Making our Garden - new beginnings

This is Yogi our beloved 12 year old miniature poodle cross. He is loving, loyal and his favourite place is in the garden digging up weird and wonderful (and usually stinky) stuff. 

We are lucky enough to own an acre just outside Dunfermline in Scotland. We had to move home 16 times in 12 years to be able to buy it, but that’s another story!

I have always been interested in growing productive plants.
I love home grown veg and fruit.
Here in Scotland, you would think the choice of what to grow is limited but it really isn’t.

This year, so far, we have grown beetroot, cucumber, Swiss chard, peas, tomatoes, beans, courgette, spring onions (syboes (pronounced cybees) as we call them here), potatoes, strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries and red currants to come!
We also planted fruit trees Last year. We have three apple trees (one mature), plum, pear, fig and sloes.

The beginnings of the orchard 2022.

My hubby Campbell and I had a lot of work to do, both to the home and the garden, while working full time. No easy task.

First, we used existing veg beds to try to grow some vegetables. The deer came and helped themselves, then the hares (who were very confident!) and then the slugs!

Needless to say, we didn’t grow much. But we really learned a lot from our mistakes!

Second time around, we built raised beds, we made makeshift cages (with what we had lying around) and we also invested in a poly tunnel. We learned that the deer and hares don’t try to eat potatoes so we could grow them in bags and beds with no cages.
We learned that slugs will eat everything and having wet soil meant that we had to take the difficult decision to use repellent pellets in certain areas (they work ok, kinda).

This year we have had a bountiful harvest and we will continue to garden and experiment with new plants and share the journey with you.

Putting the poly tunnel together. In 2022.