update 2020

My last post for this blog was around 10 years ago. My son who is on the autistic spectrum, and was 15 at the time, was severely bullied at school. The result was that we moved to another town and I sadly left my garden behind and had to rehome most of my animals so that I could support him.(the neighbours generously took on the cats) He is 26 now. I'm trying to buy some land so that we can have a permanent garden space and security for our future. I've been living and working pruning trees on an orchard for the last three years. Ive learned so much in that time. Now I really feel ready to have my own trees to care for and nuture. The uncertainty around the world at the moment due to the pandemic has made me want to grow lots of food- not just for myself but for others too. I think its important to relearn the skills of our grandparents and bring gardening back into homes. I'm full of ideas now for gardening in small spaces - container gardens using recycled materials...and verticle gardening.I want to share these skills with others and inspire families and communities to feel more in control of having food on their tables. I hope I'll be able to start a whole new blog on new adventures in a brand new garden - watch this space!

my cats seem to think that everything I put in my garden is for their enjoyment, they're quick to explore anything new, and dig it out if possible!

money does grow on trees!

I found this money tree at the dump, bought it home and abandoned it for a month or so while I wondered what to do with it...finally planted it - thank God it has survived because my friend told me it could be 30 yrs old or more, it's big, decided to plant it whole and take cuttings to pot up later - it's also known as a jade plant, used in Feng Shui to bring luck and prosperity

Poppies

The wild flower mix I used has lots of different kinds of poppies, single and multilayer and many different colours - all so pretty

wild flowers

Been ages since I've posted any garden pics, my garden's been getting a bit out of control lately...a bit like my life perhaps? but if flowers as beautiful as these can emerge out of the chaos that is my garden right now...then there's hope for me?

another guinea pic

awwwww :-)

getting away on me

The garden has been very neglected lately, which is why I haven't posted much for a while...my neighbour suggested taking pics of other peoples gardens, pretending they were mine, (after all who would know lol)because not much has been growing in mine except for grass...lots of it. I admit I was tempted, but now, having taken a back seat to other things, the garden is overdue for some frantic attention, and when I've made some progress again, I'll post pics of my own garden again (promise ;-). Hoping to have a full time job again soon (cross fingers and toes ) so would love to get the garden into good shape before my time is cut back again. I partly blame the weather for the state of my garden, it refuses to settle into a nice ambience suited to pleasant gardening, Instead, choosing to produce deluges of rain sprinkled between blustering winds. There are a couple of things worth a pic or two though. The sunflowers I planted are doing well and should have a good show in a month or two, and some of the succulents I rescued from the green waste tip are rewarding me by producing brilliant red flowers. Overall the garden is a mess lol with a couple of redeeming features :-)