How to feed those early bees, and what garden surprises do for us
Plus: good recipes, dahlias and dates. And an excellent Valentine's Day present
OK so I am going to start with rain, but I know you’re probably fed up of seeing it and reading about it and being in it so please don’t worry, I promise I’ll swiftly move on to sun and sunny thoughts and colour and inspiration and all the smile-making things.
Apparently it’s been raining for 36 days non-stop. My goodness did it feel like it.
I went to London to escape the mud and finish some edits, and discovered some beautiful places I’d never seen before:
BUT, just at that point when you think that there can’t possibly be any more rain, it stopped for a few hours. The sky went blue - remember that colour?!
It was a subtle light that the sky made above soil still black with rain-heaviness and squidgy underfoot. The change altered the mood immediately. The edges of everything were a bit clearer, and for once I didn’t find myself longing to get back inside. I got to see the treats that are slowly pushing themselves up, and for a minute I wasn’t impatient or rain-grumpy.
There were some surprises, and that’s what we’re starting off with today.
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I’m an incredibly impatient person. I have an idea and I drive it forward before anyone else thinks of it. (I know - terrible. But exciting). If I can see the solution to a problem, I drive it forward. If I see a set of circumstances and the solution isn’t immediately clear, I push through various options so that a solution will eventually present itself. What I’m incapable of doing is waiting for something to happen all by itself without getting involved. It’s a visceral need - I can’t bear standing by.
But somehow, gardening is the one thing that doesn’t play ball with this approach to life. And it’s good for me. I’ll be looking at an example of this.
I’ve found the most fabulous idea for a Valentine’s Day present.
The most powerfully-smelling, majestically-smelling, seductively-smelling plant in my garden at this very moment. It’s sexy.
If you’ve seen your first bee, that bee will be out looking for food to forage. We’ll be looking at what you can do right now to help:
Plus - dahlia collections - nope, I still haven’t ordered mine either… and some of the easiest ever recipes to feed a crowd.
If you’re new here - welcome! Have a scroll around, and do message me in the app if you have a question. Remember that we have our Gardening Mind Question Time next month, so start getting your queries ready if you’d like to join in. It will take place on Monday 2nd March - the invitation is below. Do pop those questions in the comments and I’ll answer them on the day.
This gardening myths article is a good one for beginner gardeners:
Got a small garden you want to design? Have a look here.
You’ll find lots of border planting design ideas here - here’s an easy one complete with plan and quantities:
Garden surprises
So this is what happened: