2019 is going to be a big year in the garden. The cabin will be finished and a whole new garden must be planned and planted around it, as well as the areas adjacent where there has been much digging and new earth to be incorporated. I am both excited and daunted by the prospect. I am also developing the orchard area to incorporate a raised asparagus bed, raspberry and other soft fruits and underplanting beneath the trees. So much to do and I wish I had more time. However I will resolve to;

• Keep gardening fun in the process, not just the result. I want gardening to be something that I do for the love of it, not just lots of work towards an outcome.
• Garden for me not for anyone else. It is wonderful to show people around and have the garden enjoyed by others, and I am not immune to admiration, but if I look ‘outwards’ too much I become aware of all that I haven’t yet done. I feel that the garden is ‘untidy’ and I start ‘clearing up’ as though the garden is an untidy house rather than a space controlled by nature. Gardening should be a release from ties and obligations, I want it to be therapeutic and calming not just another chore.
• Remember not to overdo physical work the last thing I need is more aches and pains. Gardening in moderation is the key- a bit every few days if possible.
• Recycle and focus on sustainability following permaculture principles, use and re-use as much as possible. I am some way along with this, but I want to get further. This garden creates so much ‘waste’ in terms of cut back material and weeds and I need to use the branches etc for fences, barriers and poles and the weeds for compost. Stones and old pavers can be used to make rough paths. There is a use for almost everything I have on site.
• Grow what I love and use what I grow. I love flowers and will continue to develop my flower garden as part of the vegetable plot. I also want to use more of the apples and pears next year as this year I was too busy and a lot got thrown away.
• Love my garden as it is. This garden will always be a place where badgers dig up the grass and rabbits munch the plants. Deer will eat bark and squirrels will have all my hazelnuts. Nettles will grow at the edges and brambles will colonise from next door’s plot. It will be wet and saturated in the Winter and a dry desert in the Summer. It will be disorderly and wild but also beautiful and natural and it will be my refuge and my joy.