{"id":228,"date":"2021-03-29T08:48:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T08:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/2021\/03\/29\/good-life-garden\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T13:26:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T13:26:27","slug":"good-life-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/2021\/03\/29\/good-life-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Life Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

The goods that money can\u2019t buy. That\u2019s exactly what you can get your hands on with homegrown horticulture. Whether it\u2019s the end product or the experience of growing it, doing it for thyself offers priceless rewards.<\/p>

Naturally we\u2019re curious to see what people get up to and are always keen to promote further adventurism in plant cultivation. Unable to resist the pull of some truly fascinating and intrepid gardening, our curiosity led us inexorably into the orbit of Good Life Garden<\/a>. Diana, the Lincolnshire-based gardener behind this wildly popular blog, took us through exactly how she goes about raising fruit and veg that excite the mind and delight the tastebuds. You\u2019re going to want to know more!<\/p>

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Above: Helping you see you in the dark! Super vibrant carrots
on the highly informative @Good_Life_Garden Insta feed<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

\u201cCrazy looking rainbow carrots, blue squash, black tomatoes etc.<\/a>\u201d, it\u2019s all par for the course with Diana. Though these undoubtedly jazz up Good Life Garden\u2019s Insta feed, the eclectic selection of veg is not about window dressing. \u201cEverything I grow is what I or my other half wants to eat. We are absolutely fascinated to try out the kind of fruit and veg that\u2019s not available in the supermarkets\u201d. But owning what she eats goes way beyond Diana\u2019s choice of plants.<\/p>

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Above: Pretty delicious – Diana\u2019s produce is typically colourful
but there\u2019s always a definite culinary purpose in mind<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

As well as allowing you to select your output, cultivating at home allows you to control inputs. Like many growers Diana considers it important that she can trust in the provenance of their food. \u201cIt is organic, and we know what went into growing our produce.\u201d<\/p>

An enviable amount of outdoor space<\/a> allows Diana to grow a wide variety. She has over twenty raised beds and a greenhouse. These are where she mostly grows vegetables, \u201cfor eating fresh or cooking in the kitchen.\u201d There\u2019s also a small fruit tree orchard \u201cfor apples, pears, plums, cherries, damsons etc.) and a patch for soft fruit, that includes a selection of gooseberries, raspberries, currants and strawberries.\u201d<\/p>

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Above: Beanstalk-cam! Diana takes a well-earned<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Despite the scale of her work Diana always relates back to her beginnings. Her advice is to \u201cstart small, understand what you want to grow (food that you like to eat?) and take it from there. As long as you start somewhere!\u201d. Notwithstanding the space at her disposal certain facts of home growing life also apply to her as much as any keen horticulturalist.<\/p>

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Above: Gardens this size are a serious commitment – self-watering systems such as the
AutoPots Diana will be trialling can alliviate a massive amount of manual labour<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Firstly, given a space in which to grow Diana has gone out and filled it, extracting the most from an area, often with a great deal of ingenuity. Secondly, plants still require care and attention. Thirdly, unless you embrace growing technology certain plant types are ruled out by climate and workload. Diana\u2019s affinity for space-optimisation, respect for responsive growing, and ardour for experimentation with interesting varieties made her an absolute shoo-in for an AutoPot<\/a>–Mills<\/a> trial. We had a chat with her about gardeners attitudes towards the application of hydro tech<\/a>.<\/p>

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Above: Any space is an opportunity for growing – as true of a vast garden as it is of a windowbox<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Quite revealing was Diana\u2019s take on the gap between hydro growers and traditional gardeners. A gap that still needs bridging. \u201c<\/strong>Personally speaking, I think innovation is the future. But I also think there needs to be more information out there. When I started to get into gardening, I didn’t know about automated watering systems\u201d.<\/p>

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Above: Anywhere will do – the AutoPot modules that will be trialled operate
power-free and require no running water, making any growing space viable<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

We know this lack of information is a problem where keen, newbie gardeners are concerned. There\u2019s a real chance they\u2019re missing an avenue into growing at home. The idea behind hook-ups like ours with Good Life Garden is to get wider exposure for what is possible – no matter how small your growing space or how minimal your available time<\/a>. And so to the plan.<\/p>

