Organic Gardening at Abbey Cottage
Abbey Cottage, Itchen Abbas
“… may I a small house and a large garden have” Abraham Cowley, 1647.

I write as an organic gardening novice, and without horticultural or botanical training, but with enthusiasm for every moment I can spend in my garden. For several years, probably since completing the structure of the garden and thinking more about the plants, I felt there was something missing in my gardening. I now realise this missing element was organic gardening, and I have changed my ways.

     Organic gardening always seemed to me a mystery, and something other people did. I failed even to think about what organic gardening would involve. I have a tidy nature, and the thought of pieces of carpet on beds and compost heaps, and of growing vegetables in old motorcar tyres, was anathema to me. I also wanted to cure horticultural problems immediately, and it was easy to purchase a bottle of killer off the shelf. No one had ever told me, or even suggested, that I should garden organically – why should they have done so? But perhaps they should!

    There were two events that caused me to change my ways. I was encouraged to visit two local organic gardens. The owners were most friendly people, and were sensibly enthusiastic about their interesting gardens. Those visits demystified organic gardening and I realised that much of what I was already doing was organic.  Then I remembered that a friend wrote in my book My Garden is your Garden: ‘This story reflects the deep affection the author holds for “the garden he has found to make his own”, and his profound respect for nature’.  How could I but garden organically?
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