One year on

 

I realised the other day that it was a year last month since I retired from work, so I've been thinking back on the last year.

In the weeks leading up to my retirement, many of my work colleagues asked me what I was going to do with myself when I was no longer working.  I had lots of plans and projects in mind.  I was looking forward to having more time for the  garden and allotment. I was going to be looking after 2 of my grandchildren before and after school 3 days a week. I had hobbies which I'd not had much time for in recent years and wanted to take these up again, knitting, sewing, crafts, baking.  There was also the pastoral work which I am involved in at my local church.  That was enough to keep me busy for a while.

I worked for the NHS as a ward clerk on a busy orthopaedic ward. It was a very demanding and at times quite stressful job.  I was very well organised, in fact I was probably a bit of a control freak. But I really did love my job. When I went back a few months after finishing work to see my work colleagues, they were surprised when I said that I didn't miss work at all.

I was so glad to get away from that mad, manic busyness.  It was great to be able to relax and please myself what I did everyday.  I am still busy, but busy doing what I want to do.  There aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.  When I worked I often heard retired people say they didn't know how they had ever had the time to go out to work.  I now know what they mean by that.

I saw retirement as a new phase in my life, another role to take on, like starting a new job almost.  But doing what I wanted to do, not being bound by rules and regulations.  I'm still very organised,  having grandchildren commitments means I have to be and I love being involved in their lives.

As I look back on the past year  I can see how much I've achieved.

• I've lost weight and I'm more active now. I don't 'do' going to the gym--walking and gardening help me to keep fit.
• I've mastered  my camera and how to upload photos. I'm now sorting them out into folders. Still lots more work to be done there.
• I wanted to improve my writing skills. I've made  a start, here I am writing a blog.
• I've converted a spare bedroom into a craft room.
• I've had a massive paperwork clear out and reorganised our filing system for bills, statements, policies etc. There's still 2 bin bags of shreddings waiting to go on the compost heaps when there's more room.
• Done loads of knitting.
• Tackled a few new projects in the garden.

These are just a few of the things I've done this past year and there are still projects I'm wanting to get on with. Now maybe I'll start to make my plans for the  next year!

A quiet space

Visiting other people's gardens and reading garden magazines gives me lots of ideas and inspirations for my own garden. And one such idea was for a retreat area. A place to sit, to rest, to think, but also to awaken the senses.

I had a place I wanted to develop in my garden.  It was a seating area, a bit of a mess of crumbling concrete, but which we improved. We gravelled the base, were given a new seat as a gift (thanks to daughter for Mothering Sunday/Father's Day present) and we planted. I wanted scented plants in that area, so I planted lavender at the back of the bench, which tumbles over and releases its scent as we brush against it. In the area around the bench I planted pinks which give off a heavenly intoxicating scent. Around the bench in pots I have aromatic herbs, thyme, rosemary, mints, sage. Plants to just brush your hands across and release the fragrance. And there is also one big pot of Meadowsweet another lovely scent, beautiful but short lived. I just make the most of it while it's in flower. There are also plants in pots with gentle colours which are there to just enjoy.

My scented garden is a place to relax, to think, to take time out from gardening and appreciate the garden,  a place to have a coffee, to read, to watch and listen to the wildlife, a secluded place where I am  not overlooked by neighbours, a place to enjoy.
It is a special place for me.

Walking round my garden

There's nothing quite like walking round the garden with a mug of  tea, seeing how everything is growing. It's part of my morning routine when the weather is fine. My garden is not massive, I hasten to add, but it's very full of plants, a bit messy really, plants tumbling into one another. So there's a lot to look at.


I spend a lot of time working in the garden, but those times I'm concentrating on the job I'm doing and don't  notice the other things.

It's when I'm walking round that I spot those first newly opened flowers, the plant I'd given up on just starting to emerge from the soil, vegetable seeds starting to germinate, or decide a plant is in the wrong place and make a mental note to move it when the time is right. It's when I get inspiration for a new planting scheme or my next project, or just see jobs that need doing.  But it's also a time for me and my thoughts, to just relax, wander around enjoying and appreciating.

 Like thinking how lovely these lamb's ears look against the yellow Alchemilla .

 Or noticing these interesting seed heads of the Pasque flower.

