Gardening Ways

A range of garden and nature focussed articles assembled during my work in horticulture.

A Feel for Gardens

| Gary Webb

Do you find that some gardens are so large and complicated that it’s hard to really connect with them? Occasionally I find this to be the case, and often it leaves me feeling a little cold towards them. That’s not to say I don’t always like what I see, it’s just that some places can be so extensive or so busy and involved, they’re a challenge to understand.

Now, this isn’t such a problem if I’m simply looking to enjoy a garden’s ambience and spirit, and if that is the case I just breeze around a garden and enjoy it for what it is. Indeed, some gardens which initially seem hard to read can become even more

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A Pocketful of Weeks

| Gary Webb

Focussing on spring flowers.

Now the vernal equinox is upon us there is little doubt that spring is here, and not a moment too soon! Ahead of us are even longer, warmer and brighter days with waves of colourful new growth appearing in gardens and throughout our countryside. Seemingly, it’s been a longer winter than usual, and definitely a wetter one, but now we’re beyond the worst of it, surely, and should be looking forward to the treats ahead with anticipation.

Whilst the spring outlook remains rosy, you don’t need me to remind you that there’s no guarantees where good weather is concerned, so do proceed with an air of caution. If we’re to endure a few more ‘off’ days though, even some visits

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Allotment Love

| Gary Webb

Reflecting on two years of allotment love and my journey to plot 38a.

Finally over the weekend I made time to visit the allotment and it was refreshing to see a few other allotment holders flexing their green fingers. Since returning home though I’ve spent a little time thinking on both the past allotment year, and our longer term relationship – which does have something of an elasticity to it I have to say.

December 2022

Weeks can become busy and overly filled for the best planners amongst us, and for many, there’s often too little time to get through all the tasks on the to-do list. Might growing an allotment then at this point in life be a challenge too far? That doubt is always there and frequently I’m reminded of it by the naughty elf sitting on my shoulder. On the other shoulder though

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Ghostly Gardeners

| Gary Webb

Ghostly Gardeners – a fictional piece based on a world of experience, following a writing prompt about a doorway. By Gary Webb

Looking back, maybe it wasn’t an overactive imagination that placed those oasis-like images in my mind. Maybe the ghostly head gardener had put them there to whet my appetite; to convince me not to pull the old glasshouse down but breathe new life into it. I suppose it could be restored with a few fresh timbers cut-in and some new glass, maybe giving another century of growth, but I’m torn, as when I first set my sore eyes on that tumbledown structure.

When I was there the door, indeed the whole glasshouse clearly needed more than a lick of paint to set it straight. Rust coloured rainwater stained the timber below hinges and where putty should have sat neatly between wood and glass, mossy cushions

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Looking Back at the Harvest Moon

| Gary Webb

This Friday’s full moon, traditionally called the Harvest Moon, brings with it memories of the festivals my junior school classmates and I would enjoy at our local church of St. James. We’d walk around from the school in lines two-by-two to see colourful displays of produce, and we’d learn of the importance and meaning of this special time.

Whether the harvest display was grown nearby I now wonder, as it could have been brought in from the village green grocers, but I do like to think it was locally sourced from a hard-worked allotment or someone’s back garden. The memory of those times fidgeting on pews in church though, is that each occasion served to remind us to always be thankful for food. Those moments are probably the reason why I still hate to see food waste to this day.

The words of those sermons might have faded now, so it’s unsurprising if do not recall mention of the growing efforts behind those festival fruits. Tales would have I’m sure told of dirt ingrained fingers sorting and sowing seed, of the physical effort of soil preparation, of the necessary weeding, feeding and watering, and of the general graft and harvesting process itself. They would have been rich and emotive stories no doubt.

What I could have taken away from those days, nonetheless, is the knowledge that those washed potatoes, exuberant leeks and baskets of beans were grown from seeds sown into living soil. My conscience should have been alerted to the fact that each harvest was itself a gift, a miracle even, and that I should always remain grateful for it. At that time though, as a football focussed fruit and veg’ avoiding kid, I’m not sure if I really understood the meaning of it all, or did I?

