We were thrilled to be featured in this autumn list of top gardening blogs by the lovely folk at Thompson & Morgan Seeds. Our garden here at The Sparrowholding is still – even after 20 years! – very much a ‘work in progress’, and we have so much we still want to do.
Nothing to beat vegetables homegrown in a Scottish garden
Our major impediments (and the reason for the sporadic nature of our gardening blog posts!) continue to be time and money, but even though we may have to cut corners at times and not do everything the way we’d like to, we still have the pleasure of tucking into our own produce for six months of the year (from asparagus and fresh herbs in May through to late plums and fresh herbs in early October) – not to mention leeks and parsnips during the winter months. If you’d like to see more of our photos and short videos, do check out our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts.
Quick shout-out this month for our long-suffering polytunnel, which is a life-saver at times. Literally, a life-saver in mid-April, when it can provide much-needed shelter for newly born lambs, protecting them from sudden spring snow showers and freezing rain. Even our rough-tough Shetland ewes are grateful for a windbreak during the worst of the weather.
Mark you, the little blighters don’t show much appreciation, as the minute they are unleashed in the garden, the first thing they do is try to scale up the side of the polytunnel and put their sharp wee hooves through the plastic. New polytunnel plastic sheeting may be required soon at this rate!
This winter, we’re planning to cut back Vinnie the Vine significantly, as we noticed during our five days in France last summer just how draconian/vicious the pruning of the vines there was. And we presume that in the land of grapes, they know precisely what they are doing. Our hope is that if we follow suit, the savage Gallic approach might help promote the growth of more grapes – a feature that has been significantly lacking in the last couple of years! We’ve had lots of vine and vigorous leaf growth, but very little fruit.
HunterGatherer is sharpening his sheep/vine shears as I write…
