Tag: Vegetables

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Where My Love of Gardening Began

Growing vegetables

I love gardening.  I really love gardening.  I like nothing better than planting up a tiny seed and the magic of seeing it grow into a beautiful plant or vegetable.  I find being out in the garden or in the fresh air, takes you into a totally different place.  You forget about all of the things that are going on in your daily life.  You are so immersed in what you are doing, that all of your cares and worries slip away.

Gardening is good for the body, health and your wellbeing.  It is a good exercise.  It means that you are outside in nature and all of the health benefits of that.  It is something that you can quite happily do alone, or you can share your interest with friends and family.   It is also a good way of making new friends.  People who garden have always historically shared seeds, plants, and the products that they have grown.

My Inspiration

My love of gardening began when I was a child.  My parents bought a plot of land when I was a toddler and built an architect-designed house and then it was their joy to design the garden and to plant it all up.  They both loved gardening and would spend many hours out there tending to it and growing stuff.  My grandparents also loved gardening.  My grandmother was a wonderful cook and seeing her make delicious meals out of the produce from the garden was always a delight.  My grandfather was a Miner and like many Miners, their working life was so hard, that having an escape like gardening was somewhere that they could get away from the challenging, difficult life that they lived every day.  My grandmother had infinite patience. Whether it was gardening or cooking, she always took the time to involve us and to teach us how to do things. 

You can never have too many flowers…

My kind of garden is a Cottage Garden full of flowers and vegetables with fruit trees.  I grow as many plants to attract bees and butterflies as possible and don’t use chemicals or sprays.  I like curves and paths that lead you to something unexpected, rather than having straight lines and uniform planting.  I grow mostly perennials or hardy annuals.  I grow very few summer bedding plants, as for me, they are a very expensive way of having a pretty garden and take an awful lot of maintenance.  Oh and ponds, I always have to have at least one pond and currently have three.

How long does it take to create a garden?

I have moved many times and have always inherited a garden that has either been neglected, or that has become overgrown and unloved.  I love the challenge of bringing houses and gardens back to life full of birds, bees and butterflies.  I have also proved the old wives’ tale that it takes 10 years for a garden to establish.  I have lived in my present home for 10 months and it is a riot of colour and my vegetable plots are keeping me fed and providing enough for me to fill my freezers and to preserve for many months to come.

I hope that you have enjoyed hearing a little bit of why I became involved in gardening and why I am so passionate about it.  Please follow my blogs to find out more about me and to learn hints and tips about how you can become a gardener and maybe even feed yourself and your family.  https://lovegardeningshop.com/blogs

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Ali Matthews – The Love Gardening Shop Owner

Love gardening shop vegetable box

My name is Ali Matthews and I am passionate about gardening and growing things. 

I decided in 2021 during the Covid Lockdown to set up a website and Ecommerce Store which is all about my love of gardening.  I design lots of different products that you can buy that either have lovely pictures of flowers, or that have slogans about gardening and gardeners.

I also blog about many different aspects of gardening and I hope that you can learn from my helpful hints and tips.  Some people tell you that it takes a lifetime to build a garden, but I am the person who can prove that this is just a myth.  I have moved many times and each time brought an overgrown or deserted garden back to live full of flowers, vegetables, bees and butterflies.  I also try to always have a pond of some kind, as this is the best way to encourage all kinds of wildlife, from the bees and birds that drink from it, to frogs, toads, damselflies and dragonflies.

My gardens usually consist of cottage garden plants which all spill over into each other and vegetable plots that grow a large selection of different things for me to eat and to share with friends.

I hope that you will enjoy my products which range from T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, leggings, bags, mugs, tea towels, blankets, pillows to children’s clothes.  If you are looking for something specific and can’t find it, e.g. you would love a T-shirt with a picture of a foxglove on, email me on shop@lovegardeningshop.com and I will do my best to accommodate your request.

Looking forward to sharing my love of gardening and over 40 years of knowledge with you. 

With warmest wishes.

Ali

Ali Matthews

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Gardening – Starting Gardening

Many people have started gardening and growing vegetables this year due to the Coronavirus Pandemic and Lockdown.  It has helped for many reasons, feeding yourself and your family, getting out in the fresh air and the mental health and wellbeing benefits that are associated with gardening.  It is also a great community where you can share hints and tips with people of all ages and types.

You don’t have to have a big garden to grow plants or vegetables you can grow things in a container on your balcony or windowsill.

The thing to remember while gardening is to start small.  A small plant bed, about 25 or 30 feet square is perfect, is just enough room for about 30 plants.  This will give you a chance to try out your green thumb and if you find that you enjoy your garden you can always expand and increase your plantings.

