Hello and welcome!
I’m Sally Nex and I’m so delighted to have you here at Greenery - the hub for everyone who loves growing, particularly stuff they can eat!
I’m a professional gardener and award-winning garden writer: you might have come across my articles in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, The Garden (the Royal Horticultural Society’s journal), Telegraph Gardening and Grow Your Own. I’ve also written three books about various aspects of veg growing and sustainable gardening.
I am also a dog lover (you will likely meet my two unruly but lovable garden assistants, Oakley and Biggles, as they can’t bear to have a photo going on without bombing it); and I keep chickens, or at least I will again once the bird flu dies down a bit.
I love to share my garden, and the food I grow there. I garden in Somerset, in the south-west of England: for those of you familiar with USDA hardiness zones, it’s roughly 8b/9a - so we do get occasional frosts, but not very hard (anything below -5C is unusual).
I have an allotment-sized veg plot tucked in between twin ancient hedgerows which are wonderful, in that they are full of wildlife and filter out the sometimes very blustery south-westerlies we get here: but not so great in that they are mouse superhighways, and rabbits occasionally pop out of them too to see if they can find any new holes in my fences.
I have been growing almost all my fresh food for nearly 30 years: I started in the tiniest of city gardens in London, graduated to a suburban strip and from there to a full allotment plot. Along the way I have learned such a lot: and now I’d really like to share all that knowledge and experience with you.
Greenery is essentially a great big grow-along. The idea is that we all grow our way through the season side by side, comparing notes, learning from each other’s experiences. I want to share with you all I know - but also to find out about your gardens, and how you grow your food too. We can all help each other, swap tips, share experiences… and build one of those lovely happy gardening communities all centred around home-grown food.
Free subscribers
The main newsletter is free, and always will be: here’s where I’ll share with you what’s going on in the veg garden, what we’re sowing, progress reports on crops, troubleshooting and tips. Feel free to comment, ask questions, suggest items for future newsletters and share with your friends and family!
Paid subscribers
If you can stretch to a paid subscription you’re enabling me to spend my time creating more in-depth content designed to really take your veg-growing to the next level. I have so many things I’d like to try out as our community builds: recipes, how-to instructions, and in time masterclass-style videos to help you try the sustainable growing techniques I use for yourself. I’d like to run regular Gardeners’ Question Time style Q&A sessions tackling your thorniest problems: text at first, but I hope in time we can schedule some live sessions too, as well as the occasional general meet-up just for fun. Other plans include podcast-style interviews with leading veg growers, detailed season-long growalongs for specific vegetables with seed giveaways, sustainable product info with the occasional special offer…. goodness however am I going to squeeze it all in! And of course it’s your space - so if you have ideas about what you’d like to see here, just get in touch.
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your email inbox. You can dip into content on your phone while you’re out and about via the Substack app, too.
Join the crew
I’d love you to become part of our community: we all have a shared interest in growing good food right from the start, and in helping the environment by gardening sustainably and with a lighter touch. We can share our triumphs, and commiserate over the things that didn’t go so well; and generally help, support and encourage each other through the veg-growing year. Do join us!
