A garden right now is speeding into growth and doesn’t wait for anyone. Nature will grow with or without us. Every magazine and TV programme is crammed with jobs to do – things to be done – busy busy bees in the garden.
Tulips open up in the sunshine on March 30th
And closed early on the 31st
We all know how impossible it is to sit with a cup of tea for five minutes without leaping up to do a job we see needs doing.
I don’t think it’s an urge for perfection. For me it has come with age. Recently if I think of something that needs doing I feel compelled to get up and do it right now in case I forget to do it.
I’ve decided to minimise pressure if I am to enjoy having a lovely garden without having too much work to do.
So here is my list of things I won’t be doing in the garden:
seed sowing, pricking out, potting on, thinning out, pinching out, transplanting, protecting, hardening off, tying in, taking cuttings, digging, weedkilling, slug repelling, lawn mowing, staking, strimming, clipping, harvesting or leaf blowing.
I’ve lost the battle with rampant celandine
Here are some activities I will be doing:-
mail order plant buying, visiting nurseries, bird feeding, container feeding and watering, deadheading, planting, lifting and dividing, cutting back, pruning, weeding, sweeping, NGS garden visiting, sitting, looking, enjoying, reading, smelling scent and photographing.
Waiting to be planted
I know that by not sowing seeds I am missing out on one of the major joys of gardening, nurturing seedlings and watching them grow, but I know I am too lazy to get started on that. I will however be scattering packets of annual seeds around in the borders. They don’t always come up and it’s known in our house as tohoe – triumph of hope over experience, which applies to quite a lot of things in gardening I’d say.
Happy Spring to us all.
Hello, may I ask where you mail order your plants from? And also, could you tell me what the advantages of doing so are over visiting a nursery?
I recently bought the modern cottage garden, which you recommended and it is a lovely book and contains verieties of perennials I haven’t seen in the few nurseries I have visited this week. I’m assuming mail ordering allows you to purchase what you want but are there any other advantages?
Thanks and loving your blog
Hello Chris, thanks for your encouraging comments. Going in person to proper nurseries is lovely and I like mail order equally but I can buy mail order from nurseries far away that I would never have time to visit. So I buy from Beth Chatto. From Bluebellcottage.co.uk in Cheshire.From plantsforshade.co.uk in Somerset. I love hellebores from ashwoodnurseries.com. Often from Crocus.co.uk especially what they have on sale. Pepperpot Nursery in Hampshire for herbs. Fibrex in Warwickshire for pelargoniums and ferns. You get the picture. The other best bit is that we can support these growers, often small family businesses who work incredibly hard. I love the fact the plants are packed with love and now many wrap in paper rather than plastic pots (Bluebell). I still only buy very simple and common plants, not specialty ones, but it’s always a thrill to get that box delivered. has that helped? Hope so. best wishes Julie
Oh. Must mention plant for bees from rosybee.com. And William Dyson at Great Comp Garden in Kent for salvias.