A More Productive Patch

When I first began gardening here, I knew very little about soil. Our land here is rocky and, if you dig down deep enough, you hit clay under that. So, all of the original garden beds were constructed with soil that had to be brought onto our site from our local landscape supplier. I knew very little about feeding that soil; improving its structure and its water-holding capacity. Eventually, the plants we put in started to struggle and the veggies I tried to grow were underwhelmingly productive. 

After realising I needed some help, and because we wanted to grow more of our own food more reliably, we decided to call in someone who knew what they were doing; someone I could learn from. Lucas, whose flyer I found at my local organic nursery, was that expert. I watched, listened and helped as he worked and we talked about gardening, food, seeds, climate, water and community.

Sunflowers, cucumbers, spring onion and more!

I keep on learning too from the garden itself:  from my successes and failures; from watching the changes from season to season; from observing how plants grow in particular aspects and with particular companions and from how they respond to nourishing compost, worm tea and seaweed extract...not to mention RAIN!

A young cucumber on a healthy vine.

I am very grateful for everything Lucas taught me because now I have the knowledge and the skills I need to grow a productive garden, to grow some of the food we eat. There is a deep sense of satisfaction in that!