Week one of the The Cutting Garden course from My-Garden-School went well. I find I am working for myself, out on a freezing morning surveying my current plots. Being a designer is a bit like being the cobblers children (no shoes!). You almost never have time to plan, in entirety, your own plot. Sections yes and micro management but a big reassessment of what’s there? almost never, for me at least. This was a great opportunity to measure it all, I gained 14mx1.5m on each side, I’d been told 25x4m and was so busy on weed control and planting I didn’t check. Obviously don’t do as I do here folks! Then it was a question of plotting the existing perennials: veg, trees, and flowering plants. Having had to give up my back garden 18 months ago the beloved and rarer plants from that space were uprooted and hastily plonked in 4 beds on a new plot that became available, just in time and just next door to the Iris collection plot.
Taking an itinerary of what you have is invaluable. Not least because on paper one can see immediately what is lacking, physically where the gaps are and technically where the fails might come from. Overplanting, missing elements and potential problems from aspect, soil, drainage, and WIND. The plots are very very windy. Think poly-tunnel shredding and sheds being rolled over and over across plots.
Of course this isn’t really a garden per se but the back section has the makings of one and turning it into a cut flower project in the meantime will be an excellent way of developing the wilder area, increasing materials for compost, improving soil and of course growing flowers for home and friends.
The course has a good number of participants which makes for interesting assignment reading. It’s fascnating to read about other peoples projects, limitations and location related battles, not least for finding solutions from their experience. There are a good mix of pros and amateurs with a diverse range of goals and success outcomes for the course but this adds to the interest factor, for me at least.
Charlie Ryrie, our lecturer, is the kind of person I love to learn with, incredibly knowledgeable, and enthusiastically generous in sharing her wisdom, experience and ideas.
Keeping up with comments and feedback on each others assignment posts, and there are plenty, sharing questions and answers on related questions makes the experience more like a real life classroom.
Roll on Week 2