My English garden is located in East Anglia on the edge of the Fens. It is a fairly long and narrow South West facing garden with a total of around 2000 Sq. Ft.

An important consideration for me was that my garden should not be north-facing since I believe that you get much better results with maximum exposure to the sun – particularly for growing vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers.

Gardening in June

Gardening in June

The garden soil is heavy clay, so really hard to dig in winter and cracking under the sun in summer. In the local village they used to make bricks and I can see where the clay was coming from!

When we originally moved in the area 6 years ago the garden was full of weeds as it hadn’t been looked after for years, with just a lone holly bush in the middle.

I had always wanted a garden of my own where I could be creative with flowers and bushes and eat my own vegetables and fruits.

The task of clearing the garden off perennial weeds was disheartening at first but I had decided to do it bit by bit – with new sections being dug up each year.

Six years on and I feel that I have now managed to conquer the whole plot – well almost! (there’s always bind weed…).

The garden now includes a path, a greenhouse, some fruit bushes & trees, various flower beds, a strawberry patch, 4 square plots where I rotate the vegetable crops, and what may have been the original lawn/grass area.

The garden is constantly evolving year after year and one of my main tasks is ensuring that I improve the texture of the heavy clay soil by working at it and adding a lot of organic material. It’s my way of giving back what nature has kindly given me with bountiful crops each summer.

I hope that you will accompany me through a whole season of gardening and find it useful and interesting.