GREEN FINGERS: Things Learnt From a Year of Gardening

The end of June marked a year of us being home owners. Work on the house is slow but for us there's no rush so works been focused on the garden. Working from home, our garden is my getting away from the computer time, I love going out a couple of times a week early in the morning working away with my fingers in the dirt and so far it's been going rather well. It's always great when your hobbies and interest teach you and make you appreciate things and life a little more, so I thought i'd share the big things that a year of gardening as taught me.

Gardening is teaching me the importance of being patient 

I always want everything to be flowering or growing or doing something right now. I'm not so good on the waiting two weeks for delicate little seeds to poke though and show me some sign of life. But i'm learning, if all be it slowly. I'm seeing the worth in being patient enough to give cucumber plants a little longer before tearing them up, i'm seeing the patience of watching a flower bloom into life. (although in reality you can spend loads of money and shove patience into a weedy corner by buying everything at full height and flowering, plants rather than seeds etc, but yeah, saving the pennies).  

Gardening and Pinterest fails go hand in hand

Pinterest is full of gardening ideas, whether you want a little container, something for the birds or how to create some funky art work. It's all there. Oddly enough most of my failures that so happens to occur more often that not when it comes to Pinterest happens in the garden. Like this attempt at a bird feeder made from an old baked bean can, piece of twine and a stick. Yeah that didn't last long ... 

It's awesome to know exactly how your veg is being grown

Part of our reasoning behind the vegetable patch is to be a little more healthier in our eating. While we were already eating a lot of organic veg it that was something I wanted to continue and expand, especially when you can save a lot of of money doing it yourself. We have the space and I have the time and enjoy I so why not?! I know exactly what is or isn't growing onto, around or in the soil around my patch, none of those crazy chemicals.

It grounds you

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing worse than the feeling of soil under your finger tips, but there is something magical about getting down and dirty in the soil. Seeing the insects crawling around, hearing the birds tweeting, even the pesky squirrels deadheading my flowers. My garden is as much their space as it is mine.

Not everything grows

Wild flowers haven't been the biggest success nor were growing onions from seed. Seeds need to be sown a little further apart and other times, things grow like there's no tomorrow. Our raspberries grow like weeds and our wild sweet peas seem un-killable. It's all about learning what works best and growing with the flow. But knowing that sometimes, not everything works out and that's okay.

It's super rewarding

Seeing flowers bloom that you planted on a cold winter day, cooking up a stir fry with everything you grew yourself. Filling your house with the smell of sweet peas you battled with training up a cane triangle that continues to fall over. Every little thing, all those long hours, all the watering, all the bug bites for a bowl of raspberries daily during picking season. It's been well worth it all.

Do you garden?