Katy says that her focus in our garden last year was purely to fill the beds with colour; she bulk bought ‘naff’ buds to quickly fill the space. Having gained more confidence in her abilities, this year she’s experimenting with more interesting varieties. “The key with this garden is getting height,” she says; it’s a small, courtyard garden with a high exposed brick wall at the back, so we now have towering vines of jasmine and pots of bamboo to make it feel a little less walled in. I’m promised pungent purple jasmine flowers will bud any day now. There’s also a woodland-inspired bed, with ferns, foxgloves and forget-me-knots, while planters sprout tulips and daffodils.
Next, our edible plant section. We apparently have rosemary, mint, thyme and bay (a revelation to me), and are growing oregano and coriander inside. “In May, June and July those herbs will come outside,” says Katy. “Right now, it’s too cold.”
And as we start to think about how often we can get our hands on fresh greens from the supermarket, we’ve also started to seed lettuce, spinach and rocket in the garden. “These are meant to be easy to grow even for inexperienced gardeners,” Katy informs me. “If you have a shady garden and it’s relatively cold, you’ll be fine. These plants don’t like extreme weather so if you plant them in the height of summer, they’ll go straight to seed.” These can take a few months to grow, I found out when I hastily started planning spring salad recipes: “It’s all about the process and patience, Julia,” I was reminded… But if all goes to plan, there’ll be courgettes, tomatoes, pumpkins and chillies before too long too.