How it all began...
I started a container garden in our new place in Taradell, Catalunya last summer (2021) and I had no idea I would love it so much. It grounded me during the pandemic, consoled me during my language struggles and soothed my anxiety about venturing out of the safety of our house.
I grew tomatoes from seedlings, strange I know as I don't even like tomatoes but I loved seeing them develop more leaves, a flower and a tiny tomato! I watched them grow, and grow, and grow into a forest of tomato plants. It was so joyous.
I'd had a dream to grow tomatoes and chillis to make peri-peri sauce which I eventually did 😊
Fast forward a year and I started dreaming of having a garden made of earth rather than containers. Jim talked about finding me an allotment ('hort' in Catalan), something very common here. Everyone with a piece of land grows an abundance of vegetables in the summer. Soon the town grapevine was activated. My walk and talk friend, Raqel, heard from the corner pet/garden store that the local high school was looking for a retiree to develop an hort at the school. The idea being to get the students outside and involved in gardening. Sadly they had no takers. The universe was looking kindly upon me. I happened to know one of the school directors having met him the first day we landed in Taradell. Raqel and I visited the school and we all agreed that we could take on the hort project. The aim being integrated learning, being outside, a bit of English and learning about plants. All my favourite things in one!
In May 2022 I met my future garden.
I was so excited and so daunted at the same time. It was enormous!!! And so bare. And so dry!
I'd been growing various plants from seed since March and my balcony was overflowing with small plants ready for a home.
All the blogs and articles I'd read advised planning the space. I didn't know what that meant so I decided to have a middle row for students to walk down and plants on either side.
The first experiment:
Everyone in the town puts out organics for the town to turn into compost which is then offered to the town residents. I went down to the car park to get a sackful. The school offered three sacks of town compost so I tilled in one sack into the right hand side of the hort.
The water:
The bigger issue was watering. I couldn't go there every day as weekends away beckoned, trips to Scotland planned and visitors on their way.
Before I could plant anything, I had to find ways to get the plants watered while I was away. It was time for some experimenting on my own balcony garden so we could head out of town.
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