Monday 12 April 2021

The healing garden

 After Saturday's major regression, I worked with my gardener in the sunshine for a while this afternoon. The garden is very different from the one Eamonn knew and loved. There's more space and air and colour.


There's new growth in the kitchen garden. The Sage, French Tarragon, and Moroccan Mint have shed their old wood and new shoots are growing vigorously. The scent is wonderful.


The strawberry pot has been moved into the main garden and the Herbs are now beside the Jasmine trellis.











The Lettuce Trough has replaced the Herb trolley, beside the Utility Room door and the young cut & come again lettuce are safely undercover for the next few frosty nights.







My gardener, Bex, pruned the Jasmine back hard on her last visit. It is looking very heathy and putting out flower heads already. This corner of the Kitchen Garden will be a riotous collection of sweet scents and colour soon.









The afternoon was sunny, if somewhat chilly, and Bex and I toured the garden, commenting on the new growth and the rebirth of plants in the Physic Garden.

All  but the foxgloves survived and plants that were planted too late for harvest last year, such as the chamomile, are coming through,


Bulbs that were planted last Autumn are now flowering.  I thought that I'd planted Alium Purple Sensation, but it seems I dreamed that. The white Allium, which local gardeners identified as 'wild garlic', is Allium neapolitanum Cowanii. I have yet to discover if it is onion or garlic scented. In the background, the Saxifraga (Mossy Group) 'Dartington Double White' are both in flower again.




The grape hyacinth have formed a sweet 'fairy ring' underneath the bird house. There are more  Allium neapolitanum Cowanii in bud in the background (right) and the forget-me-nots (Myosotis scorpioides L) are forming a larger clump. In the foreground, the white, double, Narcissus, stands beside the Rosemary, which is just beginning to flower.




The garden is full of blues and whites at the moment. They're my favourite flower colours. At the end of the garden, beside the physic garden, the Anemone blanda 'White Splendour' is already spreading to fill the space.







Behind the shed, the Anemone coronaria are looking their best. Some of them came through as a blue/purple, others (the majority) are white. As yet, there are no red ones. This particular variety can be red, white, or blue.









Looking at all the new growth, and the revival of established plants has helped me very much. I thought I had reverted right back to the beginning of Lockdown 1, last year. I certainly felt as though I had made very little progress opr achieved anything since Eamonn died and isolation became entrenched. I felt a failure at not having made it all the way to Grantham on Saturday. The raw, acute grief of the lack of Eamonn in my life returned to such an extent that I had great trouble waking from a nightmare on Sunday morning. My garden has reminded me that there is still life worth living, and that, although Eamonn is no longer here to share it with me, he had a great zest for life. Life, he once wrote



The purpose of life is more than survival, which seems just on the margin. It is to do well - to flourish. This could be put - to live well and leave it with grace. 

Living well: is no longer the struggle to wrench the necessities of life from the earth.

Survival/flourishing: implies relishing our experiences and learn from them and from the experiences of our fellows reconded in our culture."









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