As part of our Gardening Inspirations series, CoirProducts.co.uk featured grower this week is Ellen (country_allotment). In this blog post, Ellen talks to us about how she was inspired by her great great uncle in her early gardening years and wanted to keep the legacy of the garden going. Having been hooked on gardening since then, Ellen now grows a variety of flowers and vegetables, from dahlias to pumpkins. Read on to find out all about Ellen’s gardening journey.
Reflecting on how she started gardening/growing, Ellen says, “it all began when my parents moved house and I was able to create a garden as we had a bit more space.
The garden was my great great uncle’s and was always a pristine cottage garden patch with vegetables neatly in beds, but over time had been neglected and couch grass was rampant!”
Later, Ellen says, she saved up and bought her first greenhouse, and started to grow “sweetpeas, helichrysums and a packet of pumpkins.” In fact, pumpkins are her first gardening success. From there on, Ellen says, she was hooked! “I bought some seed potatoes and I dug a small patch and planted things. The ground was covered in weeds and I used to spend hours clearing it all. As the years have gone on, with time and effort I have the allotment area looking much better,” Ellen says, and goes on to add, “I guess since I have started growing I have grown the scale of what I grow.”
When it comes to growing, Ellen’s specialities include growing dahlias, gourds, and pumpkins. She grows cut flowers, mainly dahlias but also statice, helichrysums, zinnas, sparkling fountain, ammi majus, love lies bleeding, sunflowers, marigolds, and sweetpeas. The vegetables she grows are all organic, and there are plenty. Among them are pumpkins, gourds, squashes, brassicas, leeks, potatoes, beetroot, Swiss chard, parsnips, spinach, sweetcorn, runner beans, peas, carrots, onions, lettuce, beetroot, tomatoes, cucumbers, and courgette.
Speaking of who inspired her to start gardening, Ellen says it was her great great uncle, Harry, who was an avid gardener himself. “I used to see him gardening but took little interest as I was young. When I saw pictures of how the allotment garden area looked, I wanted to bring it back to life. My great great uncle Harry devoted his life to the garden and everything he grew, he has even worn his spade, he worked that hard. I wanted to keep the legacy of the garden/allotment going and it’s only created through time and effort and not forgetting enjoyment.”
Ellen works for the NHS, therefore, she usually has spare time mainly in the evening or weekends. She’ll find time weekly to tend to her garden, even if it’s a small job like planting some seeds or weeding.
As with most growers, Ellen decides what to grow through trial and error. “You never know how anything is going to grow well or give you a good crop. The weather is a real deal breaker and if you plant something one year and it doesn’t work well or you don’t eat enough of it, I tailor my growing to what our family eats and the flowers to what I like to grow.”
Speaking about what she enjoys the most about gardening, Ellen says it’s “creating new things and getting excited about the colours in the garden and the seasons.” She goes on to add, “I love how the time flies, I could spend all day in the garden. I love going out and cutting flowers for the house and flower arranging. It’s so satisfying picking your veggies from the garden for dinner.”
Having used coir-based products recently, Ellen says, she really likes it, and looks forward to sowing vegetables in the coir discs.
Looking towards next year, Ellen says, “as well as doing my masters, trialling new flowers and dahlias for my wedding in 2024, we are also going to trial different wild flowers in between the vegetables, mainly phacelia.” But gardening is what she loves. For Ellen, gardening allows her to switch off from work, get exercise, while she also values the enjoyment it brings.. Ellen says she also supports wildlife, especially bees. And as for new gardeners, she says, “just have a go, don’t worry if it doesn’t work, just give it a go.”
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