#lifecapturedproject // if you could grow anything you wanted to, what would you grow?

I would love to be able to grow food for us to eat. I know very little about gardening, despite having a Mother who knows an enormous amount about plants. It is yet another of the skills that I wish I had been more interested when I lived at home. When we bought our first house two years ago, I was thrilled to have a garden of our own, but it was a long way off being a place where plants could thrive. The ground had been levelled with tonnes and tonnes of rubble. My husband spent our first Summer here digging it all up so that we could lay turf, and a flower bed for my roses and peonies. We have pretty much filled up all of the available space for planting in our little garden, so it is not very feasible to try and plant crops. In my dream garden, there would be a couple of apple trees, potatoes, courgettes, peas, runner beans, corn, salad leaves, tomatoes and squash. Currently, our edible plants consist of strawberries and a few tomato plants that look really rather sickly.

While my dream of having a plentiful harvest of crops for us to eat is a very long way off, I still feel a little giddy when I spot a ripe strawberry, ready for us to pick and eat. One of my residing memories of this Summer will be looking out into the garden on a number of occasions to see Ruby looking for new strawberries, and merrily munching on them as soon as she finds them. I planted these strawberries about five years ago with the class I was teaching at the time. Even though I know little about gardening, I was always very keen to give the children I taught the opportunity to have a go at growing their own food. I think it is invaluable for them to see the process of growth, and experience the joy of eating the fruits of their labour. Here's to attempting to grow new things each year and not being held back by what I don't know.