Gardening

As an only child I spent a lot of time playing in the garden, talking to the trees and birds. As I got older I started to grow container plants and the garden continued to be a place of comfort for me. I never really fitted it at school and was bullied a lot. When I was in my garden I could be myself and watching things grow thanks to my nurturing gave me a sense of worth. And I could simply lose myself in my thoughts and the sounds and smells of the garden for hours.
Early beginnings
When I left school I studied horticulture as this seemed a natural choice. I loved those three years at Cape Technikon and thought I had found my calling. However, pottering in my garden in the weekend was one thing, hauling heavy equipment around and doing manual work in the elements every day was something else entirely and I started to realise that I wasn't physically cut out for it. It would be a good 20 years later before I learned that my inability to cope with the physical demands of the job was not due to pathetic weakness or a flaw in my character but rather due to some very real and serious congenital medical conditions.

Defeated I ended up going in a different direction career-wise, but for a long time I felt a sense of shame at giving up what was supposed to have been my dream job.

It was until many years later after moving to Wellington, NZ and after the break up of a long-term relationship that I moved into a small cottage with a neglected garden that my passion for gardening was rekindled. Over the years I lived here, I transformed the little garden and received much joy from it.
2011
I had a patch of swamp irises I grew from bare rhizomes that put on a brilliant display of flowers every November. I created a pond in plastic tub that had a happy community of tiny minnow fish that even produced offspring, and one season had two happy tadpoles that swam among my lovely flowering water lilies. I planted two flower beds of roses and gladioli that produced ample blooms for the garden and vases of cut flowers. I had vege patches that I mostly used to grow greens for my beloved bunnies - they ate the tops, I ate the bottoms, a bird bath and feeder that attracted many birds and a swan plant for generations of Monarch butterflies each year. And for several months I had ducks visiting each morning for a feed and swim in my paddle pool. It was my little piece of Eden in the midst of city life.

Five years on
So that diploma in horticulture wasn't wasted. It gave me the tools to transform a barren patch into a paradise. In the end, in life no experience is wasted.

And now I find myself in a new home with a gorgeous and bountiful country garden and look forward to the coming seasons of flowers and fruit, and crafts and preserves.
My beautiful Bethune...