Digging Around with Leyla Kazim
"I garden with two main motivations – to encourage wildlife and to grow edibles."
Digging Around is back! In this week’s episode of this occasional series, we’re Digging Around with the excellent Substacker, presenter, writer and journalist Leyla Kazim.
On Substack Leyla writes A Day Well Spent, a newsletter for people seeking pathways to more purposeful living where she explores the themes of self-empowerment, personal fulfilment and growth and ways of slow and sustainable living.
Outside of Substack, Leyla is a food and travel presenter, writer and journalist. She is a critic on MasterChef in the UK, a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s award-winning weekly show The Food Programme and a judge for the prestigious annual BBC Food & Farming Awards. You can also find her in various other TV bits.
I was just so thrilled when Leyla agreed to be part of this series - you can read for yourselves here just how encouraging and inspirational she is. If you’re not already familiar with Leyla’s A Day Well Spent, I can HIGHLY recommend it and encourage you to go and have a look.
I recall such patient, encouraging and detailed responses. It was this early introduction to that world that made me realise, people who garden are quite often, really nice.
Leyla, when did gardening arrive for you?
I garden with two main motivations – to encourage wildlife and to grow edibles. And the first time I ever grew a vegetable was 16 years ago in 2008, fresh out of university and starting my first (and last) real world corporate job. A friend and I had moved into an apartment on Kings Avenue in Clapham in South West London. It had just one bedroom, even though we were two, but we chose it in order to save money – someone would use the living room as their bedroom. And that person was me.
This living room / bedroom had double glass doors leading out onto a good-sized south-facing balcony. I had always loved the idea of growing something I could actually eat but never really had the opportunity, having been in student halls for four years and from a family home that wasn’t really that way inclined.
What better opportunity than now to give it ago. I was sleeping within just a couple of feet of the plants and they would be the first things I saw when I opened my eyes in the morning. I would wake up on a summer’s day, take a couple of steps, open those doors and be enveloped by the abundance of life. I may as well have been living in Eden.
But at the start of that season, I knew absolutely nothing about growing anything. I had never sown a seed in my life.
I trawled internet forums looking up what it was I was supposed to do. I had read somewhere that flowers should be pinched off to encourage more to bloom. I asked the forums if I should be doing this with the tomato plants? And I recall such patient, encouraging and detailed responses. It was this early introduction to that world that made me realise, people who garden are quite often, really nice.
I vividly remember the first time I spotted a little pale green ball where a tomato flower had previously been, realising this must be an emerging tomato fruit and absolutely losing my sh*t from the excitement.
That first season on that small balcony – the first time I had ever grown a vegetable – to date, has been one of my most productive seasons ever. Because guess what, you don’t get many slugs three storeys up.
Runner and French beans, broad beans, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, strawberries, chillies, radishes, herbs, borage, sunflowers, salads and all from seed and all grown in pots, starting the seeds off on top of the radiators just inside the glass doors.
After learning the basics as I went along and launching myself into it, I came to the conclusion that none of it was really that difficult. And I hadn’t previously undertaken an activity that was so immensely and hugely rewarding.*1
I have been in love with growing edibles ever since and have never missed a season. For six years it was from one rental property to another until we settled in the house we are currently in about 13 years ago, still in southwest London.
I am a solar-powered entity operating on just two settings: before Sun and after Sun.
Are you an all-weather or fair-weather gardener?
I’m an all-weather gardener, as long as it’s not raining. I really enjoy wrapping up in layers and doing a good day of garden graft out in the cold, especially if some winter sunshine is involved. Winter pruning is one of my favourite tasks for this reason. But I will not go out if it’s raining.
Frequent access to direct sunshine is so integral to my wellbeing, I sometimes wonder if I’m part reptilian. I am a solar-powered entity operating on just two settings: before Sun and after Sun.
And so, there is nowhere I’d rather be on a sunny day than in a bikini doing some tasks in the garden.
And between you and me, I can actually do this completely in the buff in the half of the garden nearest to the house because the only neighbouring window that overlooks us pretty much always has the blind fully down. World Naked Gardening day - holla!
