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my garden.

Feb 2006: alas, this web site is effectively ended. Since Joseph was born I have not had the time and inclination to keep updating the site regularly. One's priorities change. I thoroughyl enjoyed it while it lasted. I continue to 'work' in the garden as often as possible.

archive::
why gardening?

part of rog's garden, september 2003 I'd never really bothered with gardening until a couple of years ago. I'd spent most of the previous decade either living in flats that had no gardens, or renting rooms in other people's houses. The only period I had my own garden, I saw it as something that had to be 'dealt with' every few months: which I did with industrial quantities of weed killer and a scythe, in order to prevent the overgrowth of weeds and grass disturbing the neighbours too much.

Two years ago Deborah and I bought this house. It has a decent sized back garden but it had fallen into disrepair. I started digging out swathes of garden to make patios and level areas for sheds, that kind of thing. Then Deborah wanted the old hedge removed. Before long I was committed to the idea of landscaping our garden - fences, paths, patio, a terrace, and when that was done I found I wanted more so it was on to planting and such like. Now I'm hooked.

Between Easter 2002 and summer 2003 we (OK, Deborah's father did all the technical bits) built a patio off the living room; I removed an old, decaying asbestos shed and put in a new shed at the back of the garden; removed the old hedge; put fences up both sides of the garden; made a Mediterranean-style terrace in the rear of the garden on top of reclaimed earth; made a path from gravel and reclaimed slabs, made two new beds, planted a couple of trees. And I dug (by God I dug..), and moved so much earth that I sometimes felt I never wanted to see a molecule of soil again.
Finally, last summer - 2003 - that long beautiful summer, I planted stuff. We bought some plants, but my mum or sister gave a lot to me. Mother, who has always loved her own gardens, was shocked that I, after a couple of decades of encouragement on her part but cynicism on mine, had finally discovered the pleasure of this activity.

I've spent the last 12 months learning and doing. I love the being outside, the small, incremental changes you see every day, the (cliché) 'being close to nature'. I love improving the heavy, clay soil that we have, I love to see stuff grow in it, I love the creating of patterns.