Something to dream about…

Hi!

Another week has passed, and the garden continues to come alive. It’s now providing me with plenty of Instagrammable photos, along with an explosion of weeds.

Unfortunately, you can’t have one without the other. Strategic photo angles are my saviour. I’m pretty sure most garden pages on Instagram or the internet do exactly that….keep the weeds behind the camera…make it look like everything is picture perfect.

And some gardens are. I’m guessing they’re the ones with a full-time gardener, or a team of gardeners. But for those of us who garden alongside a full-time job, or parenting, or both, weeds are a fact of life. So, if you do follow me on Instagram and you see some beautiful shots, just know that the weeds aren’t far away. But frankly, I don’t stress too much about the weeds. I’ll get to them, all in good time. And so will you.

At the end of the day, gardening isn’t about having the perfect garden. It’s about why we do it…

Photos: My beautifully cultivated weed collection. I’ve got a particular penchant for dandelions it appears. Personally, I think it’s the God of Gardens having a little joke on me because of my distaste for the colour yellow. Note: these photos are a representative sample and by no means the entire collection!

Why we garden…well, at least, why I do 

There’s a saying that “to garden is to believe in tomorrow.” I think that’s true. Every seed you sow, every bulb you tuck into the soil, every tiny peony root you plant knowing it may be years before it really shines. All of it is an act of hope and patience. Gardening, at its heart, is about looking forward.  

People garden for all sorts of reasons: for food, for colour, for wildlife, for the quiet. For me, it’s about creative joy.

There’s something deeply restorative about being surrounded by nature…the sunlight, the birds, the fresh air. It calms the mind while giving it something to dream about. There’s always something to tweak, a new combination of plants to try, a little experiment to see what happens next season. It never feels finished, and that’s the beauty of it.  

I’ve realised it’s not about having a grand garden or acres of space. I felt this way even in my first small patch….tinkering, planting, dreaming. These days I have more space to play with, but the feeling is the same. The exercise is just a bonus.

I’d rather spend a day digging, planting, hauling compost and come inside tired and happy than plod away on a treadmill. Gardening uses every muscle and leaves you fitter without you even noticing. 

More than anything, gardening keeps you looking ahead. It gives you a reason to get up, to keep going, to imagine what’s coming next.

I sometimes think about people who retire and say they don’t know what to do with themselves. I know I’ll never face that. I could spend all day, every day in the garden and never get bored. There’s always another little corner to improve, another season to prepare for.

So that’s why I garden. What about you? Is it the colour, the peace, the challenge, the food, the connection to nature? When you know your ‘why?’ it’s so much easier to look past the weeds and see everything else that gardening brings you.

Photos: these are photos of my last garden. My first was a small town-section garden. This one above was a one acre established garden that I was able to put my own touches on. The predecessor to my current Cluckingham Palace was designed for little Bantam hens. I built a ‘potager’ with raised beds and graveled paths in an unused back corner full of the previous owner’s rubbish, and I grew several wisterias as a reminder of my grandmother who had a 100-year-old wisteria adorning her house. I loved this garden, even though I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot the hard way! The success of my current garden is largely down to what I learned in the previous one.

What have I been doing in the garden this week?

Ugly crying…that’s what I’ve been doing. Well, only on the inside these days. I used to cry when big, bad things happened in the garden but I’ve become a more resilient gardener over the years. You have to when you:

1. Garden on clay; and

2. Live in a high wind zone.

Number 2 is far worse than number 1. For those of you gardening on clay, you may be surprised to hear that. If you didn’t see it on Instagram, let me show you what wind did to my garden recently…

Photos: this is one of my ornamental silver weeping pear trees….THE feature of my perennial borders. Stuff like this REALLY rips my nightie. The last two photos show it as it is now, tree removed and chopped up for firewood. Now it’s time to plan it’s replacement.

Two years ago, we had one of those hold-on-to-your-hat kind of nor’westers…the sort that rearranges your outdoor furniture, your hair, and apparently, your trees.

My four ornamental pears copped it badly, especially the two nearest the camera in photo two. The one that’s now taken a nosedive was, funnily enough, blown over in the opposite direction back then. It cracked at the base, but with some optimism, and ugly, but sturdy stakes, I stood it back up.

Last summer, it looked a bit tired and didn’t leaf up as proudly as its mates. I had that sinking feeling it might be about to climb the stairway to tree heaven. But this spring, it leafed out beautifully and I thought, ha! Take that, nature!

Well. Turns out nature wasn’t done with me.

Cue another howling gale, this time from the south, and that old crack clearly wasn’t quite as healed as I’d hoped. Now it’s fully given up the ghost, snapped off at the base, and there’s no bringing it back.