 And spotting the first of these beautiful blue Geraniums,

 this  gorgeous Knautia macedonia,

 and this bee.

A spiritual garden

This blog post is dedicated to 2 of my Twitter friends who are wanting to create a spiritual garden on the theme of love and peace. I believe it will be a paved garden with plants in containers. They want ideas for plants to grow. As I can't answer that question in 140 characters I decided to do a blog post with my thoughts!

 I  find a lot of relaxation, peace and spirituality in gardens, not just peace in the sense of being quiet, but bringing a feeling of inner peace. My own garden has developed over a period of 27 years. We  get a lot of traffic noise from the front of the garden. Sometimes in the back garden we have noise from neighbouring gardens, children playing, family barbecues etc. Despite this 'noise' we can still sit in our garden and feel 'peaceful'. My garden is large, has trees, shrubs and flowers. Lots of flowers because I do love my plants.

So what makes a spiritual garden?   Is it the planting scheme? Type of plants? Maybe that helps. I'm not a professional gardener or garden designer, I've just put plants together in my garden which I like. I spend time in my garden, because I love being there. I find it a good place to think, to pray, to play with my grandchildren, to relax, to read, to eat, drink, talk and work. For me it is a spiritual place.

In planning a new garden, I think you would need to look first at which way the garden faces, where there is sun or shade and buy plants to suit the right position. Most plants will grow in containers, even smaller trees, and different heights is another thing to think about. You would also need to have a mix of deciduous and evergreen plants for all year round interest, and variety of colour and leaf texture.  Then you might want to think about colour schemes. Green and white is very relaxing and need not be boring, there are many different shades of green from dark to pale,  variegated and even lime green.  You could bring another colour in, like yellow, or blue to create an effect. I like Euphorbias for their lime green colour. There are lots of different sizes, from a few inches tall to a couple of feet. The taller ones would look great in containers.


Even in a very small garden it's good to have an area where you can sit. That could be a table and chairs on a patio, a bench, or just a tiny corner with a small seat. I love secluded seating areas, somewhere you can take yourself off to sit and be quiet. An area like this could be surrounded by scented plants. I have one in my garden, with aromatic herbs like, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, and lavender which can just be brushed with your hands as you're sitting there.  Other scented plants could be sweet peas, a climbing rose, honeysuckle or jasmine. Climbing plants could grow over an arbour, up a trellis or tripod, depending on space available. In May Lilac is lovely, later in the summer Buddleia is in bloom. Buddleia has lovely graceful arching branches. Both have white varieties as well as the different shades of purple and both smell divine.

Water is very relaxing to listen to in a garden, and you don't need a big garden for this. There are many water features available which could be used in smaller gardens. For plants to use around damp areas, you might consider, Astilbe (white, pale pink, dark pink).

Statues look good in a garden when they are surrounded by greenery. Something like a Buddha, an angel,a cherub even a bird bath depending on your taste. Hostas, ferns, Solomon's Seal ( Polygonatum) look good together for green planting if you have some shade in your garden. Grasses also look good in containers, there are many varieties available, deciduous and evergreen, tall and short, green, variegated, golden colours.  Some grasses also are good sensory plants, nice to brush your hands through, like Stipa tenuissima and some of the Carex varieties. Other grasses are just interesting like Miscanthus or Calamagrostis with tall flower spikes. I love grasses they bring gentle movement to the garden.

There are many  shrubs available at garden centres, deciduous and evergreen, with different leaf colours, some green, some variegated, some golden. Acers have been suggested, they have a lovely delicate leaf and there are a good range of colours to choose from. For evergreen shrubs, there are the Viburnums, which have white flowers, sometimes followed by berries. For spring colour,  Forsythia has yellow flowers, Deutsia, white flowers, flowering  late spring, early summer, I love this, have it in my garden. Then there's the Weigelas, with lovely pink flowers, late spring and early summer and arching branches. I have 2 of these in my garden, one of which is variegated. Hydrangeas are lovely shrubs, look good in containers and there is a wide range available, especially some lovely white ones. The Choisya,  has glossy evergreen leaves and white scented flowers in early summer.  There's a dark green and a yellow leaved variety.

I could go on forever thinking about plants. These are just a few of my thoughts, I hope they are helpful to my friends and can't wait to hear how their garden develops.

Does anyone else have any ideas for planting in a spiritual garden?