Let me start off by saying: I’m not a gardener. I’ve no real experience gardening, let alone years of it under my belt to share. I’m a planting newb with a reasonably green thumb (there’s not much I’ve managed to kill off besides one poor rosemary plant I over-watered), who’s here to learn about gardening through having a gardening blog, and expecting to make plenty of mistakes along the way.
You see, I’ve had plenty of blogs in the past, and whenever I commit myself to keeping one, I usually end up learning a heck of a lot more about the subject matter at hand than if I were to just research a little on the topic in my off-time. And gardening is something I do desperately want to get better at. So here I am.
Seeing as how I moved to the UK not all that long ago, it seems to be the perfect opportunity to start taking my curiosity about gardening seriously. Don’t know what exactly it is about the British and gardening, seems like a country-wide obsession to me, but I love it. Things were nothing like this in Canada, where it felt like true gardeners were the extreme outliers of the bunch. People had massive expanses of land as their backyards (especially compared to here in the UK), plenty of resources to garden with, and yet they’d stick to just grass and a few trees along their fences. Maybe a hanging basket of flowers or two: the very same annuals they’d pick up from a grocery store year in, year out.
There’s no real passion for gardening, except amongst a very select few. And that’s a dang pity.
Needless to say – I’m happy to now be in a country that takes its plots of outdoor land (no matter how small!) quite seriously; happy to be in a place that treats gardens as a place to cultivate a hobby rather than a place to simply be maintained.
I have a knack for keeping plants alive. I know that. But I don’t exactly know much else besides this fact. I’m here to rectify that with a heck of a lot of research, and some writing to keep my musings and research notes housed. I’m forgetful, especially about details. There’s something about writing out research findings that helps you remember things even if you never go back and re-read them. But on top of that, having your research published in a place so publicly accessible as a blog; well it’s dang convenient for referring back to, which I can certainly see myself doing (out of necessity) regularly.
And while I currently live in a studio flat with no garden, and with no real chance at having a full on garden for quite a number of years (one day I’ll have a house with a garden back, I swear!), that’s not where I’m at right now. So musings and research will probably just have to be abstract and not applied for a little while; except on my little herb garden in the kitchen and some potted houseplants I’ve got and that will (hopefully) continue to increase in number over time.
May sound a little silly to be starting a gardening blog without the ability to have my own garden yet, but hey – we’ll see! If it gets to be too awkward, I can always press pause on this blog until I’ve full blown got my own garden to work on. Until then, I foresee a lot of posts about indoor house plants, research done on the benefits of cultivating different types of plants (natural remedies, aromatherapy, air purification abilities, and such!), as well as even some posts featuring other people’s gardens, including my husband’s grandmother – Sue, who’s got a particularly great one up and running quite nicely.
So here’s to a good run. Hopefully, I can take my green thumb from a light, pale green to a full on evergreen. 😉
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