I am rather nosy when it comes to other people’s gardens.

Nicola Harrington - guest blogger living in France with 7 holiday rental gites

I love peering over their fences to see what they are growing, and comparing their crops to mine.

There is a man in the centre of the village who is a keen gardener, and his vegetable patch is immaculate.
Everything is in dead straight rows and his crops ALWAYS seem to be ready a good two weeks before mine.

He is a very helpful chap, and whenever I pass he is always giving advice to someone about how to deal with tomato blight, moles or carrot fly.

This afternoon I was having a secret peer over his fence and I noticed something very strange… there were radishes growing amongst his carrots.
I sniggered to myself. The orderly garden didn’t look so orderly now!

“Bonjour Nicole.”  He appeared from nowhere with a hoe in his hand.

I couldn’t help but ask. The radish and carrot melange looked so out of place. Perhaps he had dropped both seed packets.

“Non, non, non. It is intentional. I mix the radish and carrot seeds and plant them in the same row. The radishes grow quicker than the carrots so I eat them when they are ready and this provides a natural ‘thinning’ for the carrots.”

How very, very clever. I really should not have doubted him…

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