I have gone from being a total novice to still-a-novice-but-with-wee-bit-of-experience-under-my-belt-and-dirt-under-my-fingernails.
I've gone from total disinterest in anything that gives me hayfever to growing things not only because they feed me, but because they smell nice!
I've grown capsicums on a balcony in Poland, I've raided the in-laws' garden to turn our first clay patch in Nappy Valley GREEN, I've dragged pots of herbs from house to house, I've read books and drawn plans, I've recorded the temperature (well that lasted about a week!), I've saved seeds and I've even snapped an extensor tendon when planting silverbeet (BTW, for your future reference, if you hear a POP and then see the end of your finger *hanging*, that just might be what you've done!)
But mostly I've plonked stuff in the ground and hoped for the best!
After reading Mal Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" I started plonking even more in a smaller space....
I have just read "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow and I am **INSPIRED**
She uses similar principles to Bartholomew (ie put lots of plants in a small area)....but she takes the concepts further (or did I just forget lots of what he wrote?) Either way, I ordered her book today so I can write in it and underline it and get it dirty and not have to take it back to the library (all the things I wouldn't do to any other book - but recipe books and gardening books must be different, surely)
I am taking to heart her suggestion to observe and record. In the past I haven't been interested enough to observe beyond deciding whether a plant looks tired enough to relegate to the compost pile, because I'm usually too busy hurrying, but this is AboutToChange.
Hence this blog.
I'm not too good at keeping my notes on scraps of paper in *one place*.
But i AM good at sitting at the pooter
So that makes me hopeful that success will ensue.
