One of the things that i love about gardeners is their generosity. This has been evident in my life in the last few weeks.
I decided that I would like to get a raspberry patch established and had a plan in mind. I started by putting a shout out on my Facebook to ask it anyone had any rasps needing a home. Now a few years back when I worked at the Secret Garden Outdoor Nursery in Letham, Fife, they to had put an effort into getting a fruit bed established and I had planted some of their rasp canes for them. After my shout out Anna from the Secret Garden got back to me to say she was thinning the bed out and I could have some of the rogue plants. Within the week I was in possession of a carrier bag full of delicious autumn rasp canes which are now in a newly established rasp bed.
Above are the before and after shots. In between the shots I consulted my gardening bible – Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, to get an idea of a bed fitting for the plants. There is plenty of well rotted horse manure in the bed and some compost, and I am planning on feeding it with a comfrey tincture. I love that fact that here I was in possession of some of the offspring of the plants that I had put in myself. Seems fitting.
Next, I happened to drop by the Tayport Community Garden on Sunday morning and was made aware of a surplus of Kale, Purple sprouting Broccoli and Caulis – so home came a bunch of each. I had also been to the car booter that morning and bought a single courgette plant. As I was taking my plants home I was wondering where on earth I was going to put them because in my mind’s eye all available space at the lotti had ‘plans’ for it. Anyway, home it all came and was planted by afternoon. Below is a photo of Freya getting her hands in the soil and planting courgette in my home made planter (a compost bin cut into a good sized planter). 
I was hoping to get some dwarf french beans growing and had sown some in a tray in the house. After a few weeks there still was no show from them so I dug a few up only to find they had went mushy in the compost. I am thinking they were old seeds and no longer viable. It was a bit disappointing as Freya loves french beans and as a parent I am keen to feed her any veg she likes. A few days later I went over to visit my old neighbour Morag, as luck would have it Morag, had popped french beans in compost in a sealed bag and offered me a whole bag of them. They had mostly sprouted and i came home and planted them in a tray ready to pop in the lotti when big enough.
The lotti is now filling up fast with way too much of certain produce for us to get through but my intention is to pass on whatever I have a glut of. To me this way of sharing and passing on what we don’t need or use feels like the ‘ gift economy’ in action and it is an ethos which I try to live by . . . . . . . . .
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