Every so often I hit a spot when my life seems to need to change, perhaps as a rethink or because of life changes. It’s my crossroads to review the direction my garden is taking. Plants outgrow their space so there is need to reorganised or find new homes for some of them. It’s constantly changing and I need to change with it.
February is probably a good month to plan what needs or can be done in a very small patch of garden which is more of a wildlife area, home to a Magnolia Tree, a Photini Red Robin, a Cotoneaster, wildlife pond and a variety of shrubs and plants. Ground space is limited so I consider myself a vertical and container gardener when it comes to planting anything edible. The garden north facing, is in shadow of buildings and bereft of sun during the winter. It’s heavy clay soil but in spite of that, many plants seem to thrive in it but every year I generally have to replace something which had succumbed to the winter freeze. Just now the garden looks a total mess because from late autumn/early winter, I don’t do anything in it, I let nature take care of it as far as I can. The fallen leaves and dead plants have another life beyond nature’s grave and acts as a mulch for hibernating plants, supplies the various insects etc with somewhere to hide and if decaying matter is on their preferred menu, it helps me by being little miniature gardeners and recyclers ridding the soil of unbeneficial substances and replaces them with nutrients.
Sometimes we don’t appreciate the work of creatures we see only as pests. It’s taken me a long time to realise that everything has a purpose and it is possible to live side by side with nature but as humans, we seem to be determined to change the ecological and biological aspects of gardening. We take plants, from other parts of the world and do everything we can to change our environment to suit them. Many of our favourite garden plants came from the Himalayas and thrive in our gardens for good reason, they can survive the cold. Planting tropical plants in the UK, might survive in the south where the weather is generally hotter, but struggle in a wrong environment in Scotland. It is, however, a challenge to beat the odds and get a reasonable success.
In many gardening forums, I see new gardeners, eager to get planting, ignoring the sowing advice on the seed packets and plant far too early and wonder why they don’t get lush growth, so install heating and grow lights so that they can plant out a couple of weeks earlier. After New Year, the bug seems to hit everyone and it’s a frenzy of sowing and at time re-sowing. After the worst of the long dark days is nearing an end, then Spring is something we can look forward to with longer time to spend in a favourite hobby.
I’ve started reading a book, ‘Good Nature’ by Kathy Willis. Various tests have been made, in school, at work etc where people put in a room were given tests. Some rooms without windows, some facing a brick wall, some with an urban view and some with a green places view. It was consistently proven that the people facing green places view, real or false were more mentally aware, had better results with the tests were more contented and less stressful. I felt that before I read it, my garden is my tranquil place. Now is an opportunity to clear out the things that don’t make me feel happy ready for me to enjoy the garden along with the birds, frogs and any other little beasties that makes it’s home there. I can concentrate not in perfection but acceptance that everything has a place in nature.
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