We must be the luckiest novice gardeners alive!
A local woman, who hates gardening, has offered to lease us her 140 ft cottage garden for the ridiculous bargain sum of £1 per year and a small share of our produce. We can do whatever we like with it, she just wants it to be used.
We've been looking round this morning and I am bursting with excitement, but also extremely daunted by the amount of work that needs to be done as half of it is so overgrown that it's impossible to walk through, and bind-weed is wrapping itself around every tree and plant. The owner is a successful local businesswoman and town councillor, who has lived in the cottage for seven years and it looks as though she has never pulled up a single weed or pruned a bush in that time.
There is one slightly clearer area halfway down, which we will concentrate on getting ready for raised beds, and sow our first crops in that space in the spring, and have it properly up and running for vegetables throughout next year. We'll give back our little strip of allotment next Spring and if we work hard and keep learning, there is enough space to be close to self-sufficiency in vegetables.
Then, next year we will begin work on clearing further back, which will be home to some soft fruits including raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb.
In amongst the crazy bushes I did spot a few gems that we will be keeping- some plums, brambly apples, hazelnuts, elderflower and a holly bush.
Strangely, there is no pear tree though!
