This site is my story of this garden, successes and failures alike. I am self-taught but have several decades of experience. I was about eight when I had my first garden, a little area by the lawn separated from the ‘proper’ garden by bricks laid on the soil. I was given nasturtiums and radishes to sow, because they are fast growing and I was an impatient child. I still love nasturtiums but eating radishes? I can take it or leave it. We had a bounty of vegetables grown by my father and my mother was allowed space for flowers. One of my earliest memories is wandering under currant bushes, picking the fruit and squashing it into a little plastic cup I was carrying. I still get the same thrill from tasting something edible that I have grown.
Sidelands is an acre of heavy clay on the west side of a small valley that slopes down to a brook. Formerly an egg farm, it became overgrown before the previous owner cleared it and maintained it as a large lawn. We started by removing dozens of overgrown hedge conifers, self-seeded ash trees and poorly planted young fruit trees that were not cropping. The remaining fruit trees were supplemented to become a small orchard in a flower meadow enclosed by an informal fruiting hedge. The steepest bits, too scary to mow on a ride on mower, naturally became planted beds and a good chunk of the sunniest area was laid out as a vegetable garden. Digging is backbreaking work but mulch and manure can turn the clay into a wonderful friable loam. Even so, trees and shrubs are slow to establish but seven years on it is starting to feel like an established garden.
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