Alys Fowler was the class act at the Scotland's Garden Scheme conference. For those outwith this neck of the woods Scotland's Garden Scheme is a charity that supports private gardens opening to the general public for a small remuneration. These range from grand houses to small back gardens to allotments. The equivalent in England is the National Garden Scheme. Teas are a big feature!
Every year the SGS have a conferance in Edinburgh. After the AGM and lunch with the Sponsors (and a few glasses of wine) there is a talk from a well known gardening luminary.
On this occasion it was the ininimatble Alys Fowler. If you haven't come across Alys before have a look at this link:
Her subject was "The Edible Garden".
Why do we keep veg and flowers separate? Her talk focused on breaking with convention to create a garden that tastes as good as it looks. And there is a book.....
Alys grows her vegetables, herbs and other edibles (so many flowers and plants are edible) in among perennials. What some people might refer to as a herbaecous garden. Alys starts everything in plugs (yes even carrots)in her own DIY cold frames. There is no green house in her garden.
She included fascinating information about worms and breeding and how many there should ideally be to a spade spit in your vegetable garden. I must try that...
Alys is also in many ways a gardener of her generation. Not only did her husband (a non gardener) start a Face Book campaign to stop her chopping down a magnolia that he had become attached to but she is a regular blogger.
I was amused that Alys's mobile phone rang a few times during the talk. She was unperturbed and dealt with it without apologising or getting in a flap. I'm sure several of the audience were tut-tutting under their breath. If I had been watching a film I might have joined them . But it didn't put her off her stride in the slightest.
When Alys left the conference I saw her unlock her fold-down bicycle and launch herself into the Edinburgh Rush hour traffic. And that takes some nerve..
But all things that go around tend to come around. My mother (an immensely able gardener on a shoestring) often planted veg in the flower border. I don't think she knew why she did it except there was a space and why not?
I was a bit sarcastic at the time. A cauliflower in with the irises, please!
Now I'm rather proud of the fact that my mother was ahead of her time.
Excellent! Thank u 4 introducing me to Alys...I am intrigued.
ReplyDeleteDelightful writing.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteFor all the gardeners on the other side of the pond Alys spend some time working in the Botanical Garden in New York when she was 19. She spent her evenings working in a community garden in Manhattan where everything was done on a shoestring. Alys says this was formed her present gardening ethos.