I’m working at home today and as I was up early I took my first coffee of the morning out into the garden. I sat there in quite contemplation, watching the baby birds flit from tree to tree, enjoying the morning breeze as it gently buffeted the willow and teased the bamboo.
Our back garden isn’t huge (I’d estimate it at about 25m long?) and most of the work we’ve done has largely been concentrated round the side and front of the house (we live on a corner in case you are wondering) but we did a little more work on it at the weekend and, coupled with the weather and the fact that we can actually sit out in it of an evening, I think I’m finally coming to appreciate this gardening lark.
Before we bought it, the house had been rented out for a few years and it was very obvious that the garden had had no attention paid to it at all. Not a problem, we thought, we’ve both got gardening parents. However we still suffer from that neglect, and have yet to rid ourselves of the damn buttercups, but overall we’ve got the place coaxed into some sort of order.
Bigger jobs outstanding —we have a section of monoblock that desperately needs replacing as it’s all been pushed up by the roots of a tree, but that’s beyond our budget by some way at the moment— the garden is currently looking quite good. And yes I DO say so myself.
It’s taken me a while to come round to the whole gardening thing, and whilst parts of it are still a bore, we are now beginning to see some reward for our efforts and it’s this slow burn that I think I appreciate more. On TV you see gardens created in an instant with plant after plant after plant chucked in to make sure it all looks finished, and whilst that’s all well and good if you’ve got £1000 to spend, we don’t and have developed a much more considered approach.
It’s quite simple, we are prepared to wait and allow a plant to grow and the garden to develop rather than buy larger more mature plants. Not only is this cheaper but you really get a sense of things maturing. Sure we’ve made some mistakes, but we’ve learned from them, and we’re already planning what we’ll do next year. In fact we probably get as much enjoyment from planning the next stages as we do from the actual gardening.
So, as I sat there this morning, quietly reflecting, a small smile crept onto my face. As the bumble bee busied itself in its endless search for honey, I realised that our garden isn’t the only thing that has grown in these past few years.
Addendum
1. Yes I know bees collect pollen, it’s called poetic license.
2. I need to fix some trellis to the roughcast on the side of the house – anyone got any solutions? Do I just need the right kinda nail?