Urban Jungle
I have been spending much of my time watching gardening programs. What with lockdown, early spring sun and a will for green fingers, me and a bunch of other Brits have been lost imagining ourselves as Percy Thrower, or for those of you under 40, Monty Don. I do love a tour around these television gardens and I am in awe of them knocking out a 200 quid wooden planter and filling them instantly with a van full of healthy plants that they just acquired from some organic nursery. I do ask myself how realistic is this for us inner city, budget bound gardens?
I have been gardening sporadically for a few years with differing degrees of success. The rot sets in for me around about October when the lack of sunlight takes my soul and whisks me to Grimsville. I usually wake from my winter coma a bit too late, plant too late and then spend the spring sun time willing everything to grow faster. I am in training this year, to become a filthy weather gardener, it is the only kind that will have any success. The other day, I felt like I was getting somewhere when I gardened with a jumper and shorts in the rain. I need to become like the hardy perennials, with evergreen cheer, that will weather any storm and come out a gardening champ, like I say I am in training. I do have certain criteria and limits, I will not become as badly dressed as some of the gardening community, I am not willing to cast aside my bra or wear clothes 3 times my size, I personally think it is always best to garden in floral dresses, one should project the dream one has.
The programs I have been watching haven't really addressed budget gardening, but apparently there are experts in it. I have been recently introduced to Alys Fowler, who is a vicarious experimenter and a seed fanatic. I could do worse than have her as my inspiration.I have realised that the art of seeding is a thrill for me. At the moment, I buy cheap, sow big and spend a whole lot of time 'pricking out' and then feeling guilty about excess plants.What is most interesting is the rate of germination and how patience is really important - on occasion I have 'given up hope' only to be pleasantly surprised. I am a little obsessed with planting seeds. If there is a spare moment I am out there throwing something teeny in muck and praying to the gardening gods, it is all consuming; there is the helicoptering over seedlings, lobbing of snails, shooing off of fat pigeons and sighing over failure to thrive or worst still no germination. I am learning that it doesn't matter what a seed says on the packet or what you google, you never really get it until you have chucked the thing in and given it a go. Like people, each seed is an unpredictable individual, which can thrive or fail leaving you with the old conundrum, nature or nurture?
Gardening has given me a better appreciation for my immediate locality, we are littered with teeny gardens, filled with hope and plants and very much planted with budget in mind. Recently, I passed a beautiful garden which utilised a Vanish washing powder bucket as a planter and my heart rejoiced a little. In a world where it can appear that only the rich are entitled to beautiful things, gardening can be something of an equaliser, if you are prepared to put in the extra work. At least that is what I am telling myself as I propagate flowers and perennials for next year. My house is humble and my garden is small but I hope that my planting will be a thing of wonder. I guess the moral of this particular story is dream big, work hard and throw slugs as far away as you possibly can.
I have been gardening sporadically for a few years with differing degrees of success. The rot sets in for me around about October when the lack of sunlight takes my soul and whisks me to Grimsville. I usually wake from my winter coma a bit too late, plant too late and then spend the spring sun time willing everything to grow faster. I am in training this year, to become a filthy weather gardener, it is the only kind that will have any success. The other day, I felt like I was getting somewhere when I gardened with a jumper and shorts in the rain. I need to become like the hardy perennials, with evergreen cheer, that will weather any storm and come out a gardening champ, like I say I am in training. I do have certain criteria and limits, I will not become as badly dressed as some of the gardening community, I am not willing to cast aside my bra or wear clothes 3 times my size, I personally think it is always best to garden in floral dresses, one should project the dream one has.
The programs I have been watching haven't really addressed budget gardening, but apparently there are experts in it. I have been recently introduced to Alys Fowler, who is a vicarious experimenter and a seed fanatic. I could do worse than have her as my inspiration.I have realised that the art of seeding is a thrill for me. At the moment, I buy cheap, sow big and spend a whole lot of time 'pricking out' and then feeling guilty about excess plants.What is most interesting is the rate of germination and how patience is really important - on occasion I have 'given up hope' only to be pleasantly surprised. I am a little obsessed with planting seeds. If there is a spare moment I am out there throwing something teeny in muck and praying to the gardening gods, it is all consuming; there is the helicoptering over seedlings, lobbing of snails, shooing off of fat pigeons and sighing over failure to thrive or worst still no germination. I am learning that it doesn't matter what a seed says on the packet or what you google, you never really get it until you have chucked the thing in and given it a go. Like people, each seed is an unpredictable individual, which can thrive or fail leaving you with the old conundrum, nature or nurture?
Gardening has given me a better appreciation for my immediate locality, we are littered with teeny gardens, filled with hope and plants and very much planted with budget in mind. Recently, I passed a beautiful garden which utilised a Vanish washing powder bucket as a planter and my heart rejoiced a little. In a world where it can appear that only the rich are entitled to beautiful things, gardening can be something of an equaliser, if you are prepared to put in the extra work. At least that is what I am telling myself as I propagate flowers and perennials for next year. My house is humble and my garden is small but I hope that my planting will be a thing of wonder. I guess the moral of this particular story is dream big, work hard and throw slugs as far away as you possibly can.
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