Garden Wisdom

If you could impart just one bit of garden wisdom to a gardener starting out, what would it be?

My late father was a wonderful gardener, and passed on all sorts of knowledge, like "get the soil right, the rest will look after itself".

An elderly gardening friend, now into her late eighties, would always say of the onions - plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest, so I need to get cracking.

I have also been digging into the The National Trust Calendar of Garden Lore by Julia Jones and Barbara Deer, which although northern-hemisphere oriented, is still a beautiful, beautiful book. I could kill the friend who borrowed it and left it where her children destroyed the cover. If anyone has it, and would be prepared to make a coloured photocopy of the cover, you can name your price.

So, what is my bit of Garden Lore?

If you are going to make a kitchen garden by just putting down bricks to make raised beds, make sure the paths are wide enough for your favourite barrow to fit its legs between them!

Here it is, in all its weedy glory. My beloved is examining ways of belting the struts on which the barrow stands just a little bit closer to each other.

I have another, smaller barrow with narrower struts, but it is a shallow apology for a barrow.

If you are trying the work out the large-leaved plant front left, it is Horseradish.

Anyone got any spare Garden Lore as a Christmas present for other gardeners? If it is on your own blog, please leave a link in the comments, so we can all grow in Wisdom.