Before my mum had the stroke, she was a keen gardener. She spent hours in her garden and it always looked so beautiful. I’d enjoy visits to the flower nurseries and garden centres with her (although she said I had expensive taste, one time I talked her into buying two palm trees… well Cordyline Australias and they were so big my stepdad had to collect them in his van).

I’d also look after her hanging baskets whilst she was away on holiday but it felt like a chore. I don’t know if I did a good job as sometimes she’d get her neighbour to look after them whilst she was abroad. Huge would be an understatement to describe them. I’d help with the weeding but at the sight of a spider or woodlouse, i’d run straight indoors. Even in my late teens/early twenties. I just couldn’t deal. Although back then I was very much into exercise and was quite fit, i’d moan my arms ached after an hour of weeding. I also never really liked the colours of the flowers my mum chose. She often chose bright reds and yellows. I’ve always been more of a fan of pastel colours. It wasn’t a bonding thing for us, it was more a case of me starting out really enthusiastic and then my mum suggesting I go back inside, or back to reading my book in the shade after I got bored.

When the stroke left my mum disabled, gardening just wasn’t something she could do anymore. Her right arm is unfortunately paralysed. It’s just not something she could continue to do and to be honest she needed to focus on learning to talk again and walk again. She’s done absolutely amazing in her progress, but more on that in another blog post.

Seeing her beautiful garden become unkept, and withering away, made me sad. Plants are resilient but it needed a lot of TLC. It made me sad because it was something that she loved. Now sitting in the conservatory she didn’t have the beautiful view she once had and admired. So, that was it. I was going to learn how to garden. She was going to have her beautiful garden back. The hours she put into it for well over a decade, since out house was built in the late 90s, I wasn’t going to let that fade away.

So, I started reading books, I asked a lot of questions at the flower nurseries (they know me so well now)… I watched countless youtube videos, and even my mum’s neighbour gave me a tour of her wonderful garden last year and offered me cuttings of everything. I’d always noticed her garden from my bedroom window at my parents and I mentioned to her how pretty it was, she then invited me in for 5 minutes… 5 minutes turned into an hour. It has different levels, and many hidden footpaths. She had noticed i’d been spending time in my mum’s garden, probably heard me shrieking whenever a spider came at me. (yes, they hate me. They are shady af. No, i’m not paranoid, their eight beady little eyes… I respect them, webs are amazing and in the snow and they are stunning, but I feel we need a mutual respect. I’ll make their garden home beautiful, they don’t come to say hi. It’s a fair deal).

The first year I pruned the clematis. It was growing wild and I couldn’t take another year of my stepdad hacking at it with a hedge trimmer. It needed closer attention. I researched what every plant was as my mum was unable to tell me (she has aphasia, so conversation is a struggle). I found out what each plant needed with regards to nutrients. Their shed slowly became a place with shelves filled of bottles and new gardening tools.

I suffer with mental illness. I have since I can remember. I was starting to find the gardening relaxing, and therapeutic. With each year I became more adventurous. There’s something so lovely, satisfying and exciting about planting a tiny seed and growing a giant sunflower. From planting bulbs in winter and having a garden full of daffodils in the spring.  I planted my own hanging baskets, I introduced new plants. I changed the colour scheme which my mum actually loved. Craig bought my parents a huge jasmine plant as a gift. I visited the David Austin centre, and we may have returned home with light purses and 3 new members to the rose family. I was becoming a keen gardener. Always seeing new tools. My boyfriend loves tools, he’s a woodsrcaftsman, we joke that I now love tools. Garden tools. I’ve also been sure to always be as eco conscious as possible. No more blue slug pellets my mum used many years ago, now I used crushed egg shells or organic wool pellets. I’ve got a new appreciation for worms and I love finding them as i’m gardening and safely move them aside being sure to not injure them. I put up bee hotels, away from where the dogs play. This year i’m having a toad house and making a hedgehog shelter. I see a pond in our future too, I love frogs.

As I was becoming more confident, I noticed that my boyfriend’s garden was looking a little sad too. He has three gardens. Three!  I was itching to get stuck in. The previous owner, an elderly lady, had loved her gardens. She had planted dozens of rose bushes, she had a large glass greenhouse (which I now use) and there are hydrangeas and trees everywhere. I asked him if I could look after his garden. It turned out he loves gardening too. It’s something we now do together throughout the year, but we love it most in the late spring and Summer. After over a year of procrastinating, I finally  found out how to prune each rose bush. It was so easy, what was I so worried about? We fed them and they had such big beautiful blooms. No more neglected garden, it was returned to it’s former glory. Each year since, we’ve added more plants, and each year i’ve grown more from seed and tubers myself. The Sarah Bernhardt peonies we planted are starting to look well established in each garden, the greenhouse is always full of seedlings, we use the greenhouse to over winter our bay trees. I must admit, there’s a lot of Laura Ashley both at his and my mum’s house. I’ve changed every bracket. I just love the Laura Ashley garden range, and ‘fallen fruits’.

I’ll be doing a lot of blogging about the gardens, I take photos of every new bloom, every new seedling. I’m trying to post less on instagram so I don’t spam everyone’s feed, but this blog will be full of garden shots.

On that note, my friend Laura (aka. Momma Mac @ Cold Tea and Baby B) and her lovely partner bought me a rose for my 30th birthday. So incredibly thoughtful. It’s pink… and get this… they named it the ‘Stacey Marie’ rose!  I’ve planted it in a huge container so I can take it with me wherever I move to until I find my dream home, and then i’ll transplant it into the ground. I cannot wait to see the first bloom.

Garden Blog to be continued 🙂 I’ll do a separate post on each garden so please stop on by again if you’d like to see those. If you have a blog, please leave the link in the comments.

Much Love,

S

xx