I am not a natural gardener. A while ago I discovered someone in Melbourne who had been off the grid & self-sufficient for 15+ years & I felt inspired. If they could do it in the middle of a city maybe I could too in the Vale of Evesham.
We live in a rented house, the back garden is mostly concrete slabs, great big boulders, lots of pebbles & a tiny patch of astro turf, the kids trampoline monopolising the space. The front garden was similarly uninspiring & they were both difficult to maintain. Not being a much of fan of gardening it was a relentless battle against the weeds.
So, in my wisdom, or lack thereof, I decided to let the garden turn into a wild garden. I had visions of the garden ablaze with colourful wildflowers, bees drifting lazily amongst them, butterflies flitting from petal to petal.
The reality was more like Day of the Triffids on acid & not in a good way.
A wild garden isn’t as simple as just letting it run riot, it needs more tending than that. By now my garden was overwhelming & it just got worse.
At the beginning of the year, I had been contemplating my own menopause journey & reflecting on my intentions for the year. One day I was meditating & I got a strong message to go more natural in my approach.
A friend recommended an Ayurvedic Menopause course she had done. I read up & it all really resonated, so I signed up. I decided to ditch my HRT & try a more natural approach.
Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga, steeped in ancient tradition, it is recognised by the WHO as one of the oldest medical systems. It’s a beautifully holistic, whole-body approach to physical, mental & emotional wellbeing.
Herbs are an essential aspect of Ayurveda: cooking with them, herbal teas & infusions, herbal tinctures for specific aliments & having always wanted my own herb garden so I was inspired to start with a small herb garden & see how I got on.
Project Greenfingers was born!
It’s a standing joke between my friends that I can’t keep a plant alive: if someone gifted me a house plant, my heart used to sink: I just couldn’t keep them alive & couldn’t bear the responsibility.
I was mindful that a small herb garden was a realistic start.
There was a small patch of mud that wasn’t too overgrown with weeds & afforded itself to a little herb garden, so the next time I was in B&M I picked out some mint, rosemary, thyme & marjoram – actually I had a meno moment thinking marjoram was oregano but you say oregano & I’ll say marjoram!
There was another incentive to get the herb garden established. The previous Autumn a friend gave me a bay tree & seeing the fear in my eyes told me, ‘Don’t worry, you can’t kill a bay tree.’
‘You wanna bet?’ I joked back.
Assuming the bay tree was invincible I basically ignored it, not intentionally I just didn’t give it much thought or attention. it rolled around the back garden in its pot through the winter months & by now was looking very sorry for itself. Understanding water consciousness & that if you ignore something it perishes, I could see it right in front of my eyes & I felt responsible.
I hoped if I planted the bay with the herbs, they & surrounding trees in nearby gardens might help save the bay tree by sending healing energy through the roots & mycelium. I also paused daily to send loving energy to all the herbs.
I was told to be careful with the mint – if it wasn’t it a pot it would take over, so I diligently dug it up, put it back into its pot, made the hole bigger & replanted it in the ground in its pot.
Flush with my Percy Thrower-ness I shared what I’d done with a friend who told me, ‘The roots will just grow over the top.’
‘oh’, i responded despondently, ‘what should i do?’
‘Put it in a pot,’ she replied
‘That’s what I’ve don….’ I trailed off & it dawned on me. ‘Oh you mean on the top, put the pot on the top of the soil.’
When we both realised how I had completely mis-understood we fell about laughing. I was beginning to see the joy in this gardening malarky! And I could see the benefits: the herbs were thriving.
I diligently dug up the mint, potted it a terracotta pot I found & when another green fingered friend popped in proudly showed her the fruits of my labour. Bemused she looked at me & said, ‘But where’s the mint?’
‘There.’ I said pointing at the pot.
‘That’s not mint, that’s sage,’ was her reply.
‘Y’know what,’ I said,’ I kept thinking it looked like sage but the sticker on the pot said mint.’
I started to laugh again: I had a lot to learn if I was ever going to be off the grid! But everyone’s got to start somewhere!
I began to dream about transporting the gravel & head height weeds that was the front garden into beds full of full of vegetables & flowers. I bought some house plants for some much needed greenery inside too.
Then one day, completely out of the blue one of my neighbours asked if I wanted some sleepers & top soil. I hadn’t anticipated my dream would manifest so quickly but 2 days later my son & his best mate had transported it all around the block.
I bought some horse manure & dug it into the soil to give it a good boost & since it was all a bit of a surprise & I wasn’t quite ‘ready’ to full embrace my inner horticulturist I chucked a load of wildflower seeds onto it. I figured I’d see how they flourished (or potentially not based on my track record) & do veggies next year.
Project Greenfingers was in full swing. Friends & clients gifted me plants: I have actual real live mint now! tomatoes, basil, parsley & coriander, lemon balm, geraniums, lavender, sunflowers, lilies, pumpkins, squash, courgette. It’s all higgledy-piggledy & very random but I have loved every minute of planting them & getting my hands dirty, watering & nourishing them & seeing them, blossom & bloom.
I looked down onto the flower bed from my bedroom window this morning & saw the butterflies & bees dancing amongst the flowers & could feel myself beaming with joy.
With the front garden starting to take shape it was time to tackle the back garden. The kids had finally decided to relinquish the trampoline & so it was time to switch focus here.
With the help of a gardener friend & his ghostbusters pack & my son & his mate, the weeds are under control. I’ve laid 3 tonnes of bark, my son did the final back-breaking ton. And again I have been gifted more plants & a hammock.
I finally have a natural space to just be & I relish every moment – the hammock is my new happy place!
I never had any idea when I embarked on project greenfingers how quickly it would evolve & how much I would truly enjoy creating a more natural haven in our garden & the joy of creation as everything begins to flourish & thrive.
Looking back to this time last year I remembered a conversation I had with a local psychic who declared I loved gardening, getting my hands dirty & at the time I laughed saying, nope not me. But maybe this is where the seed was originally sown?