This time last year if you had said that I would be the one doing all the gardening I would have laughed. I love my mum's garden but it's a lot to maintain (even a small garden) and my mum was very precious about it. It was always her dream to have one. So you can imagine that I probably wouldn't have been allowed near it (okay I am sure she would have let me have my own plant pot if I had ever requested one).
Just now though it really is my only creative outlet. As I watch my lovely wee mum fade away I'm not really much in the mood for exploring my creative side. Particularly since we did a lot of those things together. Her garden is different though. I promised her I would look after it while she was too unwell. She enjoyed walking round the garden and pointing out the things that needed done. The few times she was able to sit out she watched as I planted things and followed her instructions.
Now that she is no longer able to do that and never will be I feel I need to keep it going. It would break her heart if her garden was also to fade away.
It's looking very unkempt just now. The weather hasn't exactly made for good gardening. Once are twice I went out in the rain anyway. Most of the time though I have been watching my mum's tomato plants which she sewed herself back when she was first teaching me. The above collection of photo's show just how quickly they sprouted up. For the last two weeks my mum has been concerned that they are too big for the little pots and need to go outside. However, Gardner's World warned not to put them out too soon (I do listen).
Today though they had to take their chance outside. They were so tall one of them was starting to bend over. We couldn't even close the blinds of the window they were sunning themselves in front of. Plus I had another plant ready to take their place in those pots. I cut a trellis my mum had for the plants so that they would fit in the pot (by her instruction). I was also told to get rid of the baby ones. I just couldn't do it. One of the tiny ones didn't make the planting but I felt I should give the other a fair chance. My mum would be rolling her eyes at me for that right now.
I also sent my dad to get some more plants. The daffodils were gone and something needed to go in their place. He wanted advice on what to get. However, as I don't know plants all I could suggest was, not purple. Mainly because of the heather and other plants. We needed another splash of colour. He came back with these gorgeous chrysanthemum's. A lovely flower. I managed to fit five of them into the large pot where the daffodils were.
As I also wanted to give them room to grow I put one into a little pot of it's own beside the front door. It looks quite sweet there and I hope it fills out. It will be interesting to find out.
He also picked up these French Marigolds. I didn't have the heart to tell him we already had marigolds although these have a lovely red tinge to them. I uprooted the pansies which sadly were no more and placed most of them there. Hopefully they will fair better. The final three went into a wee tray that also went out the front. The downside is that we are now drowning in orange rather than purple. I'm sure that will change once the other plants grow.
The little pots that held the tomato plants now contain sunflowers. One of my mum's favourite flowers. They'll go to the front of the house. She grew one of these a few years ago and it grew so tall. I hated it but my mum was so proud. Especially since the neighbours commented on it often.
The wee rock garden plant I picked out and planted is starting to flower. Lovely pink flowers. I can't wait to see it fully blooming.
The hanging baskets are also starting to sprout. I was worried that it wasn't going to happen, it was taking so long.
Sadly the geraniums that I planted in the wheelbarrow didn't make it. The weather changed and it was snowing after a week of sunshine. I planted the cosmos in there instead. I also planted some pansies and I planted the top two bulbs into different pots that mum had designated for them.
