LONG DISTANCE GARDENING
My plot is an allotment-sized ‘potager’ in France, to which I flit backwards and forwards across the channel, getting there roughly once every five to six weeks for a week or three, which I can do now as I’m semi-retired. As it is ‘long-distance gardening,’ the plot has to be able to take care of itself, so I fill it with low-maintenance crops such as lettuce, radish, carrots, onions, potatoes, blight-resistant tomatoes, low-growing beans, and leave out stuff which needs a lot of care, watering or tying in. I also use a lot of black plastic sheeting or geotextiles to keep down the weeds, which grow abundantly as the soil is so fertile.
I am a champion of companion planting, and my overriding criteria for a place…