The garden is ever giving

`What do you like most about gardening?’ I’m frequently asked. The answer is simple. Almost everything apart from losing plants to drought, excess of water, pests, or diseases. The garden is ever giving in tangible terms with fruit, flower, and vegetable crops, but I’d never underestimate the intangibles, those experiences that lift the spirits and are commonly referred to as the ‘feelgood’ factor.

Successful propagation is special. Germinating seedlings emerging into the daylight or, stem cuttings showing signs of rooting. These things bring a real buzz of excitement and achievement.

Transforming a bare patch of land into a glorious display of summer colour or walking in a frozen winter garden amongst hardy shrubs that dare to offer flowers and fragrances. These bring a sense of wellbeing and wonder in equal measure. There’s a riveting observational aspect in gardening. We create the venue and await the arrival of animal hordes, birds, insects, mammals, amphibians.

Two bird baths, one by a pond the other outside the conservatory, attract different species of birds daily, year-round, and oh the bathing antics! Similar pleasure comes from the robin and blackbird who follow me around the garden during planting or digging. When the former alights on my hand and accepts food it`s awe inspiring.

Organising a range of popular nectar-bearing flowers to cover the

January to November period, cannot fail to entice pollinating insects. Assorted heathers and winter aconites do the trick for early foraging bees in this garden. The viburnums, Cherry ‘Autumnalis,’ and Erica carneas round it all off. Exciting as the sightings of various butterfly species are, it’s the sheer number of bumble bees that impress as they home in on the dwarf lavender hedge or crawl, high on nectar, over the formidable surface of a globe artichoke flower.