Are you a weeder or a let-them be-er?
More often than not I let them be just because I want to be able to identify them once they come into flower - I absolutely love wildflowers. Which is what I prefer to call weeds. And if they are ‘weeds’ that will provide some much needed nectar early on in the year, such as dandelions, I will definitely let them be.
What for you is the best part of gardening?
Being outside surrounded by nature and green and flowers and insects. Doing things with my hands. Listening to the bird song. Breathing fresh air. Smelling the earth.
I could do it all day, every day. It is my flow state. Seven hours can pass before I realise I’ve forgotten to eat or go to the loo.
It is my most favourite thing to do in the world.
A gardening hack or handy hint that you’d like to share?
Clear bright sunlight can be a rare occurrence this time of year and I’ve found that how much light a vegetable seedling gets early on, significantly affects its performance later on in the season. So when starting off veg seedlings on indoor window sills, I wrap a piece of cardboard in kitchen foil and prop it up behind the seedling tray, so that some of the light coming in through the window is reflected back onto the plants. It makes a difference and they get less leggy.
Quite a few people did indeed grow along… people who had never grown a thing in their life (including my Dad!) who were experiencing the same levels of unrivalled joy witnessing their first cherry tomato emerging, as I had done on that balcony all those years prior. It was really a lovely thing.
It’s also probably worth mentioning here that a few years ago I created a 12-part mini YouTube series called Pot to Pickle, a series of grow-a-long, back-to-basics video tutorials for the novice urban vegetable grower where we grow everything in pots. My intention was to show people that no matter how small their outside space, they could still grow a decent amount of veg.
I launched this in January 2021 when I noticed many had attempted to grow fruit and veg during the lockdown of 2020 but had no idea where to start. And the situation hadn’t changed much a year later so I thought creating this series might help people.
Quite a few people did indeed grow along and would tag #PotToPickle in their social posts, people who had never grown a thing in their life (including my Dad!) who were experiencing the same levels of unrivalled joy witnessing their first cherry tomato emerging, as I had done on that balcony all those years prior. It was really a lovely thing.
Does anything get your gardening goat?
Astroturf. But I love it when I spot a weed growing through it. Good luck trying to stop nature, people!
Bad garden habit?
Watching insects. Watching the birds. Oops, there goes another hour. Haven’t started my desk work… Oh well, might as well just carry on not working and instead enjoying this sunshine. (My garden is a real occupational hazard whenever the sun is out).
Happiness is….
Watching the garden birds bathe in the container pond I made. Especially newly fledged chicks. Here’s some video footage of them splashing about. They are unbelievably adorable. I was standing right next to them whilst filming this!
If you’d like to know how I made the container pond, here’s a video on my Instagram explaining the process:
It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done for the garden wildlife and 3 years later, the water in it is still crystal clear. And no mosquitoes, which seemed to be a thing some people were concerned about.
To mow or not to mow?
When we moved into this place 13 years ago, we inherited a mass of paving, a dilapidated greenhouse and a huge empty pond right in the middle of the garden:
We got rid of the paving and the greenhouse, filled the pond with harcore and covered it with native wildflower meadow turf.
If I’m honest, it doesn’t get huge amounts of actual flowers. I only really spot common knapweed, oxeye daisies, meadow buttercups and a smattering of others. And by the end of the summer it looks a mess, the local foxes or summer storms having flattened most of it.
Yet despite this, I wouldn’t ever change it to lawn. Because this long grass / patch of weeds / wildflower postage stamp - whatever you want to call it, brings in soooo many glorious insects, spiders and the rest. Who needs flowers to look at when there are insects.
Plus in July the goldfinches eat the knapweed seeds, bending over the stems near to breaking point. But they never do break.
And if there’s a nice bit of sunshine early on in the year, it can look really great in spring.
In the autumn of 2020, I single-handedly planted 700 spring bulbs into that patch (native wild tulips and narcissus, and crocuses). Into hard and stony ground matted with wildflower roots. It took me 36 hours.
Worth it.
