I’ve had what feels like endless weeks of peering out of the windows to our garden and yearning for a few precious hours, free of the last of the winter chills, to spend pottering outside.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not what could be described as a prolific gardener. More a Mum at home who likes to see flowers bloom, potatoes magically fall out of the bottom of a barrel and marvel at my ‘have a go’ attempts at making things grow.
My grandparents would probably turn in their graves watching me struggle with matching plants to the right compost, or my rather lacklustre watering attempts on summer evenings when I’d rather be kicking back with a good book.
But this year I’ve resolved to do less, but a little better. I have been scrutinising the view to my garden and have tried to work out why it doesn’t look quite how it should. Of course every garden is always a work in progress but I’ve sometimes spent hours digging or weed clearing and still not ended up with the plot I yearn for.
So I have just sat, and observed and quietly tried to work out what needs changing or tweaking rather than going at it like a bull in a china shop. Sometimes it’s just the smaller changes that can make the bigger differences I think.
One of my projects this year is to finish painting my garden pots. I have a mixture of these—some plastic and others ceramic but all of the traditional ‘terracotta’ colour which I feel isn’t giving me the look I’m aiming for. I did a couple last summer and I was really pleased with how they turned out. Simply using white gloss paint transformed them. They needed a couple of coats but sitting in the shade outside with my brush was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. It kept the fumes away and slightly increased the drying time too. Plus it was easy to balance the pots on a couple of old bricks and not worry too much about any drips as they’d soon disappear when we next cut the grass!
There are about four more pots left to do. One bigger one that I hope will hold an abundant crop of sweet peas and some smaller ones perfect for pansies. I can’t wait to get started!