Gardening for food and happiness

In these extraordinary and worrying times I am just emailing with a suggestion. Although we are still open, not expecting many orders so taking the opportunity to spend time in the garden.

I am a keen vegetable gardener. I follow Biodynamic principles as a choice. Biodynamics evolved following a series of lectures by Rudolf Steiner-"The Agricultural Lectures" and in essence is about restoring the health of the soil. Many vineyards have adopted Biodynamics- vineyards suffered badly from the influx of chemical fertilisers.

More information about Biodynamics can be found on the Biodynamic Association website.

They also have a series of Videos about growing:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCt0Mvn8JyNcvZRHJvJDMOw

But any growing of Veg is good- I like to follow the Biodynamic principles but appreciate not everyone does of course.

I would suggest though that if you have some space you buy some seeds and grow vegetables- even if space is limited you can use grow bags or even grow herbs and micro-greens on your windowsill.

Growing your own will not only provide food but keep us happy- gardening does help with health as well and at the moment probably a good thing to try- growing Veg is really quite easy.

I buy seeds from the Seed cooperative, but there are many suppliers- I prefer to use open pollinated and organic seeds.

I bought some more fruit bushes from Victoriana nursery- great service arrived with in a couple of days just now. Fruit bushes are pretty easy to grow and also had an email from Dobies with a strawberry offer- strawberries re simple- though birds love them as well ! So net them.

It seems there are issues getting compost for some people. I use Fertile Fibre- not the cheapest but by far the best seed compost I have used.

Gardening can be a great pleasure- flowers, shrubs, trees or veg. For me it is the connection with the soil, for others it is just life and its timetable as trees go into leaf and then fruit.

If you are a customer from Ireland GIY has great info and Brown Envelope seeds have good seed selections.

Finally if you want a gardening tool treat look at Implementations- Jane has the best gardening tools available- Bronze which might keep the slugs away , sharp and just a joy to use

Happy to give any help if your interested in growing some vegetables , just email me or call.

Keep well and hope you do not mind me sharing my thoughts with you.

Best wishes

Charles