Yesterday was cloudy and slightly wet and as I weeded the middle garden I failed to notice my increasingly damp back, although it was not cold and after our hot summer was quite pleasant. However, today is warm, sunny, breezy and beautiful and I realised that September is actually wonderful. I had decided that I was going to be on ‘light duties’ because working so hard yesterday has taken it’s toll on my back and hips, and so I found myself often pausing and simply soaking up the beauty of the garden. It was easy to sit and dream, rather than working hard, and I realised that I felt deeply happy and contented.

I don’t usually  associate September with happiness. As a child, September was the end of Summer and the start of school and that deep and pervasive anxiety of changing classes and worrying about ‘doing my best’. It was a time of uncertainty and vigilance, making sure you always had the right kit with you and the first page of your exercise was neat and correctly set out, not to mention the re-formation of friendships after the long break and finding that everything had changed. If the weather was fine it was barely noticed, cooped up inside in a scratchy new uniform in stuffy classrooms.

In my twenties there was a brief time when September meant holiday time, making the most of lower prices once all the children were back in school, however once I had children myself it was back to the old anxieties and the responsibility and hard work of helping the children to make the re-adjustment back to days at school, away from the comforts of home and family. And then the biggest adjustment of all, taking them to university each September and the sad, empty feeling that had to be worked through and adjusted to each time. Suffice to say September has always felt like a time of loss; loss of family togetherness, freedom from routine, the time to play and the loss of long evenings outside.

But this September I get the sense of how this time of year can be a time of new beginnings. Ben’s new job at the University and a reduction in the work of our business means that I will potentially have more time to spend in the garden. I hope to be able to spend at least a couple of afternoons a week gardening which will give me so much more scope, especially when it comes to the big projects, as up until now I have only been able to work at weekends and there is a limit to how much physical energy I have each day.

The new build also will inevitably change the shape of the garden, creating a new focal point and then there is the practicality of dealing with the top soil and creating new garden ‘areas’. I also plan to work on the garden boundaries and also to update the orchard area, adding raised beds for asparagus and soft fruits. So much to do and I am really very excited. So this September is the start of my new gardening year – watch this space!!