Naomi Slade is ready for a floral revolution!
Out goes the hand-pick and in go the blooms – lots and lots of them!
So, dear reader, I was last seen sitting atop a heap of rubble brandishing a hand-pick and grinning like a miner who has struck gold. But more importantly, I had, in fact, struck actual soil at the bottom of the hole I dug, and this has revolutionised my planting.
The idea was to, effectively, sketch out a border in approximately the right area. I don’t as yet know precisely where the edges will meet the paths, but I do know that I want to grow things and I want to grow them now!
So we made a crater, slightly smaller than the anticipated final area and, beneath the rubble, discovered several inches of topsoil – or what passes for topsoil in these parts: heavy reddish clay mixed with charcoal from fires long gone and the odd, possibly Victorian, oyster shell. There was also a root, just the one, probably from the strangely healthy ‘Victoria’ plum in the small raised bed, which I’ve long suspected must have busted out in search of soil and water.
Good soils in an urban environment are frequently made, not born. I therefore mixed clay with some of the grit left over from unpicking the fake grass and hard landscaping, with lots of organic matter – a couple of large bags of cheap peat-free compost, beefed up with a dollop of the good stuff from Dalefoot Composts (www. dalefootcomposts.com). Draft flower bed ready, I’m packing in as much as I can: cosmos, ammi and ridolfia from Sarah Raven (www.sarahraven.com); cerinthe, marigolds and many a good thing. Growing more bodacious day by day, it provides me with temporary interest and flowers for cutting while I make considered decisions around it. A purist would (correctly) say that there are too many plants. But they’re mostly annuals and the new compost, together with some pelleted chicken manure later, will keep them well-fed. By winter the soil will be in much better shape, populated with invertebrates and knitted together by root action. The small perennials will also be much bigger and can be deployed elsewhere. Meanwhile, a metre or so of inhospitable gravel and concrete in all directions will dissuade the slugs from munching my sweet peas and dahlias!