I am astounded at this new found passion for gardening.
Is it an age thing I wonder?
Or an imperative I must develop to fill long, damp, often lonely days?
My nails are engrained with dirt. The knees of my jeans eternally mud caked. My wellies well-worn.
It’s good therapy said my husband in defence of his own green fingered habit years ago. Years ago when I was younger and faster and busier. Much, much busier. Far too busy to garden goddamnit!
I cannot go into a garden now without the compulsion to thieve overcoming me. I furtively pull up bulbs or snip quick cuttings. My secateurs are permanent companions. My mother in law said it was mandatory to steal from other gardens, ‘things grow best when nicked’, she said. The satisfaction of witnessing transplanted ferns furl new green or bulbs sprout promisingly lime-life is a new delight to me.
On a moist Saturday afternoon, when the mist shrouded the tea and drizzle laced the air, we came upon the long lost home of an English tea planter. How loved it must have been once; the evidence abounded in the garden, packed with lilies running riot, creepers clambering without restraint, shrubs gamboling across a lawn where the grass was high and wet. I pulled and tugged and cut.
The garden that I am striving to develop, landscaping beds, planting lawns, cultivating vegetables, it won’t be mine forever. It might only be mine for a handful of years. If that. Is this frenzy of planting about keeping busy?
Or about putting down roots. Literally. Metaphorically?
Jam and Tea 
Gardening is good for the soul. Nurturing plants is a substitute for nurturing our flown from the nest children……..So glad you are back blogging again. This is my new life now too except it’s the west coast of Scotland!
I think it is an age thing. And good therapy. And I’d like to think someone will come across one of my gardens in years to come & appreciate the hidden treasures.
I rent and don’t always have control of how long I stay in one place either. As a result I’m a bit superstitious that if I finish the garden it’ll be time to move on.
But it’s lovely to look out over the patches of green & colour, it brings me peace.
i agree, be nice to think somebody will come across my garden in years to come … after all i did somebody’s and it gave great pleasure …
That’s how I feel, too. We move, and I make the garden as lovely as I can, hoping that I have left a small part of the earth looking more beautiful in my wake.
My partner says gardeners and animal lovers are the best people in the world- hope you can stay in that beautiful place for a long time- sounds like you are creating something wonderful- enjoy