Tag Archives: community garden

Happy New Year

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Okay, so I realise that it is March but, as you probably have noticed, I have been neglecting the blog fairly badly of late. But, then again, it is a blog about gardening and as the garden has either been covered in alternating layers of snow and ice for what feels like months or hidden under a layer of mud and water there hasn’t been much of anything to write about.

Today started out sunny with a slight dusting of yesterdays snow covering the paths. But it was cold. The kind of cold that makes you eyes and nose run simultaneously and takes your breath away and dries the back of your throat with every in breath. I had plans to get wrapped up warm and walk over to the allotment but by the time I had returned from walking the wee boy to his nursery class the weather had closed in and intermittent flurries of furious snow were whistling and swirling bringing the temperature down even further. So, instead of a walk I opted for a mug of hot coffee and an hour on the lap top with my back pressed against the warmth of the radiator.

It hasn’t just been the blog that has been overlooked, as I booted up my email account I realised that it had also been a victim of my tardiness. Endless emails advertising this that and the other filled the inbox and the trash box – oh! was even worse with amount of emails in there reaching four figures. Delete, delete, delete.

I have experienced significant change in my life over the past few months which has resulted in cupboards cleaned and drawers re-organised, new fabrics bought and new order in the household. Today, my social media outlets got the same treatment.

Little Muddy Boots has served me well but I feel that Girl Gardening has more to offer. I am, after all, a girl who gardens, not one who wears little muddy boots and Larger  Shabby Muddy Boots just didn’t have the same ring to it.  I had. a while ago begun to set up a whole new account for Girl Gardening but then decided it was a shame to lose all those posts (including my Turbines post which was Freshly Pressed in June 2012) and delightful followers that I had accumulated over the years so I have today migrated and merged, re-designed and re-named. I hope you like it and I hope that we will, at some point, get the weather we deserve to get out and garden together!

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July 2012

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One Monday morning in July  of this year, sitting at the kitchen table, sipping my morning cup of coffee I found myself entering the words “horticultural courses” in to Google. Only a week before I had signed up to be a volunteer at my local community garden and had enjoyed it so much that it had got me wanting to learn more.

This has happened before. One week into my last job before I got on the train boarded for mummy-town, I was working in an outpatient department at a small hospital in Sunderland. The next week I had a stack of University prospectus’ on my kitchen table – I was going to train to be a nurse. What I hadn’t realised is that being a nurse involves working with blood, and death and, worst of all, it involves working at night (much like motherhood I have since found out). Night was for sleeping or drinking in the local pub. I shelved that idea quite quickly and sent the prospectus’ for pulping.

A few years previous while watching The Blue Planet I though that being a marine biologist looked like a great way to take my career (I am laughing now as 13 years organising disorganised car sales men can hardly be classed as a stellar career no matter how much I enjoyed it) so I enrolled on a short introduction course to kick start my new life. I didn’t work out. I could tell you more but I guess you are getting the picture.

Anyway, as I Googled away on that Monday morning I found the Edinburgh Garden School who were offering Introduction to Garden Design courses. I liked the course content, I liked the price and I like that you had twelve months to complete four modules. I was sold and thirty minutes later the first module dropped in to my inbox.

From the moment I started reading I was hooked. I was going to be an award winning garden designer with show gardens at Chelsea and an impressive client list and a fancy minimalist white office (yes, I am rolling my eyes and laughing too). It doesn’t hurt to dream.

My First Garden Design

My First Garden Design