Those harvest festival displays, discussions and sermons clearly lodged in my mind. As memory-banked moments they are right up there with a trip to Wembley with my dad, climbing on ruined flinty castles on family holidays, and sitting on a First World War tank at a museum. Each of those moments and many more left deep notches in my own story, each hollowed mark cradling a different memory and meaning.

It might all seem random and unconnected of course, but those early memories did have an impact, and certainly channeled my thinking. I might not have become a soldier or a military historian, or followed my friends onto the football terraces, and I clearly haven’t walked the path of an architect or building conservator. I have though carried throughout life an interest and respect for all those areas, and especially for growing, be it for ornamentation or food. Who knows, maybe those festival displays opened my young mind to a green career after all.

When Friday’s full moon comes around then, if clouds allow, I shall be taking time to look up, as always, but to also think back too. I shall ponder those childhood memories and moments of distraction and will continue to reflect on how influential they were. In my mind’s eye I’m sure that trips out, visits to church, weekends exploring and more will flash by, and I’ll continue to process how those valuable early days might have formed my connection with plants and people.

If you spot the Harvest Moon this Friday, where might your memory take you…?

Gary Webb

Like Gardens Do

| Gary Webb

A comfortable though long journey ended when I opened the car door into a sodden overhanging conifer; it wasn’t the only time I’d get wet that afternoon. Rain was set in for the day, and would only pause occasionally to catch its breath. For the first time in months I was back in my raincoat, with my faded gardening hat ready for action too.

The garden with its new gardener was the focus for the afternoon, and aside from a decorator darting swiftly in paint splashed dungarees from van to the house and back, all that could be heard was the rain. Water poured from the heavy sky glossing over the old flagstones paving the Manor House front, and streamed from the old lead downpipes into mossy drains. We decided to start the afternoon with some steaming black coffee in the gardener’s kitchen.

Chatting whilst watching the weather through an open door, all that we could see was an enclosed courtyard, but in no time at all the raising light level lifted our spirits. We moved out swiftly and through the arch into the damp grey garden, crunching across the gravelly drive towards an area in need of a plan.

On the way we perused empty borders, and some packed full of wet perennials just going over, then made footprints through sodden grass as we moved towards the once glorious garden. Pausing before shallow steps up

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A Swift Piece

| Gary Webb

The sky-scape is so dazzling I can only look up for a few moments each time, and only then through my darkest sunglasses. Across the brightness though some fast moving darker flecks catch my eyes, and in the moment I see them, I hear their cries too.

I’m sitting on a shaded bench behind my house you see, a comfy perch chosen to give me the best view of my garden and skies above. With some regal lilies flowering just a few steps away, the air is strongly perfumed and I wonder how far it drifts beyond the fences.

Those darker flecks of course, are swifts, a bunch of the speediest birds who despite their apparent toughness are positioned on the red list, meaning these birds

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Making time for me…

| Gary Webb

It’s been a little while since I put some time aside to write specifically for my blog but I have, just like those little buzzy things in the garden, been a very busy bee of late. Today though, for the summer solstice, I’d planned to spend a much calmer day, mostly by myself doing whatever felt right – even if that ended up being nothing at all.

Heading into 2023, I somehow knew it would be a challenging year as I continued to establish in a working role that for me, was very different to anything I’d done previously – in some respects it felt as though I’d started a second career. As the year would progress, I knew I’d need to find time that I could call my own where I could think, read, write or do whatever – you’ve probably worked out that it turned into a writing kind of day!

Defining my own style hasn’t been an easy process I have to say, and I’m sure many would quickly say I’ve some way yet to go. But if you’ll allow me a little self criticism, I’m first to admit that frustratingly, I often get bogged down in detail, and all too often

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A Boathouse at Belton

| Gary Webb
©️Gary Webb 2023

Stepping carefully through frozen leaves so not to squish snowdrops, I ventured through vegetation to the river’s edge until a boathouse appeared across the water. I merely sought another perspective and to understand why such a boathouse there, and built in such an unusual way?

Visible mostly by the crisp outlines of a tiled roof perched upon hefty, stripped bark pillars, the recently restored boathouse was a subtle,

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