My Gardening Story

I’m Polly and you are so welcome to my gardening blog.

I started gardening as a toddler following my dad around his vegetable patch, helping him – well at least I thought I was helping. I just loved getting my hands dirty.

I had a happy privileged childhood, growing up in an idyllic Cheshire village. The privilege was nothing to do with money and everything to do with the people that surrounded me.

As a teenager I decided that gardening was the most boring activity I could imagine! But of course as soon as I got my own little piece of land, I was hooked again.

Our first garden was 4ft high weeds, so the first gardening we did involved hacking and chopping our way through, rotavating, then with a handmade riddle, sieving the whole garden, jolly hard work but it payed dividends in the years to come.

We just managed to lay the lawn before winter came and I remember the only flowers I got planted were crocus bulbs. When they came up the following spring I was captivated by the sheer magic of putting an uninspiring, ugly little bulb into the ground and a few months later, with no effort whatsoever, these beautiful delicate flowers appeared.

I work full-time for myself so gardening is a hobby. I am just a self-taught amateur who’s watched Gardeners World all my adult life, listened to Gardeners question time, read books, talked to other gardeners and learnt by trial and error.

I also lay bricks, which people seem to think is unusual, but more about that later.

You will see me in a headscarf, this is something that started when we were doing very dusty work on our first house, but it is so practical that it has become my staple headgear for gardening and building. And if it’s good enough for Her Majesty….

I grow food organically, but very occasionally resort to weed killer in non-edible areas. This is because we were originally plagued with ground elder (confession done). I now do everything in my power to attract as many creepy crawlies as possible into my garden and I simply couldn’t wait to have a pond teaming with life. This is ironic as when I was a child it was the one thing I didn’t like about being outside. When I was in school aged six I wrote “I like helping my daddy in the garden, but I don’t like the worms”. Now I think of them as my best little helpers.

I’ve kept this little scrap of paper, mainly because my father died when I was a teenager and it reminds me of our happy times outside. I feel so sad that he never knew I’d end up as passionate about gardening as he was. Especially the growing of food.

As someone that lives to eat – when I go to bed I’m already thinking what I’m going to have for breakfast. You simply can’t beat the flavour of freshly picked home-grown fruit & veg, not to mention the vitamin and mineral content.

The varieties sold in shops are grown for yield and longevity. The varieties I grow are for nothing other than flavour.

I never buy new seeds or plants before researching the most flavoursome varieties.

I might add, that I am as bad as anyone else at impulse buying of non-edible plants. I simply can-not resist something slightly unusual but when I get it home I think, crikey, where on earth am I going to put it!

It’s not easy putting into words quite how gardening makes me feel, I’m transported to some happy place where nothing else matters and time doesn’t exist. I’m not someone that finds it easy to relax, but when I’m out there pricking out seedlings, tying in plants and yes, even weeding, I feel truly relaxed.

I want to tell everyone the pleasure that gardening can give to you and if this blog helps just one other person discover that, I’ll be a happy lady.