My interest in vegetable gardening mostly stems from my childhood. My English mum and Italian father always had a large vegetable garden. Only in the past month have I discovered that other cousins in England and Australia share this love of gardening. One of my cousins has just moved to the Shetland Islands, after 35 years of living just north of London. I always impress upon my customers the importance of building up the soil here in north Texas, as our soils are very poor. Healthy soil is the basis of organic gardening. Let me share with you my Cousin David’s adventure in his new garden…

“I have grown veggies for the best part of 35 years and was virtually self-sufficient in them. On the two allotments (small plots of land one can rent from the local council to grow veggies), I rented before we moved last April, we also grew lots of soft fruit from which Fiona made lovely wines. Where we live now, we are up on a hill and it is very windswept and it rains a lot. My veggie plots are in a patch where nobody has ever grown anything and the soil is absolutely rubbish. I dug it over just after we moved here last April but the wind killed off virtually everything and blackened the leaves etc. Even the root crops produced nothing. This season, I am having a good fence built to keep out the winds and have spread out loads of seaweed I got from the beach, peat that I dug from the hills, cow manure I got from a local crofter and chicken manure pellets. I also have some horse manure ready for the potatoes (or tatties as they are called locally). I may have gone over the top with the nutrients but too much is better than none at this stage. I can always be more selective next season.”

I will keep you posted on his progress.

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