raise seedlings. I'm most excited about this because of one crop: tomatillos. Every once in a while you find fresh tomatillos at one of the Isle of Wight stalls at the farmers' markets, but those marvellous mornings are few and far between. My mom had great success with tomatillos in Montana (a far more forbidding atmosphere, though I'll admit much more sun), so I figured we'd give it a try.

Right now we're raising nasturtium and pansies (for colourful delish salads), tomatillos, cos lettuce, kale, red basil and various flowers. They're coming along nicely and in another few weeks they'll be ready to be 'hardened'. As far as I understand, this involves placing them outside in direct sun for progressively longer periods (somewhat like children and preschool). And then - they'll be set free, ready to (hopefully) flourish!

In addition to all these lovely seeds, we've also got tomatoes and peppers on an indoor windowsill waiting to move out in late April or May. The sweet peas are already planted, as are the oregano, chives and lemon thyme. Strawberries are in a hanging basket and we have Logan berries and raspberries ready to bust out. But the other exciting crop this year is potatoes! We have two large bins (one for earlies and one for main crops) which look very ho hum right now, just filled with soil. I am assured, however, that lovely green leaves will burst forth.

Finally, the strongest contender this year is the hop. It's already climbing up the trellis and trying to take over my bike. I certainly won't let that happen, but I am excited for some fresh hop beer later in the season.



* As a side note: 'herbs' is pronounced 'erbs', 'basil' has a nasal 'a' and it's cilantro - not coriander. That is a seed. These are all debates my husband and I have had, and I won.