A while ago now I was contacted by an organisation who are running an event called Somerset Garden Day asking if I would like to be an ambassador for them. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to work with a new organisation who aim to begin their celebrations of gardening in my neighbouring county of Somerset. But I also love the fact that the aim is to become countrywide, and I felt in some ways it followed on well from my post about #mygardenrightnow.
My garden is a constant stress to me and I often wonder why I spend so much time on it, when I never feel it really performs for me. I am constantly thinking about what people must think, expecting them to be expecting perfection when in reality they have little or no expectation at all. there's no doubt I can make a garden or grow a plant as the 39 Incredible Edible Bristol gardens show, but I never feel my own garden mirrors that success. Of course that is because my time in my own garden is extremely limited, Mr V has been laid up with a very bad back for a year and although is recovering I am terrified to ask him to do much in case all the good work is undone, and I am pretty gardened out most days and the last thing i can face is a weeding session when I walk through the door at 8pm. That mixed with the fact there is a show garden being grown in the garden, all leads to me feeling pretty deflated overtime I walk out of the back door. That said in comparison to the space it was when we moved in less than 2 years ago, there is now colour, the beginning of some borders and a whole array of pots and plants that are beginning to change the space into one that looks like a garden rather than just a lawn with a washing line in the middle. But you see what I mean in that we always say what's wrong before we say what's right!!
Somerset Garden Day is about recognising all the hard work you put into your garden and celebrating that. It isn't about having a show garden standard garden, or about worrying about what hasn't been done. It isn't even about hiding the plant in the border that looks like it's dying or making sure the garden is weeded but rather celebrating the fact that you have a garden, it's beautiful and you have worked extremely hard to get it where it is today, weeds and all.
As humans, and particularly in todays hurried and wanting to be perfect society, with Instagram and other platforms focusing on perfection over reality, we seem to spend more and more time looking at what we haven't done rather than celebrating our successes. In part this is down to a natural will to get things done and move things along, but sometimes we need to sit and look at our achievements and what we have managed to succeed to do in our all too busy lives. Somerset Garden Day is all about doing just that.
I could of course go on and on about this but in reality you'd be better off reading the information about the day on the brand new and shiny website that has been published but please do follow the Somerset Garden Day social media and see how this might take off across the UK. Imagine a day when the whole of the UK spends one day celebrating their gardens and sharing those celebrations with friends and family. What better way to get others into a garden?
On Twitter look for @gardendayuk
On Facebook Somerset Garden Day
On instagram @somersetgardenday
People often ask me if I have a good garden. I tell them it's good in 'vignettes' because I spend too much time in other people's gardens! It's very easy to feel deflated when you come back from visiting another wonderful plot but even so nothing compares with the joy of something flowering that you've grown or seeds that you've sown starting to sprout. It's just remembering to think of those things rather than the weeds that's difficult.
ReplyDeleteI love that and am bound to use it too now I think!!
DeleteI know exactly what you mean. usually I can only see what needs to be done in my garden, rather than what has been done. It is hard to evaluate your own garden objectively which is such a shame.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Jane!! What hasn't been done is really hard to oversee isn't it?
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