I have blogged about my haphazard approach to my garden before and of my slightly love hate feel toward it. To the true gardeners out there I confess I am a fair weather kinda of girl (old woman!) I do not like the cold (never,from childhood) I do not see the point of getting wet (except of course, rainwater is good for softening hair:) I do enjoy warm summer breezes and blue skies, bird song and beautiful butterflies.
However, I have a garden of which, I think, I am fond of,and with a garden comes responsibilities. Mine has been designed from a building site to please me, not many others I fancy. It was with my undisciplined approach and love of sunny breezes and wildlife that I went for a wilder kind of garden.
I did have to accommodate others, so at the beginning there were many perennial flowers because my mother like them, traditional plants which on the whole needed a fair amount of upkeep. Then there was the vegetables, she, with my father had always grown fruit and vegetables. They are very labour intensive! So I had my own patch at the end of the garden for wild flowers and chaos.
The last few years it has become increasingly difficult to cope with this garden, I have cut down on the area of vegetable growing, let the flowers vanish. Still as my health continues to fail I find the endless water requirements of the vegetables more difficult by the month.
What to do? This crazy soul would still like to pick fruit and veg. Pulling a hose behind or carrying a watering-can leaves me very tired,I have plenty of water. The fruit bushes were put into very deep containers a few years back, so watering them is just a once in a while affair, I think I can manage them for a few years more.
It was time for a rethink in 2013.
A re-plan.
2014 I have plans to re-organize the garden, allow my patch of wildness at the bottom of the garden to come forth and colonize the vegetable beds.
I am moving the vegetables to the side of the house, right next to hosepipe and water butts(so cutting down on the walking and effort of keeping them in good nick!) into large pots and some deep long troughs my friend made me.
The old raised vegetable beds will have a mixture of wild flowers and cottage garden plants, on a sink or swim method. I have always chosen with wild life in mind so something for everyone I hope. I also have a flowerbed that used to be sunny but is now partly shaded from my woodland edge planting, which will be ideal for those plants that thrive in the woodland.
When I began this garden 13 years ago I stocked it, pretty well with seeds plants and bulbs from e-bay (I had brought much with me from previous garden) and it is to e-bay I am turning too again for this new phrase in the gardens life. The first of the seeds have arrived.
When the cold wet storms of this winter leave our shores I will begin the task of transforming my space outside. I am looking forward to the doing even if the reason behind the necessity is not so much to my liking.
Of course I will need sunshine and blue skies because I love my garden but. . . .
