Springtime in our urban garden
Gardening at home in our urban walled garden is a passion of mine. Over the past four years I’ve gradually been working to cultivate an urban garden space that works for us, and as our family grows my ideas for the space shift and change. At its heart the purpose of our space remains the same, our garden is a space that has British and locally grown plants, a space to nurture seeds, a space to grow our own, a space to sit and retreat to, a space to learn, and a space to attract bees, butterflies, insects and birds. We feel really lucky to have the size of outside space we do, our garden is south facing and surrounded by walls on all sides. We have changed the space since we lived here, from a lawn and shrubs, to a space that now has raised beds, a greenhouse, a shed, decking and homemade planters to the garden. There are a huge variety of different plants here in comparison to when we started gardening here, filling the space with flowers and herbs to attract more variety of wildlife.
Our garden enables us to notice the small changes in the seasons, the way the weather works in our urban space and to see the small details. Noticing the dew on cobwebs, the frost on the grass, the feel of the warmth of the sunrise, the angle of the light, to noticing the colour of the light as it changes from season to season and day to day. Connecting to nature in this way enables me to thrive.
Our garden right now is one of my favourite spaces. In amongst the ongoing renovation of our home, the garden is becoming my sanctuary. A little space that I can tidy, shape and maintain. Having had a bit of a break last year from tending the garden I’m back into the rhythm of planting, growing and watering. I’ve been back and forth walking to the garden centre to pick a few plants for our window boxes, a few new herbs, some dwarf beans as well as perusing Sarah Raven and the Rocket Gardens websites.
Watching the garden each day and being at home over maternity leave has connected me to our space even more. Our acer tree unfurled its leaves first, then the tulip bulbs planted when my little one was a few weeks old bloomed and connected me to growth of our little one and how time has shifted.
The garden is filled with patches of purple. We saw a few bluebells grow under the acer and right now our agapanthus is growing leaves and a few stems and seed heads, I can’t wait to see the beautiful flowers. The alliums I grew from bulbs last year came back, the purple iris has come back again better than ever, and chive flowers are filling our space and make my heart leap seeing them. The clematis is established in the container on our decking and growing up a homemade bamboo cane trellis. The camellia’s flowered and have now finished, the rhododendron bloomed with bright pink flowers filling the space.
I planted seeds in March and April and have potted them on, and the majority of them are growing well. I hope to have a lovely crop of tomatoes, peppers, and chillies in the greenhouse grown from seed. Outside in our raised planter I have scattered nigella, cosmos, scabious and cornflower seeds and all are growing and filling the space with greenery.I’m looking forward to enjoying what we will grow this year and the flowers that will hopefully fill our space.
