Green Girl Gardener

…… so today is my new favourite day – Winnie the Pooh.

I’m sure that won’t be the last time I quote Pooh bear, but as Facebook has reliably informed me that today is International Friendship Day, today would seem a very good day to start. There’s seemingly a day for everything nowadays, but this one I think is a good one. Obviously it’s important to appreciate ones friends every day, because where would we be without them, but when we live in a world where days, weeks, months, years even, whizz on by as if they have somewhere super vital to get to leaving us in a bit of a frazzle, it’s oh so easy to forget to tell our friends how glad we are that we met them. So, on International Friendship Day I’m using my brand new forum to tell all my friends that I’d be lost without you – mwah 💋.

Green girl gardener was named for the precise reason of pointing out that I am a very inexperienced, or green, gardener! As such I’ve spent A LOT LOT LOT of my free time over the last few weeks in garden centres oohing and aahing over beautiful blooms (honestly some of them literally take my breath away) and making my way up this floral learning curve, and I have discovered a whole new kind of person. For those of you who live up north, random people talking to you is much more the norm than down here in the middle, but even in my lovely Brum, in garden centres people talk to you! They offer you advice, they ask your opinion, they coo over how pretty the Gazania is that you’re lovingly cradling in your arms lest someone ‘alf inches it from you.

Stunning huh? This one was half price too because someone deemed it past its best, but more on my bargain garden hunting another day.

I’ve helped a more newbie gardener than me (I was shocked that such a beast existed) decide on what potting medium she needed. I mean, I probably led her up completely the wrong garden path, but it was with the best of intentions and I hope her coleus plants are happily spreading their roots in their new home. I’ve been advised to put fish and blood (euwwwww) on my begonia hanging basket (haven’t done this – surely plants should be veggie?) by a lovely, smiley lady in Homebase and I’ve been reliably informed by a woman who nearly tripped me up with her hosepipe that what I thought was a weed growing behind the water features in Notcutts is actually a free spirited tobacco plant that has chosen that spot as its home.

So, on International Friendship Day 2018, my heart is swelling with joy that I’m skipping my way through my little horticultural journey alongside some of the friendliest folks I’ve met in some time.