(The podcast episode associated with this post can be found here: https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-atvfm-1486cef)

A lot of people talk about using the garden as a teacher of life lessons but I’d like to tell you about the actual gardening lessons I learned this year.

You’d think after 11 years I’d be an expert by now – sadly this is not the case. I’m not someone who ‘discovered’ gardening last summer and now has a thriving Youtube channel, a book deal and a brand thats become a household name – yet!

In real life, when you’re looking after a family and dealing with everything you need to – weeds will grow, pests will be missed, mistakes will be made and seeds won’t get sown bang on time. I have however, really been trying to pay attention to whats going on instead of blindly bumbling from season to season, hoping to grab a decent harvest along the way. Before I give you my list of lessons, a bit of background:

I heard a new phrase this year – Back to Eden Gardening. I admit, at first I thought I was expected to do the weeding wearing fig leaves and a smile but apparently not. How did I get to this new discovery? Well, I’m trying to go full ‘no dig’ (or no till to some), at our allotment but I don’t have enough compost to top up all the beds. With ‘no dig’ you put compost on top of your beds and don’t dig it in whereas with back to Eden gardening an extra step seems to be adding woodchip on top of the compost. Theres probably a lot more to it but that was the basic picture I picked up at the time and I haven’t delved deep!

As I can’t make enough compost for our plot, which is 10m by 20m (about 32 feet by 65 feet), despite all my bins, I had to come up with a plan. I started by thinking, “what can I do?” I have 4 veg growing bays (about 4.5m x 5m each roughly or 14 feet by 16 feet). I also have one fruit bay (same-ish size) and a slightly smaller bay which has been divided into 4 squares: herbs, garlic, strawberries and a patch for squash or whatever else I have!

Theres also a small greenhouse/polytunnel thing – you know the kind with a hooped design and green plastic cover which needs replacing after a couple of years? Well, our cover needs replacing but I didn’t have the funds for this growing season so I used some yellow netting and stitched that together to make a cover. Sadly the zip broke and I did put on a replacement but didn’t get around to finishing sewing it on completely!

We have 1 apple tree and 2 make shift ponds – so, back to “what can I do?”

I figured I could cover one bay with the home-made compost for the carrots, onions and parsnips. The potato bay was going to get seaweed; the brassicas patch was going to be smothered in leaves so weeds wouldn’t grow around the cabbages. Finally, the legumes patch was getting woodchipped.

How did it all turn out? Well, heres where my 5 lessons learned come in! Bear in mind I live on the north east coast of Scotland, not far from Inverness. We get a lot of rain, cloud and wind (as you will know if you’ve read some of my other posts!)

1 – I can’t use leaves as a mulch in a brassica patch. Again, if you’ve read some of my other posts you’ll know how well this turned out. I planted 3 full rows, all nicely hooped and covered – went back and there was NOTHING left. Not a cabbage, a broccoli leaf, no cauliflower…..nada. Snails had eaten the lot. Luckily I had over-sown my seeds so I cleared away all the leaves, put down thistle leaves all around the edges and re-planted. I also put my beetroot seedlings around the edge, thinking snails don’t seem to go for them so much and guess what? It worked! So, leaves might be ok if you live somewhere drier and don’t have vicious snails but not here where the rain brings them out to party and I am apparently the caterer.

2 – Woodchip – great for paths, not good for growing in. To be clear, I didn’t put seeds in, they were all seedlings but as with the leaves, things be lurking under those chips. I’m guessing slugs this time but whatever it was, I lost all my bean plants and had to fill gaps in the peas too! Another thing I found was, while I may not have been able to grow runner or french beans, I’ve become an expert at growing thistles. I have since started a woodchip bin where it can be left to rot down and used when it is no longer a hideout for seedling assassins.

3 – Be careful who you take advice from: I saw videos on Youtube about Eden Gardening, I asked the woman on the video for advice – ‘Go for it’, she said. Her beds looked perfect, lush, full of growth and healthy. Mine look ransacked and dishevelled. Maybe ‘do more research’ would be a better lesson!

4 – Use salt and vinegar on weeds in areas you’re not growing intentionally – in my case its the front of the plot outside the fence. This is a job I really don’t mind doing; I skip heartily from one end sprinkling my little packet of salt as close to the soil as I can all around the weeds and their stems, then I skip back the other way pouring vinegar over the salt to soak it in. Then relax and watch the weeds die…..mwah huh huh (evil laugh)…revenge is mine!

5 – Don’t leave a new zip only half sewn on the door of your greenhouse – turns out the snails will go in there and eat everything too. So no cucumbers this year either. I know, it seems like common sense but when you’re organising your gardening priorities, sewing on the last bit of zip never makes it to the top of the list. Lesson learned!

So thats what I’ve learned so far this year. I’d be really interested to hear what other gardeners have learned – we can never know too much!