Tag: long term

The simple joys of a garden

To many it probably looks a mess. To me it’s a place of happiness, it’s an art work being constantly touched up, it’s a labour of love. Six years after I started this garden it’s now finally starting to take shape and today I even had the wife’s seal of approval. And that crowns it for me.

My garden

People watch these shows on tv and instantly expect a beautiful renovated instant garden. This simply doesn’t happen.

My garden has been a massive experiment over the years. I’ve lost count of the amount of different plants I’ve placed only for each of them to fail after one season, then you have to ask the reasons why.

Our front garden is Sth facing so I have sun on that most of the day and plants like Lavender and lilac always display spectacularly, baskets and salvias love the front garden, but the front is not as advanced as my back garden, and I’m going to give it attention towards the end of this summer. I’m currently adding plants one at a time. The aim here is a typical country garden in the middle of a city. It’s a challenge.

Lavender and Californian lilac

However my back garden naturally is North facing, with only a glimmer of sunshine, so I have to plant here accordingly. Because of my neighbours, all who love concrete, and who have no green space, my garden naturally suffers from excess water run off from their properties.

I have introduced Hornbeam hedging only a few months ago that again will take time to mature, I have planted a number of ornamental trees to assist with drainage and things are looking positive. The plants I have in place are all bee friendly. We have loads of them as well as butterflies, lady birds and other insect life. I also have a small section near a small rockery area that I have left wilded, the flowers here blend in beautifully. I have a lot of wildlife in this garden, I have some small birds such as wrens going through the bushes that we have never seen here before, we have blackbirds, Robins, blue tits, finches and the pigeons and the magpies who are the antisocial members of the bird family. We also have the occasional Red Kite soar overhead, it’s amazing how the Pigeons and Magpies disappear when they are around. And naturally being the county of the Fox, they are also regular visitors.

And my garden is small, it’s only about 50ft square, and about a mile or so from the city centre.

I have a feral cat who has been a resident here long before we were, and she even chases the foxes who also enter the garden. Just take a look of her protecting the garden from a fox in this small video below:

Cat chasing Fox

The crowning glory is that we have regular hedgehog visitors. We leave nibbles and water out for them at night, we have introduced a highway through the garden with access from our property to others. We have ramps in place alongside the steps to help them about the property. Seeing we are right in the city we are probably one of only a few places of peace and serenity for them in this mad crazy town.

One of our regular visitors
Highways and visitors

I really feel for those that don’t have access to a garden, it really is a place where you can lose yourself. It’s your own constantly developing work of art. I love having visitors to the garden, I love showing them what we have done and what we have planned, and I love helping people transform and achieve their little works of art. My garden has been a life saver for me, and allowed me to maintain my sanity when it all starts getting a bit too much.

Gardens should be compulsory, but unfortunately in this super high speed world, people just want everything low maintenance and that’s a shame.

Don’t even mention imitation grass to me – it should be banned.

The wife said, “You were right, you said it would take time, it looks lovely.” And that meant the world to me.

Thanks for passing by.

Thoughts 2/6/24

Those things that put a smile on your face

I’ve deviated from the usual WordPress daily prompt, as today just like many other days they seem very much the same.

Alf in his favourite look out position

Today I have decided to write about things that put a smile on your face, and today at just before 6am this morning I had an incident that made me smile. For the reader you will probably be thinking what the heck is he getting all excited about, however for me it means a lot more, there is a story behind it all so let me bring you up to speed.

I have owned dogs pretty much all my life, in our 33 years of marriage we have had 3 dogs all of the same breed a Bichon Frise.

Our latest incarnation, the little fellah that has been with us for 11 years so far is Alfie, a right little sweetheart who I can honestly say has never growled at anyone in all the time we have had him, I don’t think he knows how to.

Anyway Alf has an autoimmune disease that means his skin is trying to kill him, it’s an affliction called Sebaceous Addenitis, He is on tablets that do the same as organ rejection tablets do for humans, quite nasty little packages that have to be handled with care. He also has tumours around his rear end that need daily dressing and cleansing. He’s not well bless him, but he still shows us a wagging tail, and that really pleases me.

Anyway Alf has deteriorated quite swiftly over the last couple of years, he’s gone from a dog that loved to walk miles to one that just goes out the door to do his business, we are lucky if a walk now stretches to ten minutes when we used to be out hours.

I do shift work and when I’m on a night shift I’m usually arriving home sometime just after 05:30 in the morning. I used to love to come home, I’d know Alf would be waiting at the door and we’d go out for a lovely early morning walk, i absolutely loved these walks as they formed part of my routine and it was precious good time out with my companion.

However as Alf’s illness has progressed he’s no longer waiting at the door when I come in, he tends to be so tired and to be honest he rarely gets out of bed before 10am as he seems to sleep for the biggest portion of the day. I really miss our little early morning walks. I miss my lively little lad.

In fact both my wife and I have noticed we are not getting the exercise we used to but that’s another story.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I roll up onto the drive to see Alf sitting in his favourite place on top of the settee looking out the window. My immediate thought was “What’s wrong?” but my wife then puts my mind at ease by saying she got up early to put some washing out and Alf got up with her. I said that was strange as it’s far too early for him but he seemed so bright for a moment, so I asked him if he wanted a walk, so he went straight to the front door I put his lead on him and we did something we haven’t done for best part of a year. We had that early morning walk.

We didn’t go far, we probably managed 10 minutes, but do you know what, I felt like I’d won the lottery, I actually thanked him for the walk gave him a cuddle and told him how much I’d enjoyed it. For that brief moment I was the happiest man alive, strange isn’t it. The sad part is that this will probably be the last time we do this, but for me, for a brief moment early this morning I felt like the happiest man on the planet. Its made my day and made me appreciate all that I have. It’s those little things that matter.

Sorry to go on about it, it’s probably going to mean nothing to you the reader, but for me this is everything, and I had to write about it.

Have a wonderful day in whatever you are doing, and just rejoice in those small nuggets of happiness we all too often ignore and let them pass us by.