Amazing No Dig Vegetable Garden PACKED With Veg, Herbs, Fruit & Flowers

My name is Julia Simmons and we are at Hamilton Hill Allotments and this is our plot, plot number 12 in Glasgow. So we got this plot last year in July after waiting for it for about four years. It did happen in the end. It's been a bit of a surprise because we weren't sure if we were up for it. We were thinking of actually moving away from Glasgow and buying a house in Highlands but we decided to go for it and it's been a great adventure. A lot of work, a lot of lessons learned but it's been fun and joy. So we have never actually grown any fruit or veg before. We've never had a garden, not even a balcony garden, so we are very new to it. We've learned everything of internet, YouTube videos and books and experience trials. So we try to use no-dig approach in general. We grow organically because we care about our fruit and veg. We wanted to be no chemicals. We use natural fertilisers, seaweeds. We make our own compost. We try to rotate our crops as well and do a lot of interplanting to try to maximise our crops. Having this space is amazing because we can grow our own fruit and veg and we very much care about what we eat. We both love cooking so we can use the produce in our kitchen. But it's also a great escape from everyday life and, you know, sometimes when we are frustrated, stressed, it's nice to spend time and if in doubt just come pull some weeds out and your mind is definitely gonna clear after that. It's nice to escape, you know, we are in the city so we are surrounded by nature and sometimes we can just come here, put headphones in or just listen to birds or cats meowing. It's a great outlet, I guess, for everyday life and it's nice to show other people that you can grow stuff because we have some friends who've never been interested in growing and they've been here, they helped us, you know, transplanting plants and then they can get the produce. So it's nice to encourage other people to grow and show them that it's not actually that hard if you try hard. When we started this in the winter we did a lot of research and we set up our own spreadsheet where we laid out our whole plot and actually planned what we're gonna sow and grow in the first part of the year and then what we're gonna interplant and grow as our second rotation. We do try to do a bit of a crop rotation as well and take into account like where the sun shines and where we have shade so that we kind of know what the plants like as well. But we make sure that we have a lot of flowers for the insects and the bees because obviously we want to make them happy as well, it's not just all about us. We had this idea at the beginning of the year to give ourselves a challenge of growing 100 kilo of food in a year. We very much exceeded our own expectations and currently I think we stand at 185 kilos and there's definitely more to come. It was a nice challenge to motivate us to grow and to commit to this because it does require time and effort but it is possible and that's more food than we probably need ourselves. So other people, our friends and family are also happy that we can share the produce or cook something nice for them sometimes. I think just seeing how amazing things grow, which we didn't really expect, like the lushness of it, the greenery and you know it's amazing to be able to pick up a tomato or cucumber that's just so juicy, sweet and tasty and so much tastier than what you can get in the shop. I think these small moments when you pull a massive carrot, it's just really enjoyable and rewarding I guess. I would say one tip is definitely observe. I think it's very important to to be mindful. I think that is what growing teaches us like because you need to think about the future and you need to do a bit of planning but also you need to look what's happening on your plot, you need to observe the plants, you need to see what insects are munching them and how you're going to deal with this and do they need more water or fertilizing or just more love maybe sometimes as well. So that's one thing, probably observing. Another thing, don't give up. You know there will be sometimes setbacks but just keep trying because not everything will be successful but you know keep on trying and grow what you like eating because I think there's no point you know spending an effort into growing something that you don't enjoy. I think if you enjoy eating something and cooking with it then you will have more motivation to grow beautiful food. I would say that there are probably a few things. I think a part of this allotment for me definitely does have sentimental values and my granddad was actually a cut flower market gardener. Initially it was his hobby but then turned into his job after he retired and that's one of the reasons why we have like asters because it's not very British flower but I used to go with, my granddad used to let me cut the flowers when I was a kid and I used to then bunch them up and go to the in front of the cemetery and try to flog my bunched flowers. So there is a lot of sentimental value in it but yeah Polish heritage definitely a lot of cabbages and brassicas in general. We have a lot of traditional dishes with cabbages and I think cabbage is very much underrated vegetable because you know you can make beautiful sauerkraut with it, loads of different flavours. We have some cabbage stews as well so on our plot there's definitely a lot of cabbages, white and red one, pointed and round one. As you can see there is quite a few beetroots and we do, we're very much into preserves as well so beetroot is great vegetable to preserve and then have over winter as well. I guess that's how you kind of extend your period of self-sufficiency as well. Next year we definitely would like to grow some stuff that we haven't grown before, I think definitely more types of squashes. We're gonna have a go also at elephant garlic which we haven't grown before and aubergines. I think that was a massive mess this year and although we have amazing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the polytunnel, aubergines definitely on the list for next year.