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Above: The capacity and versatility of easy2Propagate is an absolute boon
with such variety coming through every year<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

In order to get underway Diana\u2019s got the easy2Propagate Complete Kit<\/a> which has \u201ca bit of everything in it at the moment. There\u2019s flower seeds waiting to germinate, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chicory, kale cuttings, and I am trying to propagate 2-month-old loofas and micro dwarf tomatoes that are about to flower.\u201d In this instance the easy2Propagate has been configured to run with an AQUAvalve5<\/a> for automatic watering, although it can be hand-watered. Diana\u2019s water supply comes courtesy of a fully collapsible 25 L \/ 6.6 gal FlexiTank<\/a> – eliminating the need for running water.<\/p>

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Above: Diana\u2019s easy2Propagate in operation with AQUAvalve5 for power-free
automatic watering, the plugs go to a room heater and grow light<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

A timed heater takes the room to between 18\u00b0C and 24\u00b0C. This, combined with the AQUAvalve and a grow light, means that Diana can leave seedlings to develop and with absolutely minimal intervention required. \u201cAll of which makes growing more entertaining and less of a chore.\u201d Incidentally, if you\u2019re looking to heat just your propagator then heat mats represent another excellent option.<\/p>

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Above: One of the 2-month-old Luffas being brought along in easy2Propagate<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

The capacity and versatility of the easy2Propagate come in handy with such a variety underway, in a wide range of containers. \u201cI\u2019ve got a mixture of everything \u2013 mostly seed trays going up to 11cm pots. Also, earlier in the year, when I was just starting the growing season, it was mostly coir pellets directly on the propagator, until the roots started to show.\u201d Other viable options include root cubes, plugs, and growing directly on the root control sheet to name but a few<\/a>.<\/p>

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Above: The build-up continues in Diana\u2019s propagation kitchenette<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Time spent within the propagator is obviously variety-dependent. \u201cSome seedlings ie. lettuce, leeks, Brussels sprouts, kale were in the propagator for few weeks. The companion plant flowers such as marigolds and cosmos were in the propagator 1-2 weeks.\u201d Once germinated, Diana moves them into an unheated conservatory, where they are happy to grow in slightly cooler temperatures.<\/p>

Come warmer weather, established plants will migrate to easy2grow<\/a> and 1Pot Systems<\/a> for side-by-side trials. Mills have kindly supplied a full range of substrates and nutrients, allowing Diana to get right underway. Potting up watering systems really is a breeze, but we understand that its unfamiliarity can daunt newcomers – so we\u2019ve put together a handy potting up guide<\/a> that you can access via our website. In her conservatory and greenhouse Diana will be \u201clooking forward to splitting and growing some of my heat-loving vegetable plants using AutoPot and some traditionally. The veg plants will include a selection of chillies \/ peppers, aubergines, tomatoes and maybe a climber plant such as cucumber or melon\u201d.<\/p>

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Above: Diana is a dab hand at heat-loving plants so it\u2019ll be fascinating
to see how she fares with her AutoPot modules<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

One of the things that really appealed to us with Good Life Garden is the depth of communication Diana has with her followers. Engagement is a \u2018buzzy’ word but without it Insta life truly is all a bit \u2018look at me\u2019. Happy to say that Diana takes great pleasure in chatting about the highs, lows, hacks, and roundabouts of gardening with those that get involved with her feed. In her own words, \u201cit also keeps the platform entertaining and fun \u2013 posting pictures on Instagram every day and not communicating or engaging with others would be boring\u201d. We can heartily recommend a visit and very much look forward to sharing her uncommonly exciting and delicious exploits in fruit and veg.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The goods that money can\u2019t buy. That\u2019s exactly what you can get your hands on with homegrown horticulture. Whether it\u2019s the end product or the experience of growing it, doing it for thyself offers priceless rewards. Naturally we\u2019re curious to see what people get up to and are always keen to promote further adventurism in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden","category-autopot-news-march-2021"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/Good_Life_Main.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autopot.co.uk\/garden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}