5th September 2021

As you know, I love being around nature, especially in the garden. Our garden in Adelaide gave us so much joy. It didn’t matter whether it was sitting out in it with John and Angel, or if I was digging or planting in it, I found the garden as a place of peace. I would feed the birds and give them a fresh bath water to play in. I would talk to the plants and look for signs they needed help or were doing well. I loved seeing the shadows cast by our big Lemon Myrtle tree making dappled light. I loved to see the rainbows in the water spray when I hand watered. I loved to create new spaces in the garden with John.

It was very tough to say goodbye to the garden that I had loved for 40 years, since moving into John’s house on 3rd March 1981 and making it our Harmony House. Now that garden belongs with another couple.

Here in Manchester, I don’t have my own garden, yet. I hope that I will get another home I can make into my garden haven. But in the mean time Natasha and Mark are ok with me spending time in their garden.

Living busy lives, they aren’t able to spend as much time as John and I did in ours. But it is a lovely space. Big patch of grass for Alex to run around in. Two different types of apple trees and some pots with roses or small buses in them.

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Their garden gets English Magpies, small birds and grey squirrels visiting. There are also a few cats who come into the garden. Jessie, who is the family tuxedo cat, is an indoors only cat, watches the visitors to the garden through the windows.

I started my UK gardening experience by pulling out weeds. Nat and Mark lay down week mat and it works really well, except that opportunistic weeds will grow wherever they can and aren’t too fussy if all there is available is stones or bark mulch. They were very easy to pull out because the roots were all very shallow.

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Unfortunately, I my knees didn’t like me either squatting down or kneeling to weed. So I couldn’t get it finished. But I told myself, I don’t have to finish it in a day. The patches I had done looked ok. I also trimmed back a couple of the roses, to neaten them up. It is hanging on to still be like summer here, so too early to prune the roses or move the pretty bulbs that Nat would like to see in a raised garden bed. Mark mowed the lawn the next day, so it looked nice.

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I asked if I could get some flowers to put in the garden, just something that was bright and colourful. Mark took Alex and I to the stores that have a garden centre – B&M and B&Q. B&M is a bit like an everything shop. You can pretty get most items you need for the home from them. So a bit like Australia’s Big W or KMart without the clothing. B&Q is the DIY centre, perhaps like a Mitre 10 store as the range is not as extensive as the big hardware store Bunnings is.

Mark said that it was not unusual to go to one store and then to the other one, as often you can’t get everything you need. Luckily, the homemaker centre had both stores there. I hoped to find some simple to grow plants and some pots. I managed to find pansies, yellow and mixed, some Dianthus in mixed colours and some Chrysanthemums that were going out cheaper because they were in need of TLC. I also found some potted flowers that are ideal for bees and butterflies. There is a purple Verbena, a bright yellow Coreopsis and a Rudbeckia daisy. The three pots were 3 for £15 or £6 per pot and the punnets were multipacks. I also bought potting mix, two small rectangular pots, a set of secateurs. I was quite happy with my collection of colourful things.

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Once home, (that sounds lovely), I happily planted the seedlings into the rectangle pots, in the existing pots with the roses and little bush and also in the garden where I had weeded. I had to make holes in the weed mat to put them into soil, so hopefully they will grow ok. I also I placed the new bee and butterfly plants between the existing pots.

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The plants in the pots I want to grow so I can teach Alex how to look after plants and watch them grow. So they are down at Alex height on a wall.

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I like looking out the kitchen window and seeing the sweet and welcoming little flowers.

Fingers crossed everything survives.