Well what a year. When so much has happened and there has been so much disaster, sadness and loss writing about the garden sometimes feels a little trite, but as it’s where everything is anchored here, it feels like a good place to start and to set the tone for next year.
This year was the year I officially fell out of love with the tiny Bristol garden. Having our landlady sell up from underneath us rocked us at our core. That garden sustained us both through shielding, supported us both through mental health issues and had been our sanctuary for four years and to leave it was heartbreaking. But, and here’s the thing, sometimes a good thing is just around the corner and the garden here in our new rental in Wales is glorious. Of course it comes with it’s challenges but we are really lucky and looking forward to a year ahead when we will be able to really get on with making the garden beautiful.
My little Welsh herb garden
Moving the tiny garden was amusing in many ways. The pots that made up that garden, filled it with it’s riot of colour and plant material, and made it at times feel just a bit claustrophobic, took up such a tiny space here we thought we had inadvertently left pots behind. It was a joy to dig holes in the actual ground and get plants out of pots and into the soil, and that will continue over winter as I plant out the roses once they are dormant, and find places for the hemerocallis and dahlias in the spring. We have discovered so much since we have been here, and mainly that the previous tenant was definitely not a gardener, so a lot of this autumn has been taken up with setting a framework, watching how the garden behaves, where the light falls and sorting out composting areas and creating a no dig veg garden.
The garden on the day we moved in in August
But of course my own garden is not my only garden and I have been so lucky this year to work predominantly on the space at Edible Bristol we are calling Cultivation Place, where we are set to do all our workshops and courses, as well as having a small flower farm, a small market garden and our nursery. This space is two and a half allotments in size, and is being run to no dig and agroecological principles. I’ve been teaching our How To Grow courses there this year, and next year there will be a full programme of seasonally appropriate opportunities for people to get involved with.
I have to say running the flower farm has been an incredible opportunity, and one that I have adored. My roots will always be in productive gardening, and whilst it can seem that flowers might be a little bit of a distraction, they have been a joy in a year when distractions have been needed. However, getting the poly tunnel productive and seeing the outside spaces also filling up with food that would go out to communities is also a total joy and an honour to be able to achieve.
So here we are looking at next year, and likely all wondering what it will bring, with levels of uncertainty and anxiety and a new respect for the outside world and nature for many. And of course we can’t know what is to come outside in the world we can’t control, but taking a breath and starting in the garden is a way we can all connect more with the seasons, with nature and with the food we eat.
So Merry Christmas and a happy new year and I look forward to seeing you in a garden in the year to come……
Edible Bristol’s Cultivation Place