Looking for inspiration and new plants, learning new skills, teaching others gardening and spreading the word has meant little time for the garden lately.
Combined with some new work at Kehelland Horticultural Training Centre my life has been one of meeting lots of new people and making new connections.
These opportunities to be out meeting like minded plant lovers has led to some great new plants for Potager, walking into a conventional nursery and saying I was only interested in edibles didn't phase the guys at Fir Tree Farm Nursery, Michael and Glynn seemed quite happy to pander to my odd request producing orange thyme , sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata, which has delicious aniseed flavoured leaves and is a great sugar replacement when cooking acid fruits, a plant I have wanted for years, and Oxalis tuberosa, the roots of which can grow to 8cm long and are said to be able to rival the potato in yield per acre!
Angela at Trelowarren was equally at home with the need for me to be able to eat any purchases and sold us Chicory, French tarragon and Carraway.
Just being around enthusiastic gardeners has been great, at lunch time at Kehelland I met Genie another horticultual lecturer who was as keen as I to discover more about the Chinese Artichoke, by this Sunday Jan another gardener a fellow Permaculture course student was able to tell me more about the fiddly to prepare root and offer me some to grow at Potager.
Watch this space, apparently once established we will never be rid of them and be as keen as Jan is to pass on spare tubers.
The Permaculture course is being hosted at Plan-it Earth in Sancreed near Penzance in West Cornwall, an eco project on 7 acres. On Sunday they held a Fair for the Future and asked me to chair the gardeners question time. This was a great debate with everybody chipping in with advice for those new to gardening and we could have gone on all day.
Out in the field Peter and I manned the Potager stall and enjoyed explaining the Potager project to passers by. We were selling herb and vegetable plants grown by the trainees at Kehelland, organic comfrey fertilizer made by the guys at the Holifield Farm Project in Gweek as well as my jams and chutneys, we were able to give away a free compost caddy with every purchase (a small bucket and lid once containing catering quantities of jam).
Back in April I was invited to teach for the week end in the garden of Chrissy and Dave in Calstock. With 8 students keen to learn, sunshine and a great patch of garden to get stuck into we planned, dug, planted and sowed. In between practical sessions we looked at the theory of organic gardening. The course went really well and I must get back soon to see the finished garden.
If you are organising an event where you think Potager could help or have a stall do get in touch, I am happy to teach gardening on a one to one basis or to groups in your garden or at Potager.
Likewise if you would like to hire Potager for a special occasion we are happy to cater for private parties. We have recently bought a 30 foot square traditional white marque for the bottom lawn, we would also be happy to hire this out.
