My Cutting Garden
I moved into my little cottage in the summer of 2019. When I moved in, the garden really was a complete mess. Despite previously being owned by garden designers, it didn't appear to have been cared for for a very long time, to the point that if you could make it down the path without being scratched by a thorn or stung by a nettle, you'd be doing pretty well.
Having come from living in a flat, I initially wasn't interested in gardening, but what I did want was sweet peas! I started that summer by clearing two areas between all the weeds for two wigwams of sweet peas. Despite having very little attention, those sweet peas grew really well and I loved having my own flowers I could start to use in floristry. If anything is going to make you want to get into gardening, it has to be sweet peas. Their scent is like nothing else and the more you cut, the more they grow.
After that, I really caught the gardening bug and spent most of the winter digging and digging until the garden was pretty much clear of everything. I think my neighbours must have thought I was slightly crazy, outside in the rain, digging for hours on end, but I think there's something really therapeutic about being outside doing physical work and there really was nowhere I'd rather have been.
In the spring of 2020, I started trying to build up a bit more knowledge of how to grow flowers. I went on a course with Pod and Pip to learn specifically how to grow flowers for cutting and from that, started growing all kinds of seeds to try out. I really didn't know what I was doing (and still don't know now) but it was lovely to see these seedlings growing more and more each day, especially when there wasn't much else to focus on!
Fastforward to the summer of 2020 and my garden was full to the brim of flowers. Almost all of them suitable for cutting. And as well as flowers, my garden started attracting butterflies and bees and all sorts of insects. My favourite thing to do during the summer was to sit outside and take it all in.
This year I hope to recreate something similar but maybe with a little bit more of a plan and with a few new varieties to try out. I can't wait to be using the flowers in weddings later in the year!