Its April 18th 2024 and the last time I posted was April 2022 . The Pandemic of Covid-19 has been largely forgotten by those who survived without losing family or friends. However the virus still hovers around us and is indeed still killing people. The world at large seems to want to carry on and trust that they won’t be touched by it. The majority of us are vaccinated now and hope that our immune system will be able to cope if we are infected.

My family and myself have been very fortunate and are still here to enjoy the Spring.

It is now eight years since I lost my youngest son to MND and the grief is still overwhelming. However, I do have two other sons, my three grandchildren and my partner and am fortunate to still have my brother and sister alive and healthy. I have always found comfort in the house and garden and though I have reasonable health myself I do find it harder to keep on top of things.

I am trying to count my blessings and although the garden is in a wild state and very green with plants, I have, with the encouragement of my sons, ordered a collection of new bare root perennials from Farmer Gracy, a company that I have used before a few years ago and trust to deliver healthy plants.

New Plants

I began by taking a walk around the garden and assessing what had survived. I remembered that quite a few of the perennials hadn’t shown up last year so decided to do a search online to find a few of my favourite plants. I found to my dismay that they were quite expensive. Previously I have grown from seed but that takes time and I want quick results so decided to go for bare roots. not as cheap as seeds but not as expensive as a ready grown potted plant.

Last year we did a tidy up and threw out a lot of our pots and seed trays that were in constant use when we had the allotment but had grown redundant as we were reduced to just our garden, not to mention that I am now creeping towards eighty and just don’t have the stamina that I used to. My garden now is for sitting in and pottering as befits my age. My own father died of a heart attack whilst working in his garden and I have no intention of carrying on that particular family tradition. The focus then is to make the garden a space to enjoy.

My order for Farmer Gracy, https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/ was, I felt, an indulgence and I was hesitant to send it for a while. However, send it I did, and it includes some old favourites and a couple of plants new to me. I chose Lupin, Aquilegia, Geum, Phlox, Ranunculus, Gyp and a few more. I am now buying compost and pots and looking forward to the delivery. The image above is Aquilegia Pink Petticoat and although I already have a few varieties of this very giving plant, this is a new one to me..

Update 27th April. I’ve had an email to say that the plants are on their way from the Netherlands so here’s hoping that they arrive in good condition.