Wild and abundant at every turn…
Hello everyone,
It’s true…thanks to the extraordinarily wet spring, things are truly wild and abundant at every turn! While last week there was a definite romantic charm to the mayhem…this week I’m wondering if the garden like me, hasn’t completely lost the plot!
What a lovely end to the event/workshop year we’ve enjoyed…after all the disappointments, postponements and rearrangements…it was enormous fun to be cooking up a storm and welcoming participants once again. And not just participants, but (my own Kitchen Gardening Day aside) Penny, Anthia, Craig and Jardine, who between them imparted a great deal of knowledge, as well as ensuring that participants left laden, with either a willow structure, herbal treats and remedies, the most intoxicating scented candle or an exquisite flower arrangement…all of their own making.
I’d love to expand on each of those days…but will wait ’til I introduce you to their repeat dates for next year. Because we sure will repeat each of them and I’ll tell you why…
I know some of you have been following along here since I launched the earliest Kitchen Gardening Days… fourteen years ago (while many of you have arrived more recently…and I hope you will stay!). Original followers will remember how my initial intention was to run monthly, as well as quarterly seasonal kitchen gardening days across the year as there is always so much to learn…whichever week, whatever season; because the kitchen garden changes incrementally week by week (if not day by day), so there’s always something new in which to delight (or to bid farewell for a spell). The reason I mention this again is because…
These subtle changes occur of course, not only in the kitchen garden, but across the garden it its entirety; and I’ve long wanted to broaden the scope; to share all the seasonal secrets the ornamental garden too, has to offer, across a variety of topics. While we’ve done this piecemeal over the years, this recent run of events has seen us explore every nook and garden cranny in hot succession (bar the creek which I’d love to include in the future) in search of remedy, perfume, colour or form. Combined, these elements are the reason the garden is planted as it is. They underpin the layout and I feel that at last…good use is being made of the whole of the garden, as it should be, yielding information via those who have the knowledge to unlock and share it; bringing delight to our mentors and participants in turn. So…in the name of continuing to explore all the seasonal plant material with which the garden is awash…the herbal, medicinal, nutritious and perfumed; the flowers, the foliage..and all that the kitchen garden encompasses…we’ll do it all again next year and more! How I hope you will join us…because immersive as they are, these days are also fun!
I intend to have dates up on the calendar in January (as well as to have the new website in order at last!).
Of course, there are Botanical Waters, the Book, a handful of Dresses (I’ll be ordering more next year so let me know your size if you’d like to be on the list) and I also have one in each size of my Garden Hat here in the Barn! So if these tick any of your Christmas boxes, please let me know! I’m not going anywhere…I have a garden…and field to tend!
With very best wishes to all,
Mickey
