The antidote

Friday 26th June was a date I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Not because of what I had planned for the garden, nor my daughter’s school sports day. Notwithstanding, the sports day was endured and the gardening got done.

The first hugel bed I attempted last autumn was meant for courgettes and sweetcorn. Then courgettes have become cucumbers but the sweetcorn will hopefully become sweetcorn. 

However, before any seedlings could be planted and any seeds sown, I needed to pull out the bramble branches from the pile, as they had been remorselessly sprouting new plants. Lesson learned: do not expect blackberry bushes to safely decompose in the garden.

 

first hugel bed up and running

On this occasion, though, the best bit of the day was going to Old Sleningford Farm for their cider festival – a way of thanking volunteers for their work over the past year. The pizzas we made were just ace but the best bit was talking to people who get the concept of permaculture and who want more, not less, of what’s going on in my front garden.

 

my first pizza

  

cooked in a wood furnace

 

And on the way home, I couldn’t help stopping to admire the sunset.

22:17 near North Stainley, North Yorkshire