Gardening Joys

There's something about getting the earth in my fingers, the freshness of plants, their resilience, their wonderful structures and colours and just being outside working with nature, listening to the birdsong that is really comforting. It is also very rewarding.

The garden comes before decorating the house for me, not least because I am a bit of a plant-a-holic. There are certain plants that I get such pleasure from that I'm even tempted to buy them whenever I see them, even though I  can and do dividing and distribute the ones I've got.


I like overgrown plots as I see them as a blank canvas and the pictures are of my present garden.  It's somewhat smaller than my first garden but the soil is quite sandy, free draining and plants love it. Plants that struggled in my old garden go beserk in this one.

As I like the shade in the summer, it was important to include some trees, and although (like quite s few of my plants) the snake-bark maple is a bit big for this garden I couldn't resist. In addition ther is a plum tree (right), and dwarf cherry tree (left, the fruit are excellent for jam) and 2 espalaier apple trees (apples trees have to come in pairs for fertilisation otherwise you get no fruit, and you need to check what varieties with be a match). I have a cox and a stella which are tied to the fence and pruned to keep them flat.

Gardening Websites
www.garden.org/
www.rhs.org.uk/
www.gardenweb.com/
www.organicgardeningguru.com/

Five Useful Gardening Books
Right Plant, Right Place - Nicola Ferguson
Good Plant Guide - RHS
The Gardening Year - Lance Hattatt
Garden Problem Solver - Pippa Greenwood
The Ultimate Garden Designer - Tim Newbury

Some of my favourite plants: Acanthus Spinosus, Geum Rivale, Lavender Hidcote, Ballota, Digitalis (Foxglove), Veronica Gentianoides and Rosa Intrigue, Eryngium Tripartitum, Salvia (Sage) Icterina, Paeonia (Peony) Sarah Bernhardt, Choisya Ternata, Nigella (Love in a Mist) Miss Jekyll, Dicentra Spectabilis 'Alba', Lilium (Lily) Regale, Allium 'Globemaster', Delpinium 'Cassius', Kniphofia 'Little Maid', Itea Ilicifolia, Hosta Francee, Geranium Ballerina, Ajuga Retans 'Burgundy Glow', Thymus 'Silver Queen'.

TIPS FOR GARDEN DESIGN

1. Think in terms of height, contrasting foliage, texture and colour. 
2. Think in terms of what flowers in what season. The easiest way to do this is to see what's in flower every 3 months at a garden centre.
3. If you want to stick with just one colour, it works better with little splashes of something that compliments or contrasts with it so that the main colour really comes into it's own. 
4. To me a good garden centre is one where you can order whatever plant want and one that will give you advice on anything from what soils suit which plant to how to treat disease ridden plants.
   

Quotations - Words of Wisdom

India's Pearls
These are just some of the most thought provoking sentiments I've so far discovered from this ancient part of our world. Most people in the West will have of Ghandi, but what of other wisemen from India? How many of us know India's pearls of wisdom beyond Ghandi?  I cannot claim that I do so I did a bit of reading and came up with these... 

"One drop of the sea cannot claim to come from one river, and another drop of the sea from another river; the sea is a single consistent whole. In the same way all beings are one; there is no being that does not come from the soul, and is not part of the soul." Chandogya Upanishad

"Freedom is a state of mind - not freedom from something." Krishnamurti

"Propaganda can never tell the truth; truth can never be propagated." Krishnamurti

"Our consciousness is not actually yours or mine; it is the consciousness of man, evolved, grown, accumulated through many, many centuries... When one realizes this our responsibility becomes extraordinarily important." Krishnamurti


"What is the soul? The soul is consciousness. It shines a the light within the heart." Bridadaranyaka Upandishad


"Our responsbility is no longer to acquire, but to be." Kabindranath Tagore

"As an individual, a specific entity, you have physical, mental and nervous limits, among others. If you know your own limits and try to stay within these limits, you are free." Svani Prajnanpad

"What causes fear? Lack of confidence in oneself." Svani Prajnanpad

"The key to an easy relationship with other people is not to impose your ego, nor to crush the ego of others." Svani Prajnanpad

"To love is to understand and feel that the other person is different." Svani Prajnanpad


"Like a silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself. Who will save you? Burst your own cocoon and come out as the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul." Swami Vivekananda

"The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience." Mahatma Ghandi

"Nonviolence os the summit of bravery." Mahatma Ghandi

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." Mahatma Ghandi

"If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others too." Mahatma Ghandi

Or to put it another way... It matters not by what way or by what means we travel, only that we travel and in travelling we learn and grow. My words, but I'm sure it's a paraphrase of someone else. If anyone knows who, I'd be grateful to learn the original.

Welcome to This Inspiration

I won't attempt to define what makes one thing inspiring and another thing dull, all I intend to do is share with you some of the things I find inspiring as well as a few examples of what it's led to. From nature to sculpture, photography, painting, architecture, poetry and words of wisdom. Anything in fact, that I can think of that makes me feel good.

Please feel free to make your own suggestions and recommendations, as it could well help others as well as myself.

My first blog will be under the category of 'Quotations'.

I wanted to share some Indian words of wisdom, not because they are any better or worse than anything else, but merely because I have to start somewhere. I hope I'll be picking out quotes from all cultures, faiths and nations in the coming weeks and months.

Where this will all lead I have no idea, but I'm looking forward to some exciting finds beyond what I've found so far.