You Haven’t Seen a Vegetable Garden Like This!

I was blown away by how unique this garden is when I went to visit it! Follow Richard’s amazing journey: https://www.instagram.com/northern_horticulturist

#gardeningideas #gardeningtips #vegetablegarden

Hello, I’m Richard. I’m a gardener by trade. Um, and I also garden as a hobby in my uh a lotment. Just the start of this year we got it. And it was a field of weeds before which we totally cleared uh to start with a blank canvas. And I let my imagination go wild with the uh with the beds. There’s no straight lines in this uh in this plot. It’s all saves and segments which is kind of unique and um it works very very well. My thinking process behind it was I didn’t want it to be like anyone else’s plot. When you walk up the path of the a lotment here, everyone’s got it rows and rows and in squares. And I just wanted something that was totally unique and would stand out and would be an absolute pleasure to just spend time down here and well chill out really which is what we do. From the start it was probably one big stress. Um when I agreed to take the plot on I didn’t know what it looked like nor would entail. Uh the chairman just said we’ve got a plot. Would you like it? and without thinking, yes was the answer. And he brought me down and showed me this plot with the weeds up here and there was bags of rubbish and there was all sorts on the plot. Well, did I slightly regret my decision? Only very slightly. But then I thought, right, let’s get cracked on and uh and clear the space and get a blank canvas to work with. I mean, it does take time. However, a strimmer half an hour at the most just just going around. Um, it’s a good job that I quite like streaming. I I find it a therapeutic job. You can think a lot whilst you’re streaming. Um, and yeah, I just once a week just go around and uh and tidy it up. When it’s freshly trimmed, it looks absolutely on point. It really does. It pops everything. I suppose the joy is when I first did it, the rest of the plot holders were coming round and they were being nosy. Um, one chap said it was like the Yorkshire Q gardens, which I’m taking. Um, but the joy is just to be you feel like you’re always surrounded by plants. You’re surrounded by foliage. Uh just just like now I’m I’m in with what I’ve got growing and I can look I can check around the hall of the beds uh for for pest and disease or quality and things that are are ready which if you’re growing in long lines or large beds you can’t really see into the middle but with these I can see around them all. My tips. Don’t stress. It’s your garden. You garden how you want. Let your imagination go wild. Cuz that’s what I did here. If you make mistakes, you make mistakes. You learn by those. I’ve been gardening all my life. I’ve enjoyed gardening since I was young. Um, and still making mistakes now. And that’s that’s how you learn. And only grow things that you’re going to eat. Don’t grow things that you’re not going to eat because there’s not much point tending to them. We’ve just uh done a show garden at Gardener World Autumn Fair and uh we won gold. The entire garden was um made up of edibles. You could eat everything in the garden and we actually grew everything from seed in the poly tunnel um on the plot. And I just wanted to showcase that edibles don’t belong just on an aotment or a veggie bed. You can use them in ornamental settings, which is almost what we’ve got here. Um, this is a garden in itself really. It’s it’s probably too nice to be a an aotment, but um yeah, I I love eating veggies, so it was a no-brainer that I was to do a show garden built of entirely edible plants. I think everyone that saw it from the start probably went home and thought, “What on earth is he doing?” Because it was just a a plot of weird shapes and uh and turf. But I I don’t think I’ve had anyone that sort of thought or even said to my face, they might have thought it, but said to my face, “This is wrong. This isn’t how you lay out an aotment.” But I think that’s the joy in an a lotment. You can do what you want with it and everyone everyone’s is different. And the final thing um unless there’s anything else you want to say, the final thing is can you just just very succinctly tell me how you got into gardening, your story? How how I got into gardening? Well, I’ve got my granddad to thank for that. Um, I can only just remember before I could even walk, he would push me down to his uh veggie plot in his wheelbarrow and I’d watch him there digging and uh tending to his veggies. And then when I was old enough, I’d be out there digging with him as well. And I suppose that’s where I got my love for gardening was uh was granddad. And uh I’ve never stopped really. I I’m when I was sort of mid- teens, I’d get a a a greenhouse of my own and and grow my own veggies for uh for for cooking for dinners and things. And uh yeah, I’ve just I’ve just enjoyed it all my life. And I think it’s quite a privilege to say that I’ve enjoyed gardening all my life as a as a hobby and as work as well. Is is your granddad still around? He isn’t, unfortunately. No. And I never told him, “Thank you for showing me how to how to garden, how passing his passion on to me.” What do you think he’d make of this? I think he’d probably think, “What on earth are you doing?” Because his was very very neat uh rows, row after row, but I think he’d be he’d probably be very very chuffed that uh that I’m still g. If you want to see more inspiring gardens just like Richard, then there’s a whole playlist there of over 30 different gardens. And now is a time to get inspiration and ideas for the next growing