growing

I'm going to have another crack at gardening this spring. Our back yard is split into two sections: the right half is ours and the left side is our neighbours. We have a small paved area and a little section of raised beds. I was only minimally successful growing in containers last year but I am determined to have another try.

Last weekend Helen, and later Pari, came over and gave me the kind of advice I needed to hear, "Just go for it. Rip out the things you don't want and plant something else." Helen and I got down on our knees and pulled up all the overgrown things that were crowding out our small back garden and we chopped back a couple of trees (or large shrubs?) that hang over into our garden. We bagged up all the garden waste and then planted a few potatoes that had been sprouting in the pantry.

Today I was out at the shops and found out that our local pound shop sells garden items! I started to pick out a few things and got chatting to a couple of nice ladies who were also perusing the items. One said, "I buy the flowers here every year and they always come up beautifully!" Another said, "Oh, dear, you must buy freesias, because they smell the best." So I started picking up loads of things, as you can see! I got some fruit bushes: redcurrant, gooseberry, tayberry, blueberry; and a shrub called escallonia, which has lovely red flowers on the box, and I bought freesia and iris bulbs as well as lily of the valley, columbine, stone crop (small pink flowers), and lupins.


Well! Hopefully some or even all of these will grow in my little patch of dirt and also in the containers. I still want to get lots of vegetables as well.... I'm not sure if I have space for all of this! But I figure some of it might die and some of it might grow.