October 6th 2023
When I first moved into my cottage, the garden was about as uninspiring and dead as a garden can be. It had boring ugly shrubs around the edges, a dull lawn, zero interesting plants, bio diversity was at extinction levels and the only thing that was thriving in it were.... no not cockroaches despite what they say.... but SLUGS!
Why slugs, with their soft bodies, how did they survive the apocalyptic gardening practises of the previous owner, an elderly male who I suspect, thought neat grass and slug pellets constituted fantastic gardening practices! Well, quite simply, when pesticides and slug pellets are added to gardens you actually make gardening harder and more toxic not just for wildlife but for you. In this case the extensive use of chemicals (in whatever form) and the overly enthusiastic trimming of all plant life to within an inch of it's life, resulted in a barren garden in which ultimately nothing could live but grass, a few hardy shrubs, brambles and slugs. The birds, bees and butterflies and other beneficial, pest & disease fighting insects, had long since died, or feeling defeated at least, had packed their bags for healthier climes.
I really should have titled this blog why I garden organically but we can get to that in more detail in other blogs. This blog is about restoring my cottage garden from the barren apocalyptic land to the almost dreamy like bio diverse organic garden I have now. Not that it is in any way finished. So here's a run down of the years and what has happened so far to get me to this point.
The first year I tried really hard to make it beautiful but several things conspired against me.
Time.
I was a single parent and had to find a way of making a living and I did not think gardening would be the answer. In short gardening, though I loved it, was not a priority.
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
Although I had been an amateur gardener for years and had even worked on other peoples gardens sometimes, I was not really that knowledgeable about plants and landscaping. I kind of knew enough and probably more than the average person but I was not an expert. I'm still no expert but I know lots more than I did.
money
Money. I was still in the mindset (because I was too busy to think straight) that I had to pay people for the things I wanted. I had that learned helplessness that everyone talks about. After several really bad rip off contractors who seemed to have a higher hourly rate than a surgeon I know, I decided enough was enough. I was actually angry. Here I am a single mother, clearly struggling and these contractors just saw me as easy money. The final insult was when I asked someone to lay a gravel path through my garden. They charged me £500 and were here half a day. That's a pro rata rate of £200K a year, for unskilled labour!!!! Of course I only worked this out after I'd paid them and began pondering the time they were here and the cost of materials. I decided It was the last time that any one would rip me off. So in conclusion to this point, I decided to start learning how to do jobs, no matter how difficult, myself.
Tragedy Struck
Then, as if I couldn't feel any more down in the dumps with my lot (raising children alone, always being strapped for cash, and being ripped off to boot every time I needed a job doing) tragedy struck. My gorgeous ginger Tom cat, Rickie, was run over and killed. I was bereft by his awful violent death by a speeding vehicle, even though I live in a low speed area in the countryside. As if that wasn't bad enough a beloved family member died and then I had a terrible car crash. All in the space of about 10 months. The car crash was a head on collision with an old lady who had suffered a medical incident at the wheel. She was unconscious when she veered over to our side of the road and smashed us head on. Myself, all my children and our dog, were all in the car as we headed off on a camping trip. The cumulative effect of all these bad incidents on top of being an already struggling single mother, left me broken and I stopped blogging about my garden restoration and pretty much gave up on living altogether if I am honest. I was just existing as a thing that needed to raise my children... thankfully my feelings didn't stay this way.
Lack of Inspiration
Due to all the points above I just started to actually hate my garden. I really had had enough with the awful landscaping which I "couldn't afford" to do anything about, the awful slugs, the lack of time, lack of money, my injuries from the car crash which left me more or less disabled for 2 years and I felt numb and defeated. I was depressed. I could barely clean the house and wash the dishes. It was a miracle I managed to get the kids to school each day. There's only so much a person can take.
BUT then slowly I started to notice the benefits of just not poisoning the garden, not mowing as often and really not doing any thing much at all. I planted a few flowering shrubs and perennials as and when I could afford it over the years (I had tried to grow from seed but the slugs... so I had given up on that). I scarcely thought such little effort and progress counted for anything... but... over the years the slugs started to decline, the birds started to return and the plants began to blossom and one day I was just sitting at my outdoor table noticing butterflies on the buddleija I planted and bees all over the allium siculum (Sicilian Honey Garlic) and I thought wow, this garden is quite busy with life. Once I started to notice that, I also noticed that the birds had come back and I started to realise this is why my new plants aren't being ravaged by slugs any more, because the bird army is back, helping me win that battle, then I noticed there was a huge variety of bees, birds, hover flies, moths, butterflies, spiders even...my garden was bio diverse...my garden was alive!
It seems as though the benefits of this bio diversity on the wildlife also started to benefit me mentally and spiritually (yes some of you may read that as a cliche but it is true). Seeing those critters who had gradually returned over the years that I was struggling, was of huge benefit to me. I had scarcely noticed but my lack of gardening had in fact done wonders for the wildlife in my garden. In addition my children were getting older, my back was getting slightly better, my sadness was there but it was having less impact on me and my oil paintings were selling quite well so I had a bit more money. All this led to an improvement in my mood and suddenly, I thought, you know what, there has been a five year delay since I started my first gardening blog but I'm BACK!!!!
So here I am now finally restoring my cottage garden and it is feeling such a joy now that I can share my efforts with all the wildlife that has made my garden their home and of course with you. But is is with the wildlife in mind that I do all my future gardening. Everything I do must benefit them and increase bio diversity and creativity and my spirits and of course my mental health, which is actually what cottage gardens always used to do, before there were pesticides, and slug pellets and chemicals, there was just organic gardening and organic gardening practices.
So there it is...this is why my garden isn't fully restored despite me being here quite a few years now but at least now, it is being restored and this is just the beginning of my journey. You can of course follow my journey on my you tube channel as well as instagram too @jillbretherton_art
If you want to know more you can see this video on my you tube channel. Click the picture and it will take you there.
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