It’s always gutting when a tree breaks or dies. Plants you can replace in an afternoon; trees take years of love, pruning, and whispered pep talks. So yes, I’m a bit grumpy about losing this one. But after a bit of sulking and some dramatic sighing, I’ve decided it’s a message from the Gardening Gods (and their unruly cousins, the Weather Gods). Clearly, they think it’s time I rethought my design.

The weeping silver pears have been stunning, but they’ve been a bit like divas in a wind tunnel. Gorgeous, but not exactly toughing it out in the face of a typical Canterbury norwester. Ever since that first storm, I’ve been side-eyeing their wobbly trunks and wondering how long they’d last. One’s been leaning ever since, and it’s driven me quietly mad.

So… I’m taking the hint. Time for a redesign and some tougher replacements that can take a proper thrashing and still look fabulous. The plan? Well, it’s been decided what’s happening in this space, so keep an eye out for the renovation work in future newsletters.

Shock and horror… there are aphids in my greenhouse 😱

Yes… aphids! In my greenhouse! The same greenhouse that hasn’t had a single bug in years.

Cue the shock, the horror, then the outrage. How dare they!

But, just quietly, I think I know the problem….

I haven’t abandoned my companion planting principles. My marigolds, nasturtiums, and basil just aren’t fully on duty yet. They’re still germinating, stretching, and yawning their way into the season. So, for now, it’s just me, a barrel of mint, and a hose doing all the heavy lifting.  When my usual ‘bouncers’ are back on duty, I think I’ll see less of the nasties.

The thing to remember about companion planting is that it doesn’t mean you’ll never see bugs.

It just means you’ll see less of them, and when you do, they’ll be much easier to manage naturally. 

What do in the garden this week

Southern hemisphere

• Don’t cry. It’s never that bad.

• OK, sometimes it is that bad. Cry if you have to. It’s cathartic.

• Admire your spring flowers and feel proud that you grew them all by yourself.

• Sow a few more seeds to keep your succession planting going.

• For those in colder climates, keep an eye on the weather forecast. Use frost cloth to protect any tender new shoots from late frosts (especially dahlias!).

• If you don’t have irrigation set up, now is a great time to get on top of it before plants are too big and more prone to breaking when you’re fossicking amongst them.

• Pull a few weeds out and turn a blind eye to the rest. You’ll get to them when you get to them.

• Make a plan to start another really huge garden design project before you’ve even finished the last one. Oh wait….that’s probably just me.

Northern hemisphere

• Get your spring bulbs in the ground before the frosts. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocus and alliums…they can all go in now.

• Keep dividing and replanting crowded clumps of perennials.

• Tender plants in frosty zones? Get the protection sorted now and move potted tender plants indoors.

• It’s the best time of year to plant new trees. There’s still a bit of warmth left in autumn soil and the trees have time to put down some new roots before the winter hits. The cooler temperatures mean less stress on the newly planted trees.

• Keep going with your tidy up. The hard work you do now will be rewarded come spring.

• Autumn is the best time to plant new peonies or lift and divide your established ones. I only ever divide established peonies if they need to move house. If I’m happy where they are, they stay there for years and years until they show signs of reduced flowering.

Photos: whether you’re northern or southern hemisphere I aim to bring you relevant seasonal tips.

🧑‍🌾What’s new on Behind the Garden Gate members pages this week?

• 🍅Garden to table: aphids had the audacity to turn up in The Whitehouse. I’ve added a deep-dive blog post expanding on my comments above, including a new deterrent technique that I learned this week. I’d never heard of it before, so I did some research and apparently there’s some evidence to support it. So I’m trying it out and I’ve reported on initial results in this new post.

• 💐Feature plant: this week is the glorious Gladiolus. I once thought these were just for grandmas, but not anymore. Either that or I turned into a grandma sometime when I wasn’t paying attention.

• 🌸 Friday fails: yep, another one….and so soon after the Azalea fiasco. This week I’m lamenting how temperamental Daphnes can be. They continue to thwart my efforts to grow them successfully.

• 📷Earn an income from your garden: stay in your lane! Are you trying to grow an online gardening business? Then don’t self-sabotage your success by making these mistakes I’ve seen a few people make in recent weeks.

• 🌿Snapshot shed: every week more beautiful photos to provide you with inspiration, planting ideas, and something to oooo and ahhhhh over. But remember….the weeds are just out of range of the camera lens! 😄

Photos: 1. Awwwwww, sweet. 2. Ummmm….sweet but gross. LOVE a good dog bath.