Five years ago today I posted my first blog post. I remember being very nervous about raising my head above the parapet and throwing my voice out into the world-wide web. I love the internet with a passion. I think it is just an amazing invention. When I think about how easy it is to find out information, to research holidays, contact friends and family abroad compared with 22 years ago I find myself wondering how we managed. My eldest son was born the same year the worldwide web was created in 1991 so I will always know how old it is. I find it fascinating that my sons have never experienced life without that wealth of knowledge at their fingertips.
Well I needn’t have worried as the last five years blogging have generally been great. It took three posts before I had my first comments which was incredibly exciting and then I joined Blotanical and discovered a world of gardening blogs which has grown dramatically over the last five years. I have met some great people, learnt so much, far more than I would have from the television or reading gardening books and magazines. I have had my dreams and aspirations broaden and my thirst for knowledge encouraged. I have embraced the world of social media in all its forms but for personal reasons first closed my Facebook account and more recently left Twitter. Now my social media focus is on my blog, connecting with others – gardening and otherwise and continuing to share and learn.
Anniversary aside whats been happening in the garden this week? Well not a lot. It has been cold and the week finished off with a blanket of snow somewhere around 6-7″ deep. I said in my last post that I thought the back garden being covered in snow would help me see it with fresh eyes. You see I have decided to get rid of the back lawn. I have been thinking about it more and more for about a year now. Two posts ago I reviewed Beautiful No Mow Lawns and I suppose having a quiet time garden wise has given me time to really think it through and consider what I would put there instead. This still isn’t very clear but I have talked it through with my eldest son and we have agreed that we will be putting a path in along the top of the lawn – which is a natural footpath anyway, extending the steps from the patio (which was already on the to do list) and constructing some sort of level small seating area. Because of the slope and the fact that we just never use the lawn I am struggling to see how I should put paths through this area so we have decided to lift the lawn and see how we naturally use the space once planting starts. I have decided I want to include a small tree – maybe a crab apple or maybe a wedding cake tree but I need to do a lot of research to find something just right. In the meantime the plan is to plant up where the lawn was with dahlias and castor oil plants and anything else that peaks late summer that takes my fancy. This will give me more time to prepare the site and also time to think about what will work here.
Today my snowy gloom was lifted by the arrival of my seeds from the Hardy Plant Societydistribution scheme. I seem to have done well and appear to have received 19 of my 20 first choices. Interestingly my second every blog post was about seeds; this time arriving from the Cottage Garden Society. My passion for growing from seed hasn’t abated although it had been through a few troughs and I got side-tracked by growing vegetables for a couple of years. Anyway, I am back to my first love and thrilled that some of the seeds I sowed last weekend in the new propagator have already germinated. So far I have the following pushing through the compost:
Coleus Carefree Mixed
Caesalpinia gillesii ‘Bird of Paradise Shrub’
Pelargonium worcesterae
Ricinus comm impala ‘Castor Oil Plant’
So whilst it might be snowy and cold outside I have lots of plants to research and in particular dahlias to choose over the coming week.