The only gardening space that I can truly call my own is my tiny front garden. It is my space, no one else really thinks about it. I only go in it to move the bin out every week. I made a gravel bendy path with two borders and have stuffed it with Euphorbia, Dahlia, Stachys, Heuchera, Daphne, Verbena, Nasturtium, Kniphofia and Pennisetums. It is so lovely and no one enters. My little haven. And it brings me joy from the inside and out. I see it from my lounge and I see the purple heads of the Verbena swaying about as I approach from the end of the road!
Work at the moment is pretty much just maintenance and I really enjoy this aspect of Horticulture. I do love weeding and tidying and keeping everything tip top. Some people can be so snobby within Horticulture but it's not all about grand designs and speaking Latin in company. I had someone ask me recently, the name of a plant. When I told him, he reeled off some other plants just so I understood that he knows plant names in full! It doesn't impress me. I would rather someone tell me how they felt about a garden or plant or which plant was their favourite and why.
Watering correctly is so important, as is edging well in straight lines, weeding well (removing the root and not damaging the plant), as is mowing well (collecting grass and not leaving great lumps of it). The list goes on. I love being a Practical Gardener, I find a real sense of achievement every day when I have taken an area and turned into something beautiful again.
I have been cropping a lot today (again there is a skill to such a simple task, be gentle and do not damage the mother plant!). We have a huge variety of crops sown from seed. Cucamelons taking my interest the most and 'Black' Runners ( sort of purple black amidst green, very pretty).
What a job, getting paid to be in beautiful surroundings cropping delicious veg!
Know what you mean about the satisfactions of practical horticulture...It seems too many people focus on the theoretical and, as you say, the glamour of 'Design', sometimes entered into as a profession, without the necessary knowledge/experience with how plants actually function, to enable the plans to be feasible and/or healthy over time...Also, totally relate to your enjoyment of a private oasis of calm in a household of young boys...remember the badminton rackets in the beds, (and the fir tree ;), also water balloon fights, frenzied soccer exchanges and sundry other innocent but disconcerting attacks on the garden...Your veg photos look great...got some Cucamelon seeds but didn't get them planted...Have one for me..They sound delicious : )
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