Middle Aged Gardening
I never thought I'd become this guy. But something about making the back garden thrive with greenery and life just makes me smile.
It has taken some time to get the garden to a state where I feel it's ok to show somebody, mainly due to it being a new build house. We basically got a square of grass and a few basic slabs leading to the back gate. Much time, a patio, shed and a few raised beds later I've finally been ready to plant something! Whilst I'd love to go off-grid like Tom and Barbara Good, to not end up with a garden that looks like an allotment, I think we have to temper the amount of edible produce. However, a starter-for-ten were the eighteen strawberry plants I stuck in in March. It has been a success!
They are delicious. I'm fairly sure they're only about 20% better than can be bought from the supermarket. But they're all shapes and sizes, I took care of them, and they're just better. Like having chips out of the paper. It wasn't even a grand amount of effort; I think I was lucky with the pests. I did some research about protecting them from marauding insects but didn't get round to going to the garden centre. It turned out (for me at least) that netting (anti-bird) and straw (anti-rotting) wasn't really necessary in the end.
In other news, Jess adores the garden centre and has started her project across in the other bed. You can't really see it, but I can assure you there is a large grin under this mask.
There's dahlias, there's bamboo, there's ferns, and there's Penelope the rose 😂
Another success has been the bird feeder. It has taken over 18 months of the sunflower seed feeder being up and receiving zero traffic. We got the odd blackbird and pigeon, but perseverance has paid off and we're host to two goldfinches!
