This morning, while I was trying to force myself to have a lay in, I was flicking through Facebook on my phone when a article about gardening popped up!
Now, any one who really knows me will know that my garden is my happy place. I have a bit of a thing going on where I buy cheap plants from the bargain bench at our local garden centre, nurse them back to health and fill my front garden with beautiful very cheap plants that have lost their labels on the bench so the pleasure is not only buying a cheap plant but waiting to see what the plant is like.
Anyone who dares to touch my garden without asking me first is a very brave person! So, when I discovered that using the lawn mower to cut the grass just wasn't comfortable anymore, I was a little bewildered. I say uncomfortable, by that I mean, a couple of times I very nearly mowed over the electrical cord, and for some reason the ground seemed further away. It was one of those jobs I used to be able to do without thinking, but now I had to really concentrate on not missing bits and not electrocuting myself!
I know that its also one for those jobs which I could ask someone else to do, but its MY garden. So over a few weeks I slowly, and I mean really slowly, dug up the grass! Like you do!
I did one side of the path first, got rid of all the grass and mud by filling the old fish pond with it in my back garden. I continued to buy cheap plants and plant them scattered about where the grass once was. Then I brought a roll of that black plastic stuff that stops weeds growing and covered the garden making little holes for my plants. Finally I ordered a large bag of large shingle and I covered the black stuff with the shingle. Then I did the other side of the path and before then end of the month I had successfully removed all the grass, covered the garden in shingle and new plants and jet washed the path...and the front door...and the walls...and the bird bath...and the windows...and a small child who cycled past on her bike....but once you start with one of those machines its really hard to stop!
Mum suggested that I put a chair out under the kitchen window so I could sit out there in the evenings and catch the evening sun. So as the Buddleia was really tall and all my other bushes had grown it was kinda private, so I put a couple of plastic chairs out and perfect...since then the sun hasn't come out and my errrr lets call him 'neighbour' as I cant think of anything nice to say, decided that my Buddleia needed hacking back......Anyway, this article was about gardening for visually impaired folk, and it made me chuckle, because all the things it suggested to do were things I am already doing. Without realising I had already made the adjustments needed for me to still enjoy the garden. I had made my front garden 'blind person' safe, with out any thought I had put plants with contrasting colours beside each other, taken up the grass, and somehow, and I truly don't know how, had managed to buy plants which smell beautiful. Beside my chair is a Jasmine climbing its way up the porch wall, smelling wonderful and every now and then there's a whiff of lavender from the little plants dotted around in the shingle. I have already stopped using gardening tools with long handles and am so much more confident and happy with a trowel, which is why taking up the grass took so long, because I used a trowel. There are no deep or wide boarders, seems I am more clued up to this blind gardening thing than I thought.
Because I have been so busy in the front garden, the back has started to look rather shabby, Thursday I had a awful day and came home feeling incredibly useless and lonely so I got changed picked up my trowel and gardened for hours, it still needs a lot of work and I need to buy flowers to fill some pots, but I built myself a table beside my garden rocking chair out of some bricks I found behind a tree and a old paving slab! I had an productive and therapeutic afternoon and felt better for spending time on my own and just letting my thoughts flow.
I still have grass in the back garden but I am going to start making a sensory garden, somewhere for me to sit and enjoy the smells and noises of the garden, I have always had a thing for wind chimes so I am going to look out for some special things to hang from the trees and make it a happy relaxing place for me. I'm glad I stumbled across the article, as after a week of negativity its nice to know I've been doing something right xx
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