So in that spirit, I’m sharing some of the things I’ve been finding uplifting. Because I suspect that, like me, you’re feeling in need of some uplifting right now.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed more than ever in these strange times is the front gardens I see on my daily walks. I’m deliberately noticing them these days, instead of just spotting them if they happen to be outstanding in some way or another. By which I mean: when I go out for my walk, especially if it’s a really local one, I make a point of looking at all the front gardens, and enjoying those I find beautiful, or inspiring, or quirky, or whatever.
It inspires me to see what people can achieve when they want to and have the time and inclination to make an effort. Some of the loveliest have also been the smallest. Some have been where there is actually no garden at all, just pavement.
I’ve had some lovely chance conversations with gardeners in their front gardens as I passed by (including the one where I left with a baby foxglove plant, and promised to return with one of my salvia cuttings). Encounters such as these help build community and a sense of shared experience.
I truly believe that gardeners will make a garden wherever they find themselves, and these months have not disabused me of the notion.
Back in 2015 I wrote a post vowing to make the effort to improve my own then-embarrassing front garden. If you go back to that post, you’ll see just how different it is now. I’m glad I put in the effort to transform it. There’s still more to do. But then, I don’t think I’ve yet met the gardener who says it’s all done now and no more improvement is possible.
For next year there will be a crab apple tree, and possibly a small bay tree. There will be lots of tulips, and other plants to fill the gaps.
In the meantime, it gives me pleasure to see people walk past and stop to admire something, and ask about the plants. And now I’m off to pick some of the Chilean Guava fruits from the plants I put in several years ago. Which are neither Chilean, nor guavas. But they are delicious, and quite unusual.
the magic jug 