Being a gardener

As long as I can remember I have been a gardener.

Life as a gardener is governed primarily by the ‘rhythms’ of nature. The waxing and waning of daylight dictates the length of the working day, the prevailing weather dictates both the tasks and the clothing necessary, and the changing of the seasons provides variation in both work and scenery, so one day is never the same as the last.

It is a job like no other. It requires a wide range of skills, from that of the botanist; identifying plants, the ecologist; deciding where they may grow, the designer; deciding what would look good with them, the builder; constructing the garden, the cleaner; maintaining the overall appearance, or the mechanic; repairing and maintaining tools, amongst many others. Every day throws up new challenges that require a good dose of adaptability, resourcefulness and patience to solve, and every day provides satisfaction in the completion of some minor task, but never the completion of the whole.

As a child I always loved to help my parents in the garden. Some of my earliest memories are planting bulbs in our garden. When we moved to a new house, while the garden was being constructed, I used leftover hedging and turf to construct a miniature garden, just for my toys. As I grew up I was able to help more; spreading manure in the veg garden and cutting the hedges and grass for pocket money. In the summer I would even cycle to the local strawberry farm to help pick berries to save money for my holidays.

It seemed a natural choice then, that when it came to choosing my career, I should be a gardener.

I started this blog as a way that I could record my thoughts about gardening, my garden, and being a gardener, as they occur to me. Hopefully you will be able to relate to them, maybe you will find some useful, but mostly I hope that you will find them interesting.