Vintage Gardening

Part One - Thinking about Planting!

On a wet and windy day in January, I am thinking about the summer and feeling guilty about neglecting the garden since we have moved. Having left our first floor London flat in the search for more room for our energetic one year old, we went in search of space and fell in love with our Victorian cottage in Kent. The garden was covered in invasive ivy that had really dug its roots and my feeble attempts at sawing its roots left little more than a dent in the first week. There was also no grass which we decided was essential for a footall pitch/rugby pitch and putting green...Facing East has also presented a few interesting dilemmas, as each time I open a gardening book, this always seems to be the most problematic direction...! My vegetable plot and dreams of being self sufficient and feeding my family on organic home-grown veg keep being thwarted by the importance of a well placed goal! However I am compiling a list of flowers that I would like to grow and which might inspire me for Duck Egg!

Nostalgic and evocative, plant lavender amongst roses for a quintessential cottage garden

Scent of the summer, train sweet peas around a rustic trellis made of branches

Create a cherry blossom arbor around a shabby chic garden seat

We now have a blank canvas after a little help from our invaluable handy man who managed to clear the garden in an hour and half! There is a sea of mud but endless possibilities for our little patch! I can't wait to see those first optimistic snowdrop shoots! I love that with gardening we can get started now, growing seedlings and planting.

 I can't help thinking guiltily about the bag of bulbs we have been given and that are lurking under the kitchen sink...However they represent a whole bulb of hope, ready to burst with colour and transform; they are getting me thinking about the bigger picture! I plan on having a garden full of nostalgic scent, carefully chosen colour combinations, of course, and a little bit on the wild side! The garden is going to have a vintage feel, and in my gardening ignorance I am keeping fingers crossed that old English tea roses, apples and lilacs will thrive. It may not be this year, but soon I hope to have tall foxgloves, poppies, runner beans and sweet peas all nestled around our small lawn, with pockets of wildflowers to encourage the bees! I plan for barbeques, heralded by bunting, and make-shift wigwams, oh and of course football matches!

Inspiration (and motivation) for the garden!