June 2021
This is now our third summer in our Hebridean home and we’ve made good headway with the garden, especially in experimenting with growing a range of fruit and vegetables in the challenging horticultural conditions of the Outer Hebrides.
Some of the things we’ve managed to do so far include:
Building a greenhouse for indoor vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber, squash, peppers, beans, peas, artichokes, broccoli, sweetcorn, as well as our grapevine and hops, and a lemon tree.
Erecting beds for vegetables which can survive outdoors in this climate, such as potatoes, onions, cabbage, swede, beetroot, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, kale, chard, kohlrabi, leek, spring onions and courgette.
Tending a herb garden, which is giving us a regular supply of parsley, mint, rocket, coriander, dill, sorrel, sage, lovage, cress, rosemary, chives and various salad leaves.
Planting a wind-protected corn patch (we’re not too hopeful of this project, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed).
Trying to revive old apple, damson and cherry trees, as well as planting new apple and plum trees, and a range of berry bushes.
Creating a rockery for our strawberry patch (which is looking more promising this summer, after producing very few berries last year).
Our longer-term aim is to become completely self-sufficient in producing our own fruit and vegetables, although we appreciate we still have some way to go to get to that stage the whole year through. It’s a project we’ll keep working on. As mentioned in our previous post, there are countless benefits to growing your own food, and those are what’s keeping us going.
4 thoughts on “Summer garden”
>Our longer-term aim is to become completely self-sufficient in producing our own fruit and vegetables
Good luck chums!
Thanks Duncan!
Have you planted any raspberry canes? I think they should do well up there.
Not yet, Gill, although there are raspberries in the Community Garden which we have access to. Good idea to try them out in our own greenhouse too, though 🙂