Killing Thyme but it isn't all bad news!

Continuing on a gardening theme, I thought I'd offer an update on our growing antics this year.

But I am very sorry to admit that as well as being a worm murderer, this year I have also been responsible for killing thyme too as well as a few other green and lovely things.

The problem is I am not naturally green-fingered on account of me having great aspirations but insufficient time to achieve them. And it's been a great lesson to me that I shouldn't invest time in the garden unless I am able to commit regular hours to it its upkeep, otherwise our best intentions just go to waste along with the produce itself.

You see it's not just the thyme that got the chop - or in some instances the chomp - it was the beans & peas in the front garden too. I can now admit that planting a small vegetable garden next to a "snail hotel" in the shape of a Phormium was not exactly the best brainwave I've had this year. Neither was planting lots of salad leaves just because they were easy to grow, when we don't actually eat much of them as a rule, whether they come from the back of the garden or from a supermarket plastic bag.

Seeing a lettuce bolt is not a rewarding sight.

This is why I am taking these lessons learned as the foundation for going forth for next year's garden antics and instead of growing lots of different things next year, we will be focusing on what's worked and leaving behind what hasn't.

Where the Thyme was on borrowed time, at least the runner beans jogged along quite happily as did the tomatoes grew in such abundance, it's only now that I've pulled in the remaining harvest.

You can see the last fruits of our luck and fortune here. This weekend, we even pulled the last of our potatoes from the pots in which they had been planted. Some of the beans have gone to seed, but we're keeping those as presents to share with other novice growers as part of our Thrifty Christmas plans.




So our plans for next year will focus on tomatoes, along with another crop of runner beans, which were resoundingly successful this season.

However, all this talk of reigning things in doesn't stop me from dreaming. I am currently re-reading an excellent book, which was published this summer called "The Alternative Kitchen Garden: an A-Z", written by the wonderful Emma Cooper of www.coopette.com.



As well as advice about beans and tomatoes, the book covers a whole range of inspirational ideas for novice gardeners like me as well as experienced green-fingered folk who want to try something different.

With Emma's advice, there's hope for me after all, but one thing's for sure, next time I'm definitely not going to run before I can walk.

So apologies for my green-fingered failures this year. Next year, I promise I will do better.

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