I have a confession. I haven't looked at the garden for many months. I haven't taken the time to even stop and really give it a look-over, because it's just been a mess. I was also put off because there is so much to do, and I honestly wasn't sure what I wanted.



I keep a garden diary, and in it I post helpful tips and tid-bits of information, ideas for the next year's planting, plants I'd like to grow, things that work and things that don't. It's very useful to a gardener to see what has happened before, to gauge how things will work in the future. But even that has been left desolate of writings until now. Lo and behold, on the shelves of WHSmith I found inspiration and ideas all at once in the form of Grow Your Own magazine. Created especially for the GYO movement, there are hardly any advertisments (hurrah!), it's presented in a very readable, easy, pleasant and intelligent way. I have found a new love.



Watching Return to River Cottage the other day, it got me thinking about just how much we'd need to grow to be able to live completely from the garden. There are obvious restrictions: for a start our garden is not an acreage, and we wouldn't have the room to grow large fruit trees or masses of any particular crop, but with that aside we did very well last year growing only the staples of onions, potatoes, runner beans, pumpkins, lettuces and tomatoes. However with some added knowledge, our cup overfloweth with ideas of just what we can do this year.



Our soil isn't ideal to grow everything, and I believe in moderation at all times (even with moderation!) so I'm not going to grow more than I think reasonable. However with the knowledge gained over the last two years, and more ideas from magazines, catalogues and the television itself, I think 2007 is going to be a winner in the garden!



Our garden is going to remain mostly unchanged for now landscape-wise, however with the addition of a small pollytunnel on the dark border, I believe we'll be able to salvage some yummies from a border that has, up until now, been unused. Last year we managed to cut down considerably on our visits to grocers and supermarkets purely through eating our own veg. This year we hope to go one step further, do away with all vegetable buying for a good chunk of the summer at least, aiming for our "5 a day" completely using our own veg. And this year also learning about ways to store our vegetables, through cool-storage or freezing, to maximise the edibility of our crop.



The vegetables we'd like to grow will be placed according to their needs, i.e. carrots which failed miserably last year (a mix of drought and being put in the wrong place) will be planted in containers, where I can monitor their every movement, water as necessary and move around. Whereas hardier crops, potatoes, crucifers and onions will go directly into the ground, in larger numbers than before. We also plan on having the obligatory tomatoes (growbags), peas (ground), runner beans (ground), aubergines (container), radishes and salads/lettuces (containers), courgettes (ground), pumpkins (ground), chard (ground), onions and finally beetroot (container). It sounds alot, but as I've got all the time in the world to plan (and more importantly, to find the right species for our conditions) I think we'll be able to muddle through. We also have one big added bonus ~ we're not planning a wedding this year, so all of my time can be devoted to veg production on a large scale. Any vegetables left over in our time of glut will be shared amongst our neighbours. A perfect way to ensure there is no wastage.



Anyway, I have mumbled on about gardening for long enough, I'm off to plan!