Today is National Garden Day. No matter how big or small your garden is – whether you have rolling lawns, an allotment or a simple window box display – Garden Day is all about downing tools and celebrating the fruits of your labour with neighbours, family and friends.

This sounds wonderful, however, for yours truly, everyday is garden day… and I’m loving it! Granted, the garden is a work in process, and although we haven’t shown it to friends and family yet, the kitchen garden is nearly ready for its official opening. Fear not loyal reader, no one will miss out. When the big day arrives, there will be a video to capture the moment.

But before we roll out the red carpet,  invite special guests, and cut the red tape, there are still things I need to do.

Right now, I’m waiting for some fencing and a gate to arrive. Living in the countryside means we have a lot of hungry wildlife straying into our garden. As much as they are a joy to watch, I certainly don’t want them munching on my crops. Only last week, Daisy had an encounter with a stray chicken. It casually strolled, unannounced, into our garden from a neighbouring farm, and Daisy didn’t know what to make of it!

Today, we finished creating our final growing bed, and it’s going to be a very special bed: a space purely for cut flowers, wildlife and insect-friendly plants. Part of this ‘good life’ journey is to work with nature, not just taking from it, but giving something back. Hopefully, this will be a place where nature can thrive. At some point, amongst the flowers in this bed, I plan to build not a bug hotel, but ‘Bugmetropolis’! We have so many wooden pallets leftover from garden deliveries, that I need to find a way to put them to good use. And like I’ve said before, ‘If you build it, they will come’.

Knowing Soph has a big heart for the wildlife, we spent a few hours this afternoon planting up the bed, with our diva Daisy looking on. From borage to foxgloves, I think there’s something for everyone. And if we can bring in those bugs and bees, not only will they benefit from the flowers, but our growing veggies will benefit from their pollination.

So when I said I haven’t shared this space with the special people in my life, well that isn’t strictly true.

Happy Garden Day!