I’ve been waiting for ages for this show to actually start as I saw the book listed pre-publication on amazon and that it was obviously going to be a companion to a TV show. However, it seemed to be delayed from March to April, possibly due to the late start to Spring, IDK.
Alys Fowler is one of the presenters of Gardeners World and that’s where I know her from. I also bought her first book – The Thrifty Gardener – last August.
Now she has a new series all about growing food in your garden. Here are the details of tonight’s show:
Peas and Beans. Episode 1.
Alys Fowler attempts to avoid shop-bought fruit and vegetables and live off her own, home-grown produce. It’s no easy task because Alys doesn’t want to turn her garden into an allotment, so she’s growing her fruit and vegetables among her flowers. Peas and beans are prolific vegetables but they also look beautiful in the borders. Alys makes delicious broad bean falafels, pea shoot cocktails and forages for willow to make plant supports.
What did I like about this episode? I liked that she was using a really old box of marrowfat peas and sprouting them in a drawer or something and then made pea martinis with them. I liked seeing the sketches of her garden plan and what changes she was going to make in order to fit more food into the garden. I liked that she had packed a LOT in to a tiny space and everything was doing pretty well, and I liked that she was breaking the “rules” a little bit by not adhering to specified distances between plants. And I liked that she was going to keep a couple of chickens in her back yard!
If you liked this show you might also want to check out Geoff Hamilton’s – The Ornamental Kitchen Garden – book and DVD in which he does very similar things to Alys 20 years ago and in a much less funky way.
I’m trying to remember what other show I watched where they visited people who were using the principles of permaculture. It may well have been It’s not easy being Green but I would have to check and confirm for sure.
Edit: yes it was this show, first series. There is also a book – click on the image link for more details.
