World Clock
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This month is the turn of our Gardenbuddy Psilo to share her garden with us.

“I guess most people can put their love of gardening down to influences when they were children. Hours spent watching a kindly and encouraging grandparent maybe or perhaps digging over a plot that they were given of their very own. I had no such influences. The only person who did any gardening in our family was my grandfather. He grew vegetables and chrysanthemums and was a very quiet man. Sadly though we were never allowed to help and gardening within the family certainly wasn’t encouraged. It wasn’t until I moved into my first house that my love of gardening started to emerge. For the first few years, like most people my knowledge was gained from trial and error, with my mistakes teaching me just as much as my successes. Around this time I began a love affair with a plant that was to change my life for ever. This was the hardy geranium; fool proof, hardy, easy to grow and above all resistant to slugs and snails. My collection grew and grew and suddenly my own perfectly adequately sized back garden was far too small!

I no longer wanted to be restricted by size. I wanted to grow everything. I wanted to give my collection more room but I also wanted the opportunity to grow large plants such as Gunnera Mannicata and Cephalaria Gigantia. In Febuary 2001 my dream became a reality when I rented an allotment. In the UK allotments are plots of land that are rented from the council for the purpose of growing vegetables and fruit. I just had to be different though. I do grow these but my greatest urge was to surround myself with flowers. My first plot was 250 square metres in area and initially it was organised chaos. Clearing the neglected weed ridden site took the best part of 4 months and I had to put plants in wherever there was space.

Today I have 3 plots. A total of 750 square metres in total. One plot is for growing fruit and vegetables for the family. One plot is for my flowers and my third plot is mainly for the wildlife. Here I have made a large wildlife pond and a huge 125 square metre bog garden. All my plots are wildlife friendly and I am rewarded in summer by the sheer amount of creatures that visit it. In the summer the allotments are like home to all of us. The children play here, free from cars and danger. They spend hours watching wildlife in the ponds (We have 5 ponds all together) and love to collect conkers in the autumn. I love to watch the wildlife too. The allotments border onto a deciduous wood that is part of a large estate that can be dated back to the 13th century. Birds, foxes and squirrels are everywhere. I put feeders and nest boxes up for the birds and attract a very wide variety including jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, tits and finches.

My most favourite plants of all are the hardy geraniums. These will always be my first passion but I also love aquilegias, poppies, grasses, foxgloves and Irises. From collecting hardy geraniums my business, Cottage Garden Seeds was also born.

Sadly in the last 12 months my health has been very poor and my plots have been somewhat neglected. Now however, I have begun to get well again and gardening is once again becoming my therapy. I have many plans for the future. I have already built 2 large 12 foot trellises upon which I aim to grow a collection of clematis in order to provide shade for a large shade garden that I am also planning. I also have a lot of irises to plant and have wishes to plant up my bog garden even further. As with all gardens work is continually ongoing and I still have a lot to do but I am very much looking forward to seeing it take shape once more.”

Thank you Annette for sharing your garden with us.

Produced by Kniphofia