The next thing you will want to do is choose a site.  To reap the benefits of growing things, ideally gardening should be done in an area that gets at least six hours of sunlight a day.  Try and stay away from large trees that will take your plants water and nutrients and at least three feet from any hedges or buildings.

In hot climates it is a good idea to choose a place that will have shade from a part of the intense afternoon sun.  It is possible to have a healthy garden with less hours of sunlight, but the type of plants must be adaptable. 

While soil can always be improved, a site with good soil is a plus.  Avoid areas that have rocky soil, steep slopes, or areas where water stands.  Or if you have these conditions, you should prepare the soil and chose plants that will thrive in them, rather than being disappointed when your plants don’t grow.

Now comes the fun part: start digging.  Gardening is not a clean hobby; you’re going to have to get some dirt under your nails.  First remove the rocks, debris, and any grass and weeds then dig the spot up about one foot deep.  Level up the dirt and add compost or minerals if needed.  If your soil is too acidic, add lime; if it is too sandy, add manure or compost.  Plants will thrive in neutral to acidic soil with a little added fertilizer.

One of the most helpful things to add to a garden is mulch or compost.  Just a few inches of organic mulch will improve fertility and help the soil hold moisture.  Wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, manure and pine needles are all things that can be used as mulch. 

If you buy seeds then plant them according to the directions.  If you are planting seeds the package will usually tell you exactly when you can plant them to achieve maximum growth.   You don’t have to have a greenhouse to be able to grow things from seeds. 

If picking plants, choose ones with green, healthy looking leaves and stems and healthy roots.  When planting, put the smaller plants towards the front of the bed and larger ones in the back.  The key to a successful beginning in gardening is planting at the right time of year.  Make sure that you wait until the frosts are over before planting anything. 

Once you have started and have gotten into gardening, making sure your plants receive enough water is essential to their growth.  Hand watering works well if you only have a few plants.  Other options include sprinklers or sprinkler hoses.  Watering is more effective during the cooler parts of the day.  The type of plant will depend on how much water is needed, but most require about an inch per week.  During the hottest periods plants will be need watering about three times per week or some may need watering every day.

There are loads of books, internet groups and forums where you can learn about gardening, so don’t be afraid to have a go and you may just get addicted like I am.

Happy gardening.

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Autumn or Fall Gardening

Many gardeners do not even consider gardening in autumn or the fall, because of the winter frosts that might make an early appearance.  On the contrary, gardening in autumn will result in excellent vegetables and will extend crops long after spring planted plants are finished.  Vegetables produced from autumn gardening are sometimes sweeter and milder than those grow in the summer and offer a brand new taste to the same old veggies.

What you choose to grow during you autumn gardening will depend on your available space and what you like to eat, just like spring plants.  Even the crops that enjoy the heat, such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, and peppers, will produce until frosts hit, which can be pretty late in the year in southern areas.  However, there are some plants that will stop growing towards the end of summer like snap-beans, summer squash and cucumbers.  If these vegetables are planted around the middle of the summer they can be harvested until the first frosts as well.  Hardy, tough vegetables will grow until the temperature is as low as 20 degrees, but those that aren’t as strong will only be able to grow through light frosts.  Remember that if you have root and tuber plants and the tops are killed by frost the edible part can be saved if a large amount of mulch is used.

When autumn gardening, make sure and pick the vegetables with the shortest growing season so they can be full grown and harvested before the frost arrives.  Most seed packages will be labelled “early season”, or you can find the seeds boasting the fewest days to maturity.  You may want to go after your seeds for autumn gardening in spring or early summer; they are usually not kept in stock towards the end of summer.  If they are stored in a cool and dry location they will keep until you are ready to plant.

In order to know exactly when the best time to start autumn gardening, you must know about when the first hard frost will hit your area.  One of the best ways to tell this is by researching on the internet, or by gardening books or magazines.  They will give you exact dates and are rarely wrong.  You will also need to know exactly how long it is going to take your plants to mature.

To get your soil ready for autumn gardening you must first remove any leftover spring/summer crops and weeds.  Crops leftover from the last season can end up spreading bacteria and disease if left in the garden.  Spread a couple of inches of compost or mulch over the garden area to increase the nutrients, however, if spring plants were fertilized heavily it may not need much, if any.  Till the top layer of soil, wet it down, and let it set for about 12-24 hours.  Once this has been done, you are ready to start planting.

Many gardeners will run from autumn gardening so they don’t have to deal with frosts, but if tough, sturdy vegetables are planted they can withstand a few frosts and give you some wonderful tasting produce.  Autumn gardening gives you the chance to enjoy your vegetable garden for at least a little bit more time and may even give you fresh food on your table for Christmas.