With mild weather this weekend, gardeners up and down the country seized their chance to get out there and garden. Across the allotment, jackets and jumpers were tossed aside, hanging from fork handles like headless scarecrows dancing in the wind. Continue reading “First Off the Blocks”
I came home yesterday to find a fig tree in the middle of the kitchen.
There are seedlings crammed along all the window sills and trays of chitting potatoes wedged into spare spaces…
And when I popped out to fetch something from the garden shed, I saw this…
What next? Growing watercress in the bathtub? I wouldn’t put it past him, you know…
A few years ago, if I was asked to write a blog, I would have thrown them my best Severus Snape glare (Ahh… Alan) and replied between clenched teeth, ”I don’t have time, my seedlings need attending to.” 
Truth is, a few years on and I no longer feel the need to constantly pamper my seedlings every five minutes, checking whether they’ve germinated. The days of gently turning and reassuring my unconfident seed potatoes, in tender tones, that they do look pretty with their outstretched tendrils, are long gone. It’s not because I’ve become complacent, far from it. The more the years pass, the more I delve deeper and deeper into this crazy world of horticulture. And so the confidence grows.
Please don’t think for one second that this is arrogance, we know gardening can be a fickle beast, and no sooner have you got something growing happily, Mother Nature throws the die, and a plague of locusts has consumed your heritage squash.
But for the first time, I feel I’m aware of an overall plan. Experience, knowledge and instinct are coming together like a well-oiled machine, and I’m feeling finely tuned for the season to come. 
The beckoning of spring not only raises a smile (and the temperature!), but pulses too.. There’s so much that needs doing! Sheds need cleaning, pots need sorting, paths need fresh chippings, plots need digging.. Actually, you know what I said a moment ago about having it all sorted? Forget it! I’m back to square one.. clueless.. but happy. 
