Gardening on Standby

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7th August: update
I checked my blog and site and found comments and “likes” and this made me very happy. I have never written a blog before so knowing that other like minded people might really read it and respond is wonderful.
Anyway I have posted a few photos as requested…. these are mainly from how the garden looked when we moved in. It made me realize I have not taken any recently so will go out there today and take some photos of “the story in late summer” which I hope to post soon.
A few days ago I pulled up the garlic (a tense and magic moment for me and my son, who watches and likes to predict how many cloves will be in each bulb – he is into probability and understanding the world with some reference to numbers…) and have been trying to keep up with the raspberry, lettuce and bean crop.
The latest two project ideas are a “hermit’s hut” with a fire in the middle and hexagonal wooden walls with a green roof (which I hope to make next year) and a self-build greenhouse. When things are tough with my son and it is hard to sleep at night this is what helps me through it – planning and having a project to look forward to.

• 6 years ago I moved to a home with a large garden for the first time and it was awe-inspiring. At the same time my son was diagnosed with a form of high functioning autism which often led to school phoning me for various reasons…. Hence the phone would be a very stressful interruption to time when I was working in my new realm in the garden. I often felt like I was “gardeing on standby” – ready to answer the dreaded call and sort out yet another event around my son and the school’s response to his condition.
  Over the years I have transformed the overgrown and unloved area into a garden with a hammock under a pergola with vines and roses climbing over it – so I can look up into the foliage and sky as I lie in the hammock. I have built 3 woodstores where wood goes from various stages of seasoning for the woodburner, and 5 raised beds with vegetables, wild plants and strawberries growing in them. These provide us with much of our food and the children love picking things from the garden to eat. There is a willow den for my son (the one who has Aspergers) who loves to sit in it as it is a very calm and soothing spot for him. I have got rid of the lawn and have started to grow a meadow there – a bit tricky (first I put down old wool carpet on the ground to suppress the grass, then put in stepping stones to get from one end othe other, and across etc…. then put in the seeds and plug plants) When I liften one piece of carpet ready to dig and prepare the ground I found a bees nest!! in the ground. So that part has been left for the bees to do their thing. There is also a wood-cutting area which needed a lot of landscaping and stone-moving etc.
  My next thing is to design and build a greenhouse (well, part greenhouse part potting shed part logstore….) And the business idea for Garden Genie Sheffield is starting to find some customers and I am excited about getting that off the ground…/
  more later I hope

• 31 Jul, 2013
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