In the garden this weekend

Gentle musings

The anticipation of the garden in this picture is what’s spurring me on right now. I’ve just potted on some seedlings and done another sowing of some of my favourites. I’m rather pleased the larkspur have all come up as the variety I’d chosen - I was told they are tricky. I do have a lot of leggy seedlings still to pot on, if you do too, don’t worry, just make sure you burry a lot of the stem when you transplant them. I need to chop my sweet pea seedlings by half which will make them stronger plants, I do this with most annual seedlings- cosmos really love this treatment.

Today was Mothering Sunday and I spent a very happy afternoon in the warmth of the greenhouse organising plants and just having a potter. I potted up my dahlia tubers, some looked a bit ropey so I will need to order a few more just in case. Usually I heel them into compost to take cuttings but this year I thought I’d plant them up as they could really do with getting in the soil. At some point I went up to the house, poured a good glass of red, snipped some of my scented pelargonium which I’d overwintered in the conservatory and walked back down to the greenhouse with my cuttings in search of terracotta pots. Deciding it was the perfect temperature in here I did some resistance training and moved my hefty Lloyd loom chair into place where I think it will now stay.

Gardening or time simply spent in the garden brings me energy like nothing else. It brings immense calm and joy in equal measure and I sit and ponder our garden, it could be a full time job if I let it… and I’ve got to that point in life when I’m wondering if I should just let it and what would that look like? More open days perhaps more workshops, more flowers for my daughter Lilly who’s started up her own floristry business. I’ve been helping her but she’s ready to fly now and I do prefer being the gardener, photographer and writer, not forgetting potter/painter. Yes, I feel like my work here is done. Lilly has taken over the open sided barn as her flower shed where she makes up bouquets. Yesterday she was making them for My Little Vintage Shop in Olney, she’s now developing her own website where she will take local orders. I’m incredibly proud. I’ll let you know more details soon.

This weekend I’ve been mulling over paint colours for the cottage, we’ve been in it two years now and it’s only just beginning to let me know what needs to be done. I studied interior design before I launched my styling business and interiors are still very much a passion of mine. I feel you need to live in a house for a little while first so you can really get to know it before you make changes, it’s much the same as a garden. I’m going full on 80s Laura Ashley with a dash of contemporary chic, in my head it looks amazing but I’m having a tough time trying to explain my brilliance to my family, however, as chief of our home style and having not messed things up before- they do actually trust me to do whatever, so I’m left to get on with it. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend.

Emma x