Gardening for Pleasure

Photo Credit: Ian Knox, The Lost Gardens of Heligan

Last month I was lucky enough to attend a talk by Bob Flowerdew, arguably one of the true pioneers of organic gardening. One of my first gardening books was Bob Flowerdew’s Complete Fruit Book (published 1998) when I was trying to learn how to prune established fruit trees and I still refer to it! Many of you will recognise his name from Gardeners’ Question Time as he is one of their longest-running panelists. His talk was interesting, but his most memorable observation is the need to avoid making gardening a chore, particularly the need to do certain jobs within a given timeframe. His view was very much that plants are very forgiving and often Mother Nature makes working to a timetable or list of jobs rather difficult.  When thinking of Mother Nature the above image of the goddess at The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall reminds me of her slumbering on waiting for spring to unfold.

Bob Flowerdew's message was certainly food for thought as so many gardeners - including me - feel pressure to prune shrubs, sow seeds or mulch borders, otherwise something bad will happen. Gardening should give us pleasure, be good for the soul and provide some exercise in the fresh air.

Gardening expert Janet Kilburn Phillips said it best with ‘There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.’