This innovative private garden in the heart of St Annes certainly has plenty going on. Stephanie has used her imagination and made a garden from recycled items. The raised beds are a mix of wooden ones (made by a friend), old filing cabinets and a variety of household items. Most of the items have either been given or acquired for very small costs making this a very budget friendly way to build a garden.
The filing cabinets have been painted and once placed on their sides provide an ideal working height to save your back whilst gardening. The cabinets were half filled with polystyrene and other unwanted packaging materials before being topped up with compost and top soil. They have proved to be an ideal growing medium for a variety of vegetables and because the metal gets hot this gives them a flying start. Spinach, Kale, Thyme, Garlic and salad vegetables do very well.
Stephanie says she has a “trial and error” system to see which plants do best and although some have failed she has been rewarded with a fairly constant supply of edibles this year. Any excess crops are donated to Wesley’s community kitchen.
Future plans include using the drawers from the filing cabinets to make more space to grow salad vegetables and growing more unusual varieties of potato.
By looking at the photographs I am sure you may be able to take up a few ideas to use in your garden. If you do, or if you are already doing something similar, please send us your photos and a brief story of your garden.
St Anne's in Bloom 