Gardening: not just for grannies

When I was a much younger version of myself being forced to help out with the garden at my grandma's house, I was pretty sure that the whole gardening thing was sooooo boring and should strictly be left to the old people...fast forward to the present and a day of gardening fills my soul with complete happiness. Being outside in the sunshine, watching things grow, the first signs of Spring popping up all over the place - I love it! Does this make me a total granny? Very possibly, but you know what? I say pah! I say gardening can be cool too. This I know as when Gardener's World returned to the BBC this weekend, it started trending on Twitter. Yep, gardeners, trending. Need I say more? Gardening = hip. 

This year I have a whole heap of plans for the garden. It feels like this will be the year, the second in the house, when we finally put our stamp on the garden. At the moment it very much looks like the garden that belonged to the people who lived here before us, except the lawn is definitely not as lush and green looking and it might have one less fuschia bush/plant thingy as I may have chopped it all back today and sawed off the remaining branches ready to be dug up...

I want to add areas! And gravel, and a patio, and loads of pots with fabulous sunflowers! I want a big trough building where I will grow my own salad veggies and just pop out to the garden for a few lettuce leaves to go with dinner. I want to grow sweetpeas in as many locations as possible because they smell amazing and are the only pastel coloured flowers I will allow. I want to paint the benches a new colour and change the shed door from that awful dark brown to something way more interesting and pleasing to my eyes. I want more solar lights so that the whole garden is covered in coloured twinkly stars when we sit out on a summer evening and enjoy a glass of pink wine or two. I want, I want, I want so much! Watch this space to see if it actually happens...

But until it's time to start all my jobs, I'm delighting in watching the Spring bulbs burst to life - the clumps of tiny yellow daffodils, the chunky tulips that will make me smile every single day, the big hyacinths that we've never grown before so let's hope they work out okay, and the fragile crocuses with their hidden yellows. I love it all. Gardening is good for the soul, well, this soul anyway. 

#grewitmyselfie

I've been enjoying the world of gardening for a few years now, planting stuff, growing stuff, it's so satisfying and I firmly believe it truly is good for the soul. Except maybe weeding, cos that's just boring. Last year, when we moved to the new house with the smaller garden we finally (finally!) had success with growing a wildflower garden. We had tried this so many times, in so many locations, and failed miserably every single time, but failure is no more! Oh ho no, now we have a MASSIVE wildflower garden that is absolutely full to the brim with red poppies, purple poppies, cornflowers, yellow daisies...I don't even know what half of them are really! The wildflower garden is right outside our back door and it fills me with joy every time I open that door, which is a whole lot when you have a dog by the way. 

This year, we upped our wildflower game even more by registering for Grow Wild, a project to bring flowers to the people. All the flowers! I got a huge box full of wildflower seeds which I passed around to friends, family, neighbours, people at theatre - basically the wildflower joy is all across Teesside! I lost count of how many packets we chucked onto our own wildflower patch, and believe me when I say that chucked is the best way to describe my growing tactic - empty the packet, turn around in a big circle all the while scattering seeds. 

See for yourself:

It's really just starting to bloom so every day brings new flower joy. You can see how full up it really is!

See the buzzy bee in the photo below? That's one of the reasons we grow the wildflowers - save the bees!

And finally, the magic effects photo:

Which sums up exactly how the wildflower garden makes me feel - magical. I love it! And I'm not ashamed to admit that every morning, come rain or shine, the first thing I do is go up to the fence and see what's popped up overnight. Happy gardener, right here. 

Mellow Yellow

The garden is winding down now as the season changes, but I've had so much joy from the yellow happiness that we've grown this year. Shiny sunny bursts! They make my heart sing and my smile wide. Until next year, Summer!

How does your garden grow?

Over the years of our many gardening adventures we have tried so many times to grow a wildflower garden. We've tried scattering the seeds in tubs, in troughs, in small patches of garden, and huge swathes of ground, and every single time it's been an epic fail. Until now. 

3 packets of seeds and some random sunflower seeds from last year were carefully scattered as per the instructions (the reality was more like just chucking them around and see what happens) into our freshly prepared patch of ground that we had lovingly dug over and raked. We watered it up well and crossed our fingers. 

Oh! We have a wildflower garden. It's crazy! Every single day flowers are popping up all over it, from the prettiest blue cornflowers to bright yellow daisies, there's poppies and sunflowers waiting to come out to play, it's absolutely brilliant! And what's even more brilliant is that every time I go out and look at it (which is pretty often, I have to admit) there are bees buzzing and butterflies flying all around it. Yay, happy bees, happy gardeners. 

I can't wait until it's all in flower. It's going to be stunning! 

Green Space

The garden we had in the old house was absolutely one of my most favourite things ever. When we moved, there was a little part of me that feared I could never love another garden as much, but I should have had more faith in myself. When we moved in to this house, there was hardly anything to see except lawn but as the seasons are unfolding, so is the garden, day by day. And it's delightful! The colours are all a bit samey and the plants have almost been trained not to grown beyond a certain level, but with our green fingers abound I'm sure it will become the green space that we love the most. 

I never would have imagined that I would enjoy gardening so much. It seems like it should be a hobby for an older person but there's something so satisfying about getting your hands in the earth and watching things grow. Especially fruit and veg! 

Enjoy some green space visuals.

Even though this photo is blurred, I just love the pop of purple in the centre. And these flowers smell amazing! 

I can't wait for all my sunflowers to be ready to brave the outside of the greenhouse. They're my absolutely favourite flower. Oh and I also can't wait for the strawberries. And the raspberries. Having your own green space is truly the Good Life!