NO GARDEN? NO PROBLEM... SPROUTED SEEDS

Some easy, cheap, fresh, top-notch nutrition for you... SPROUTED SEEDS. Some of the best seeds and nuts to sprout are alfalfa, broccoli, mustard, cress or, as in the photos here: mung beans.  Their nutritional value is amazing, see the chart below, and it's in a natural, balanced form which is easier for your body to absorb than in the form of supplements. Mung beans are a great one to start with, they're good for protein, vitamin C, iron and potassium. (They're what you get in spring rolls). I'm using a Biosnacky Jar, which is from £4 to £6, but you can just make holes in the top of an ordinary jar, or use muslin etc. I usually put them in a juice with apple, celery and ginger or they're great in a salad or omelette.
SOME YOU JUST SOAK...
NB some of the seeds, like sunflower, pumpkin and almonds, you just soak over night. It still transforms their nutrition, and taste too.

Put about half a cup of mung beans in the jar...

2019 - !! GET GARDENING !! - 2019

Do you want to grow some tasty, healthy food?
Do you have access to even a tiny area of garden, greenhouse or conservatory?

Are you a complete beginner and would just like a bit of help to get started?
Are you a bit daunted by a patch of weeds or concrete?
Are you more experienced but just need a hand for a day or two to get started on a bigger part of your project?
Then get in touch! I'm available to help in and around Perth and charge £12.50 per hour. (I try to get blocks of at least four hours of work if possible). Phone, text or email: 07450 332 430 - ianecowatt@gmail.com

ALOTTMENTS - SUMMER - HOT BEDS AND STUFF

We've had a truly amazing Summer and Autumn here in Perth, Scotland. I've been so lucky to spend a lot of it outside gardening and also lucky to have a great bunch of gardening clients to work with here in Perth, also in Fife and at an allotment site in Dundee. Here's a few photos of the Dundee site where there's maybe seventy or eighty allotments altogether, it's been fascinating working there getting an understanding of the politics of a big site and what kind of help people need, and lots of fun too. 

The weather had left this polytunnel with a bit of lean to one side, so we just made the door with a bit of a lean as well

GET GROWING!

I read today that 80% of our fresh food comes from the EU. How secure is that? It's not difficult to grow some of your own stuff, salad is really easy for example, you'll be surprised what you can get from a tiny space. It doesn't just taste better, it's fresher, so more nutritious, you'll save some money, it hasn't been bathed in chemicals, possibly reared by semi-slave labour, and you're saving plastic waste and food miles.
PLUS you get an insight into growing food and how a mini eco-system works, and you'll have taken that all important first step from which you maybe learn more than any other.

This is our tiny garden in the little courtyard behind our flat. We wanted to keep some of our special herbs going so have got comfrey, sage, mint, verbena, valarian, thyme, penny royal, yarrow and a vine growing there.

SAVE YOURSELF WORK IN THE SPRING!

This is maybe the most useful tip of all! If you're planning to start a veg patch in the Spring, or are taking over an over-run garden, you can save yourself days of hard work simply by covering some of the ground over, killing off most of the stuff underneath. You'll still have to dig it over and weed it a bit, but it won't be anything like the work of digging it over from scratch in the Spring.

Mulching: i.e. covering new or bare ground over to reduce weeds. Can also be used to feed plants and improve the soil.

You can use covers like the one in the photo and take the whole thing up again, or you can use cardboard and let it rot away there, or a bit of both. Decent quality cover is better, that woven plastic stuff is a nightmare when it breaks down. Either way you'll have to weight it down.

WILDING - A huge ray of hope

This book is just the biggest ray of hope I've seen for ages...

I drive over to Dundee regularly to help two brilliant gardeners there and the journey takes me through wall-to-wall industrial landscape. There's acres and acres of polytunnels of strawberries and raspberries, and acres and acres of fleece covered veg. There's huge fields of just one cereal crop - running through them you can see the perfectly straight tracks of the colossal chemical spraying machines which we often see lumbering through Perth at the moment.

!! HELP SHARE LEARN & HAVE FUN !!

- OPEN DAY - PERTH COMMUNITY FARM -

- TUESDAY 10TH JULY -

There's going to be lots happening at this Perth Community Farm Open Day, check the main Facebook page to see what Craig and everyone is up to, also for directions.
I'm going to be setting up a wee demonstration RAISED BED, NO DIG and HOME FOOD growing area so people can see how easy it is to get growing.

Raised beds - no need to clear those weeds - just put down some cardboard, then compost, then get planting and sowing. We'll be making some beds on the day so you can see how to use handsaw, drill, screwdrivers etc.

You don't need much space, materials or equipment, and just basic hand tools. In a few weeks time you could be getting a delicious harvest of chemical free, plastic packaging free salad crops. Mainly you just need to set aside a wee bit of time and make a start!

This is another brilliant idea: square foot gardening - you divide up your space to get a succession of small yields rather than 1000 courgettes all at the same time and nothing else

Depending on time and who looks in I can also show people how to use and sharpen that wonderful gardening tool, the SCYTHE. There's also a brilliant orchard area and I'll be showing people round that and explaining how we plan to develop it into a full-on woodland garden area.

Craig becomes instant convert to the scythe

I'll be at the farm from 10 am to 1 pm then from 3 pm to 8 pm, so see you then!