Greenery is one!
Happy Substackiversary!
Greenery is one year old today – who’d have thought we’d see each other round a whole year of growing and still be here, soggier, somewhat wiser, and definitely better fed, to tell the tale.
I have so loved writing these pages through the year and discovering all the delights on offer on this platform: it’s really catching on here in the UK now, and according to Farrah Storr Brits are now Substack’s fastest-growing global market.
My little corner of Substack is particularly lovely. I tend to skirt past the shouty political hotspots where people just seem to get increasingly cross at each other, and head instead straight uphill to the leafier, sunlit uplands where everyone is nice and generally quite happy and pretty much just wants to look after the planet we live on, grow beautiful things and eat nice food.
We talk about the moon and the stars, and how the seasons outside our windows change from one day to the next; we sit alongside each other exchanging snippets of wisdom and inspiration as we watch each other actually write an actual book.
It’s not just gardening and eating: I have learned so much from the wonderful Hannah Ritchie, whose measured, calm statistics inform my work on tackling climate change every day; and I am addicted to the wisdom of Margaret Atwood’s amazing insights and wit, always delivered with an economy of words I can only marvel at.
It is a beautiful, inspiring, often humbling place. And the best thing of all? There is always more to discover.
And then there’s Greenery. It has been such a joy to share my season with you, and I hope you have enjoyed the journey with me: I have certainly loved having you along. Together we’ve grown tomatoes (so many tomatoes!), visited Welsh rainforests and fallen in love with scything. We’ve visited Hampton Court (and Chelsea Flower Show); and we’ve sewn up old whey sacks and turned them into biodegradable grow bags. It’s been fun, hasn’t it?
As a little anniversary present from me to you, and as a way of saying thank you for hanging on in there with me, I am opening up the entire year’s archive to everyone, for one week only, so you can explore all the posts at your leisure, perhaps tucked up in front of the fire (frankly the only place to be with the weather as it is) fortified with a cup of hot cocoa. There is much to enjoy: if you like it enough, I hope you’ll consider taking out a paid subscription so you can carry on enjoying the full range of food-growing fun for the rest of the year.
And my, I have a fair bit planned. First, there’s the New Veg Plot Starter Course – a series of lessons each month throughout the year, covering all you need to know about starting up a new plot and turning it into a flourishing vegetable garden. I’m determined to crack the chat system this year, so I am planning to back this up with a dedicated chat so you can ask any questions you might have. More details on their way shortly.
In addition, I will have a go at a Foodie Friday feature, also on the chat, which will be open to everyone and where we can share what we’re harvesting and anything else related to veg growing. To be honest, the details have yet to be decided and it’s all a bit experimental – but let’s have a go, and if you don’t like it or you can think of a better way of doing things, just say.
Our growalong this year is Beautiful Beans! This is a massive topic as there are so many different kinds of bean to grow, and so many ways of growing them. So I may make this a two-season growalong. I’ll start this season with the straightforward beany beans (runners, French and shelling); then in autumn I’ll use late overwintering sowings to tip us into a second year on short fat beans like broad beans, Martock beans and soy beans. I’m just about to order my Heritage Seed Library seeds which tend to major on beans (as the seed are so easy to save) - so the likelihood is there will be some older varieties. But I will try some new ones too, like the climate-change resilient hybrid varieties which are such an improvement on boring old stringy runners. We have much to discuss.
Let me know if you have any ideas for things you’d like to see on these pages! A very happy New Year to you and may your carrots all grow straight in what’s bound to be an exciting season ahead.
I like the sound of a beans grow along. Last year I accidentally grew a climber bean in the greenhouse (I usually only grow the dwarfs in there at the foot of my tomatoes) but it was amazing and I had a mix of fresh pods (to eat as French beans) and they dried beautifully in their pods in the warm of the greenhouse in early autumn. I’ve always struggled to grow Lima beans so thanks to my accident last year I’m thinking of growing them in the greenhouse this summer.