Our garden is small and urban so having this patch instead of lawn means that for most of the year, we are confined to the very limited patio area. But when I cut it down in August, we move the picnic table to the meadow area and finally enjoy a few weeks with more space in which to comfortably eat outside. Assuming the weather is playing ball.
By this point the veg plants have gone berserk and taken over the patio space anyway, so it’s good timing. A jenga assortment of bamboo leading stem tips in different directions, trying to keep the surge of growth from engulfing us. I love it.
So, no mow.
Gloves or no gloves?
Always gloves but it seems to have little to no effect on how much dirt I get under my nails? But it’s mostly so I don’t have to keep rinsing my hands off every time I pop back into the house for something (usually a snack) and end up getting compost all over the kitchen cupboards.
Edibles or pretties - or both?
See above!
Proudest moment? (garden-related obviously)
My garden dream had always been to be able to pick fresh raspberries (berry royalty, no other comes close IMO) to have with my breakfast. I mean, just imagine that. Can there be a finer life experience? I’m not sure.
Anyway, it came true. Not only that, but the 7 or so raspberry canes I have in the small south-east facing corner, right next to the kitchen window, is so productive that it bestowed upon me no less than 4 KILOGRAMS (8.8 lbs) of raspberries last year. I brag about this to anyone who will listen.
Everyone should grow raspberries
The first harvest was 22nd June and I was picking every day until 15th August. I ate some each morning and froze the rest. It’s been six months since that last picking and the freezer stash continues to feed me each morning alongside my homemade granola – I still have a huge bag to get through.
I would also add, everyone should grow raspberries. When it’s been a terrible summer and everything else has failed, raspberries are my failsafe. They love a wet summer, don’t need your sunniest spot, the slugs and snails are seemingly uninterested, mine don’t get birds because it’s right next to the house, the leaves make great tea (particularly good for women’s health) and as they like their soil slightly acidic, I only feed them with spent coffee grounds and nothing else.
I still can’t really believe I grow an abundance of one of the greatest soft fruits on the planet. Picking a handful each morning over summer is a moment of morning bliss. I try to make it the first thing I do after coming downstairs, before looking at any screens. I stick my nose into the bowl brimming with berries and inhale that unsurpassed aroma. Heaven is a place by the tiny raspberry patch.
Describe your garden in one word:
Paradise
And finally: If you could be a time traveller, which garden in history would you visit?
Well I was this close to interviewing Monty Don for an episode of BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme. We occasionally make a show which is a long interview with one person about their life through food. He was so keen, we were so keen, but the dates alas just didn’t work.
Imagine actually being in Londmeadow after seeing it on TV for so many years!! Also, I’m desperate to meet Patti the Yorkshire terrier.
Not that much time travelling involved in this one but there you go.
A big thank you to Leyla for taking us along on this gardening journey. Do you see what I mean? She’s inspirational, knowledgeable, down-to-earth, fun and encouraging. (I for one, as well as reading Leyla’s Substack, am now also catching up on episodes of ‘Pot to Pickle’ - there’s peppers, pricking out, pea shoots, tomatoes, seed germination and A LOT more).
Read Leyla Kazim’s A Day Well Spent here.
In other news, The Gardening Mind will be back with you this Saturday, and a reminder that on Sunday 3rd March at 5pm UK time, we’re having a Zoom for the Small Garden Design course. It isn’t too late to sign up - as a paid subscriber you’ll be able to take part in the Zooms and Chats which will accompany this course. It’s called Small Garden Design, but the material we’ll be covering is relevant to any sized garden, so do come and join us. And if you took part last year, I’m going to be asking you if you’d be brave enough to share anything that you’ve done in the garden/on the drawing board since. So get those ideas ready - and see you Sunday!
* I should state my inaugural summer was somewhat deceptive, growing seasons have rarely been that good since! The success was a combination of beginner’s luck and it must have also just been a good and proper summer.
This was a beautiful read
What a garden! All those raspberries! I have 4 plants of raspberries but they do not appreciate the hot Tuscan summers, nor my daughter’s hands always searching for something to nibble on!
A wonderful read🙂