This plus that equals…. gardening
Here’s the latest instalment in my series of posts all about what makes our lives here at home tick. This week is all about gardening. Now I am actually rubbish at gardening, but I still enjoy it.

Taking Advantage of my Mother in Law
My mother in law loves to garden, really loves it. She is always offering us plants she has grown, or trying to get me to understand why it’s a disaster the weather has happened when it has.
So we pointed out that any plant we received was just shoved in an available patch of ground and we would hope for the best. As this clearly isn’t working maybe she would like to do our garden for us.
Turns out this was a win win situation. She has run out of her own garden to, well garden, she’s on top of that. It’s a finished project just being maintained and tweaked. So she is really happy to have a new project to work on. For us, we end up with actual flowers and prettiness.
Even better, she genuinely thinks we are doing her the favour!!

L’s Garden
L loves his garden time. It can get a bit chaotic though. Planting seeds, digging, creating a building site etc.
So to protect our flower beds we gave him his own area. It has been the best thing we have ever done.
He loves his building site. His tractors and diggers have somewhere to get good and dirty. He gets to care for his own seeds that he plants. Some grow, some don’t, it doesn’t matter.
He can dig happily and without consequence. He can water his garden until he has created a muddy puddle Peppa would be jealous of.
The only thing I would like to add to his area is a proper mud kitchen, I just know he would love it.

Herbs
The only thing I have ever really been able to grow is herbs and I have a beautiful herb garden.
Thyme, rosemary, chives, fennel, sage, lemon balm, mint. It looks and smells wonderful. I get to use my own herbs when I’m cooking and I can’t tell you how fab that is.
I find this little corner of garden really soothing. I get a great deal of pleasure from it being all mine, but the scents are so calming as well. It also happens to eb a little shady corner that no one else is naturally drawn to. A bit damp, cold and lonely, I love that about it!

Parts I Really Love
We’ve got a gorgeous wisteria, gorgeous. Several amazing mature roses, they smell amazing, really pretty too. One is a deep purple, another covered in tiny white blooms that has covered our trellis, a bright pink and a classic white. Love them. We have a tiny little honeysuckle, which is one of my favourite plants, I’d love to see it do better but the rose and wisteria smother it.
I love our fruit trees but so do the ants and wasps, need to do something about that, hmmm. If we get in there quick enough we get the most tasty greengages and so many cooking apples we could live off crumble.
We could probably do with talking to The Local Tree Experts, it’s just a shame they don’t run in the UK!!!
I mainly love the mix in our garden, the fun play for L. The pretty flowers and tasty fruit. I love that we have a lawn for L to run around on, but patio areas to sit as well. For us it really is perfect.

Future Plans
Due to the extension we are planning my beloved herb garden is going to need to move, so we are going to extend a bed for all my herby plants.
I’d really like to move my honeysuckle to somewhere it will flourish, obviously when I say I’m going to move it, I need to get my Mother in Law to do it! I’d like to plant a Jasmine as well, near the bedroom window if possible, I’d love to have the scent of Jasmine float through the window.
We also need to invest in soe new garden furniture. I’d really like something sturdy enough to be out year round, we use our garden so much a chair or two that could be left out would be amazing. I need to research that.
Finally, I’m linking up with #TwinklyTuesday, #Blogstravaganza, #StayClassyMama and #fortheloveofBLOG
Disclosure – this post contains sponsored links
I am not an outdoors type of person. I would happily sit out and read a book but I have hayfever, get bitten by every bug in the neighbourhood and have 3 demanding children. Luckily Chris is fab at gardening! Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama
Musings of a tired mummy…zzz… recently posted…Bunchems Unicorns
Hayfever is the worst. Mine is pretty mild and doesn’t stop me enjoying the outside, thankfully, as I’m very outdoorsy. Well in a sat down comfortably in the sun with a G&T kind of a way!!
Love that your little one has his own garden space! If our garden were bigger I’d definitely do the same. For now, mine are confined to a couple of big plant pots! Thanks for linking up #twinklytuesday x
Him having his own area has saved the garden from destruction that’s for sure
I really wish I was better in the garden. My toddler loves to water the plants and I want to give her some planting projects to enjoy. I would also really like to get some herbs planted at some point as we use them in cooking so much. #fortheloveofBLOG
If it wasn’t for the kid our plants would probably never get watered!!
I could do with your mother in law around here, I love being in the garden, I just don’t like tending to it! Thanks so much for sharing with #Blogstavaganza xx
I’ll send her once she’s done mine!!
I am not a successful gardener either, I do enjoy sitting in it though, especially at this time of year #blogstravengza@_karendennis
Karen, the next best thing to mummy recently posted…A novice’s experience of sign language
I enjoy my garden so much, but I can’t do anything with it, so pleased I’ve got someone to sort it for me
Love gardens! Lucky you have someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to gardening. 😊 #StayClassyMama
So lucky! I’d be lost otherwise!!
Love how you’ve got a separate area for your little one to do his own gardening, great idea that I’ll definitely be adopting- thanks #fortheloveofblog
It’s been the best thing we’ve done in the garden