Gardening is my lifelong hobby. Dirt first slipped under my fingernails when mum and dad trusted me not to lick them clean when weeding. I now rub soap under my claws before planting,though it never helps. Why worry? Dirty nails show a good day, well spent, and I tease the muck out with my wife’s hairpins.
While I love the feelings my pastime prompts, I struggle to explain why. Friends utter words such as, “Gardening relaxes me,” “supports my mental health,” or “heals my soul,”yet never say how. While some claim they talk to their plants, my garden speaks to me and its words have always made sense. Am I the only one?
Is there a danger of overthinking here? Long ago, Egyptians believed that to enter heaven they must answer just two questions. First, did you give joy? Next, did you find joy? Sound answers to both lie in gardens. Why look further?
But the most important thing I know is, though we believe we care for our plots, it is they who nurture us.
My blogs intend to explore green mystique, not technique. So,I offer no step-by-step guides for building arbours, making gleaming water features, or cropping mangos in Leeds.Other books cover that.
This blog makes no one an expert and will not transform plots into Chelsea gold medal standard before lunch.You cannot order mindfulness on speed dial, but you can manage your garden in ways which encourage peace and calm to visit you. Finding and sharing the joy of gardening is the focus of this site.
Gardening well is satisfying but less valuable than feeling well gardening.
I have three gardens. One is attached to my house. When I bought it, there was only grass. I have a standard full-size allotment, and a second home in France with 3,000 square metres of old field. Please do not run away with the idea my second home makes me super wealthy. I am a lifelong Francophile and used my small life’s savings to buy it.
My UK garden is on solid clay, while my French plot has acid soil and more sunshine hours and rainfall. I garden my plots on a budget and propagate most of my plants from cuttings, division and seed. Because I leave each garden for long periods, I adapt my approach to accommodate this.
This site reflects my ethos. I like to brush against plants as I walk round the plot and believe the opposite of untidy in a garden is not tidy, but sterile. How your garden makes you feel is more important than how it looks. My garden is not better than anyone else’s. Nor is it worse, and I apply the same rule to your gardens. I am passionate about methods which avoid harm to the environment.
Let’s see my three gardens.
First. Home.
Second. My French Garden
Third. My Allotment.
