Bit of a milestone! Celebrating my one year anniversary on GOY!

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I can’t believe it but it’s been a one whole year since I joined this fabulous site! It was this time last year when I stumbled upon it on Facebook … and it was just at a time in my life when I was really getting interested in gardening.

I’ve always tried to do some gardening – and my approach to gardening was basically to plant something that I might vaguely know the name of and wait and see what happened … if it worked, great … if not, oh well! I never really did much preparation of the soil, or fertilising or solved pest problems.

This shows part of my last garden which had a definite tropical feel:

When we moved to this new home, gardening proved to be a bit more of a challenge. Work, children, life in general usually filled my days … so I didn’t have that much time to devote to the garden. I lost quite a few plants because I wasn’t really looking after them and the conditions of the site proved to be more difficult to handle than any other garden I’ve had.

Then suddenly life became a little less hectic about two years ago. Both boys had finally! (yes they returned a couple of times) left home …
Here they are when they just couldn’t leave home … gorgeous weren’t they?

Both were now living elsewhere… one had a young family of his own. I had just begun working part-time instead of full-time (absolutely brilliant!) and I was now living in this very quiet huge house with a hubbie who spent a lot of his time downstairs in his workshop restoring old motorbikes.

During the past year I have put a fair amount of effort into jump-starting my garden and learning about plants … it has helped me through some rough times during 2009 (it was not a good year… ‘annus horribilis’ doesn’t even come close!!)

Alongside actually getting out there and spending lots of time in the garden … I spent time on here meeting fascinating people, hearing great stories, viewing brilliant photos, perusing inspiring blogs and enjoying the general chit-chat on this site … I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a member and it’s provided a great diversion!

I’ve posted around 1000 photos now. These have proven to be the most liked photos … which have nothing to do with my garden at all!! LOL!:

I’ve also written over 40 blogs … can’t believe it! Many of them were just about what I did in the garden during certain times of the year and people seemed to be interested.

I’m pleased to say in that one year I have built up a collection of great new plants that I’ve never had before:

I’ve begun to appreciate the plants that were already here and treat them with more care:

I’ve found out the names of plants I had no idea about:

I’ve worked on changing my courtyard space into a lovely garden area.
Before:

After:

I’ve also begun new garden beds… with some help from hubbie.
Before:

After:

So … onto this year … looking forward to really getting back into the garden after summer – just too hot and humid right now! I’m also looking forward to another year on GOY … it’s always worth a visit … or two … or two hundred! So thanks for the great company and the expertise that has been shared so graciously!

Lastly … some of the lovely native flowers I grew last year.

11 Jan, 2010
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Jacque

Where does time go Berneih :) Im sure ul keep enjoying GOY & make 20yrs 4 sure ;)

11 Jan, 2010

Grindle

well done on your first year Bernieh, love your pictures too

11 Jan, 2010

Amblealice

Yes congrats Bernieh..here's to the next century or so....for all of us. I always enjoy your pictures....they are especially welcome at this time of year when we can't even see our plants for snow. Keep them coming :-)))

11 Jan, 2010

Pamg

amazing garden Bernieh--- whats the gorgeous bird?... its nice to see pictures of gardens without snow and temps above zero-- we're forecast a week of cold, damp and grey cloud!

11 Jan, 2010

Bit of a milestone! Celebrating my one year anniversary on GOY!

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