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Showing posts from October, 2018

Using a shed over the winter

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...to utilise the Potting Shed over the winter months.  Leaving work early to get home  this afternoon rewarded me about an hours daylight to get this done. No longer will the shed be a waste of space in the dark depths of the winter months.  No longer will it be a resting place for my beautifully organised gardening implements and overwintering Agapanthus... Organised bits and pieces Yes, i've seeded four trays with winter greens and winter salad leaves.  I am promised a harvest of green leaves in about a months time, very exciting. My biggest challenge now will be to regularly take a trip outside to water the trays.  I'm looking forward to the harvest towards the end of November.   Fingers crossed, wish me luck! 

Five years

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Social media can be a blessing and a curse.   Today it was most definitely a positive experience.  Facebook reminded me that I began my gardening journey 5 years ago today with this photo: Sunday, 13 October 2013 All that remains from that former space is the rose in the foreground, the concrete frog and that dodgy patio. Saturday, 13 October 2018

Winter Survival Kit

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As it's World Mental Health Day I have taken some time out to write this reflective post.  Many people write about mental health, wellbeing and mindfulness. Despite my lengthy history with anxiety and depression I have never written anything down like this before. As the nights draw in and the days shorten I am aware that my health may suffer.  It is especially true if I don't make an extra-special effort to take care of me.  My battles with social anxiety and low mood have been a long-running affair that can be traced back to my teenage years. I have always been an inward-looking soul.   People that know me would describe me as a thoughtful, emotive person with a streak of shyness.  Through my love of plants and wildlife I have found a platform on which I can express my creativity.  My urge to nurture and to brighten up every corner of the planet manifests itself in the work I do outside.   As these opportunities become scarce over the winter months I like to find joy

Plants in every space

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I finished work early today (thank you flexi-time), to get home and into the garden as I wanted to finish this project that I began last week.  This is a nice idea for autumn (not mine admittedly) from the RHS magazine.  It involves planting shade-lovers in the empty space beneath a garden bench.   Here is the bench made by my own fine hands last summer. It has become a place to dump empty pots and for lots of different types of weeds to establish themselves.  It is situated in-between the raised vegetable border, potting shed and stump border in the background giving it shady and sheltered attributes - it's also used as a bench being a nice private spot in the garden. Last week I cleared the area, weeded by hand pulling up couch grass and nettles, following their roots in the soil to get as much out as possible and into the green bin.  Then followed a bit of a workout with a Dutch Hoe to rid the space of all other unwanted growth taking care not to damage the self-seed