My name is Sue and I am a gardener………..what’s your superpower?

 

I am based in a beautiful rural village in south Staffordshire I studied for a Diploma in Garden Design at Rodbaston agricultural college where I combined the two loves of my life Art and Gardening.

As a little girl I was influenced in all things gardening by my beloved grandad, he taught me the art and science of gardening through the seasons, his garden and allotment supplied the house with year round flowers, fruit and vegetables to feed our large family, there was always an abundant glut of food which I helped my Nan to preserve by bottling freezing and pickling to be enjoyed over the coming winter months. Nothing was ever wasted, everything was used and recycled back into the earth, he taught me about crop rotation and interplanting how you could get a huge amount of fresh fabulous organic food even from a tiny garden!

He grew prize Chrysanthemums started off as fleshy cuttings siting round the edge of pots, covered with plastic bags making mini greenhouses to propagate new plants for free it is so easy when you know how!

One of my fondest memories was the excitement of hunting for ripe peapods along the rows of peas as tall as me, their curly tendrils twisting round the sticks holding on whist they grew upwards, tasting those so sweet crunchy shiny peas was a delight (I even ate the pods) carrying them in the basket to my Nan where she and I sat on the door step and shelled the peas delighting in us both making them “pop” open and then shelling them shooting into a bowl as they were ejected from the pods by my eager little fingers.

One of my favourite garden quotes was by the actress Audrey Hepburn she said;

 “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”. I believe this to be true.

I suppose I never lost the joy of playing in the dirt…. My garden is where I am the most content. Every year after the winter turns to spring and the great vernal sap starts rising I get excited that its all going to start again,  as soon as the early flowers of snowdrops and crocus appear I then peer expectantly inside the many pots in my garden and am rewarded when I see the sharp green shoots of my Hostas poking upright  …..it’s coming!!!….. I have something to look forward to which is time spent in the open surrounded by nature….. my outside room…my garden.