Last week I began the process of resurrecting my little garden and so this week I thought I’d resurrect this blog just to keep track of my garden progress.

Like many people all across the world, I found that one of the few positives of all the lockdown periods was the opportunity to devote all the new-found free time to nature. I didn’t actually do anything to our garden during the first lockdown as I spent most of the time in the woods building (semi) watertight dens just in case we couldn’t keep up with the rent, but last year I finally got our garden looking lovely and it quickly became a haven from all the many worrying and annoying issues going on in the world (and the ones closer to home).

My cosy poly tunnel den

I planted so many different sorts of seeds and probably had an equal success and failure rate which was obviously a great learning curve. It was great watching my little seedlings coming to life and turning a dull roadside space into a sea of colour; that was my main aim with the garden, adding colour. My favourite thing was the fact that I didn’t plant my sweet pea seeds until June which meant I was miraculously still picking sweet peas right up until the end of November (in Scotland!), although I have started a lot earlier this year. And now I can’t wait for all the tulips I planted last year to bloom – not long to go. I also planted a few bulbs of my favourite flower, anemones, so I hope they will all come up soon.

So, here are a couple of pictures of my progress so far this year:

Because I turned our poly tunnel into a den, it meant we had to buy an extra one last year so that we could use it for what it was intended for – growing plants. I can’t even remember everything I have planted so far this year – various salad leaves, lupins, delphiniums, hollyhocks, sunflowers, sweet william, petunias, foxgloves, poppies, bunny tail grass and more. This is all for you, sweet butterflies and bees.
Each cane marks a tiny apple tree which I grew from pips during the first lockdown. I’ve planted nasturtium seeds beside them which I hope will grow along the wires which connect the canes and form a ‘summer fence’. In the tyres I’ll plant sunflowers like I did last year, but hopefully not lose as many as I did to slugs and strong winds.

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