Grow Your Own

Until very recently I had no interest at all in plants, flowers, veggies or anything remotely garden- related. When I was young I recall that my mum and grandmother couldn't pass a garden without commenting on how beautiful the roses etc were, and I just thought - "how boring" - but I now find myself doing exactly the same.

Each year I try to introduce something different to the garden, whether it's a type of flower or a vegetable I haven't grown before, but nothing ever beats the home-grown tomato. Each year we can't wait until our first ripe one arrives and it appeared this week, hidden at the back of one of the plants. On one of my regular 'tours' round the garden to see if anything new had emerged, I spotted a flash of red amongst the green. Several more are now on the way now under a very warm Poitou-Charentes sun so happily that means no more tasteless supermarket tomatoes for several weeks to come.

I am not an experienced gardener by any means - and if anything works it's probably more by luck than judgement, - but I eagerly await the spring and summer and spend many happy hours looking through seed catalogues and my ever increasing stock of gardening books, planning what I going to do, and can't wait to start the planting, sowing and even weeding. Time flies by when I am in the garden and although it's hard work at times it's a perfect way to wind down and relax.