Margaret Merrison

Hi, I’m Margaret Merrison, I’m retired I have been growing plants and caring for gardens, large and small, for most of my life.

When I was about 7 years old, I kept pestering my Dad for a bit of his garden to grow some plants myself. Eventually, he gave in and I, delightedly, took over a corner of about 2 sq m (22 sq ft). I bought a couple of herbs and my Mum gave me some flowering plants by splitting some of hers. This was great, however, I wanted a pond, so, a little later, I bought a blue washing-up bowl with my pocket money. I sunk it in the middle of my garden and put some rainwater and a few stones in it. A friend gave me some tadpoles and this, for me, made my garden come alive.

My Dad was a woodwork school-teacher, but when he came back to his teaching job after the war, his woodworking post had been taken by another teacher. The school was duty-bound to employ him and so they gave him the post of gardening teacher. Just after the war, food was still scarce and growing-your-own food was an important resource. My Dad did not know much about gardening, but with books and converting his garden to a vegetable plot, he learnt to grow vegetables and was soon competently teaching the senior school children, as well as myself.

Since growing up, I have been lucky enough to have a garden almost everywhere I have lived. Most gardens already had herbaceous plants and shrubs, but I added my own style in my gardens, for example, in one garden, I only added herbs and in another, I augmented it with vegetables. At one house, where I did not have a large enough space to grow vegetables at home, I rented an allotment. Being a middle aged female at the time, I was first thought of as a bit weird in the allotment gardens in the 1980’s and most of the allotmenteers, who were older retired men, did not say much to me. However, when they saw that I could grow a reasonable crop, they warmed to me and I became ‘one of the lads.’

My Dad learnt to grow vegetables using double digging and many other labour intensive methods. I, also, used to grow vegetables in this way. However, in 2008, I learnt about Permaculture and attended a Permaculture Design course. Here I discovered a different way of gardening, which really resonated with me. I learnt how to take care of the soil and nature, for example, knowing that digging is bad for the soil, because it destroys the mycorrhizal fungi threads which have many natural, self-sustainable benefits for plants and the soil. I now use no-dig methods and my aching back is much better. This does not mean that I never wield a spade, because root vegetables, such as parsnips, are harvested by digging them up and compost needs to be dug out of the heap, but it is considerably reduced.

In my early retirement years, I was very fortunate to have 3 acres of land to care for. In this space I had an annual vegetable plot, a greenhouse, a useful perennial plant area, about an acre of coppicing willow trees for our wood burner and range, a wildlife pond and some wildlife areas. During the writing of this book, I have moved and downsized my garden, but still have a good sized vegetable area, a greenhouse and some perennial beneficial plants.

As gardening is a seasonal activity, when experimenting, if something does not go quite right, it has to be left until the following season to try it again, unless there is a large amount of land to grow many different experiments. I would like to share the gardening techniques that I have learnt over the years, so that you do not have to waste years with experimentation. I have found that the old ways are best for some activities, while sustainable methods work well with other endeavours.

I look forward to helping you, your garden and, ultimately, the planet, through this book.

Wishing you warm, abundant sunshine and showers for your crops,

Margaret Merrison