Who'd have thought I would get into gardening? Certainly not me! Surely gardening is for retired people, who don't know what else to do?
At the start of the year I promised that my home would come first. 'My home' also included the neglected wilderness that tried to be a garden. It has a lawn - a mass of green weeds cut to a short level. It has a tree - crab apple - too large for me to look after, and a few shrubs - I can count them on one hand but can't name them!
It was time to sort it! I wanted a garden to enjoy and be happy to spend time in.
First things first, I needed to get the tree cut down and cleared. I hired a chainsaw that, luckily, came with a man and his Son who did the cutting down and clearing, for me. I asked for a half meter high stump to be left, I had a plan for this.
The difference was amazing - de-cluttering in the extreme! Looking out from my kitchen, I thought I had cleaned the window, it was lovely and bright and clear.
A couple of months later, once the 'borders' had finally dried up and stopped looking like parts of a swamp, I started my garden regime with enthusiastic verve.
Drastic pruning of the shrubs was my first task, followed by the weeding - Oh! The Weeding! It went on forever! But I finally got there with a spectacular finish, forking over the remaining couple of meters like a woman possessed!
The lawn was cut and a new, crisp, edge defined, this gardening lark was very satisfying. Each day I was seeing a new improvement, and I was looking forward to the next task, even when it was fence painting.
A week off work gave me a chance of really getting stuck in. Mum and Dad came across and mucked in with some fence repairs and more fence painting. When I wasn't out in the garden, I had my head buried in gardening books and magazines, giving me endless ideas.
I treated myself to a garden chair, after all, I will need somewhere to sit in the sun and admire my hard work. It looks great too, a relaxed style with arms wide enough to hold my mug of tea. So far, I haven't sat in it for long, just long enough to figure out my next task and reason to rise again and get on with it.
The day I couldn't wait for, had finally come, I was off to buy my first lot of plants. My shopping list included plants for the shady area, plants to give form and structure and plants just because I liked the look of them. Quite a few extras went in the trolley too!
Nobody warned me about the hard work it was getting them all in the ground, I thought this was the easy, fun bit. Now, I realised the knowing looks and comments of 'someone's going to be busy' from the seasoned gardeners at the garden center. Well I was busy, all of the next day in fact, planting my new plants into their chosen positions. By the end of that day I sat in my garden chair and felt proud of my new garden, my wilderness tamed.
I also have ornaments adorning my garden. There is a bird bath on the stump of the tree with a stone, stargazing, hare staring upwards towards it, and bird feeders above.
There is an obelisk in the middle of a blank piece of border, with a climbing rose, just waiting for its own cue to flower, and ceramic bird feeders, on steel stalks, threaded into my tapestry.
The joy, I feel is wonderful, and the story of my garden is only at the beginning.
Till next time...
