What is the single most beneficial addition to your garden?
I can't wait to have my own garden. Although I am very grateful, that I get to work in other people'e gardens, I can't wait to once again have my very own. I live in a lovely Olive Grove, the trees here give great shade and I love the feeling of being nestled between the trees. But it's not the place to have a garden. So instead I grow food in other people's gardens. I am a lover of wild gardens. Where veg are allowed to self seed and grow amongst the many beneficial and medicinal wild herbs that grow in this part of the world.
Of course there are certain plants, like bindweed, that I do take out, as they tend to take over the garden. But I do love to see mullein and chickweed and clovers growing amongst my veg. Nettles are another favourite of mine, but they don't grow so well over here. When I do see them, I find myself rejoicing. No kidding. It's such a blessing to find nettles in the garden here.
As well as being medicinal, they also add nitrogen to the soil. I find it crazy, that so many people see them as weeds.
The number one priority for any garden, has to be the Soil. If you have healthy soil, you have healthy plants. It's important to look after it, to feed it and keep it covered. Another thing I find crazy, is how so many leave the soil exposed. Exposed to the elements, exposed to the birds. It doesn't really stand a chance,
You will never find bare soil in nature, unless there has been a fire, but even then, there would be a layer of ash, which will actual feed the soil. Lots of potash in wood ash. The soil really does like to be covered though. Because it is within the soil, that all the magic happens. Where seeds are incubated and mycelium weaves it's way, communicating with all plant life that comes in it's path,
I see my main role in gardening, as tending to the soil. Lately I have been busy feeding the soil with some lovely matured goat manure and then covering it would some old straw, that had some lovely little mushrooms growing init at one point. I really don't think you could add anything better to the soil. It is such a wonderful thing to do, to be feeding the soil. We would have no life, without the soil. So remember to feed it. Because at the end of the day, it is the soil that feeds us.
