From Pretty Potager to Serious Plot

My small potager has expanded piecemeal over the years in a fairly unplanned and inefficient way, adding a little bed here and a little bed there, all the while accommodating the steeply sloping site. In its early years it looked really lovely.

Sadly, it had reached the point where it was getting dangerous – with crumbling steps and uneven paths – and I knew it was time to do something about it.

The plastic bags are full of salvaged soil ready for reusing

The old garden was easily dismantled

When we replaced our old garage with a new weather-boarded one, we kept all the concrete panels and these have been used to build the new vegetable garden.  Although the weather has not been on our side, doughty hard landscapers Ray & Alan have somehow demolished the old beds, created new ones and made something that while it may not be very pretty at the moment (to be frank the words ‘urban-brutalist’ come to mind) is definitely not going to collapse until my gardening days are long over.

There are good size beds, wide paths and proper steps and I’m sure that once I start softening it with planting, it will mellow down – and prove far more productive and easy to work in than its pretty but impractical predecessor. There’s lot to do – the beds need topping up with soil and compost, and the fences need slotting into place – but I’ve got my planting plan to hand as encouragement to get it all done so that it’s ready to plant up as the season begins.