Garden Centre

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The All Seasons Gardener’s Garden

The All Seasons Gardener’s Garden

You know, one thing that annoys me about gardeners who appear on garden programmes is they all seem to have a couple of acres. ‘Oh here,’ they say, ‘we’re building a bog garden. It’ll only be about a quarter of an acre …’

Oh yes? Most of us don’t have a quarter of an acre if you include the house, the front garden and the bit of pavement before you get to the road! As for bog gardens, that’s what we get when it rains a lot, isn’t it? Just as an arboretum is the elderly scabby apple trees planted by a previous owner, and a lawn is a partly bald patch of grass which acts as a combination football pitch and sunbathing area when the weather allows.

So The All Seasons Gardener’s Garden is a real garden – as you can see. It has a washing line and a rather sinister shed. It is yomped over daily by two Cairn Terriers and a cat with a hole-digging fetish. It has to accommodate a barbecue, a hammock, flowers, trees, shrubs, vegetables, herbs and a pond. It is looked after (or neglected) by the ASG, aided and abetted by ‘himself’ aka ‘the lord of keeping things tidy’, and ‘the boy’ who is fifteen and seems to have developed an aversion to sunlight.

The All Seasons Gardener works from home, so her garden really ought to be a shining example. It isn’t – because working from home means eight hours pounding the keyboard, with only sporadic trips outside to pull up groundsel and chase starlings out of the polyanthus. And it’s not one of those wonderful organic Edens either. We do try, but ‘himself’ likes to pour liquid plant food over everything, and the All Seasons Gardener loves her wildlife-friendly slug pellets, without which she would have no vegetables. So we compromise, like most gardeners, most of the time – and if that sounds like you, then I hope you’ll come and tour The All Seasons Garden and share our highs and lows over the year ahead.

Labels: General, welcome

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:02 AM 2 Comments

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