OK – so I didn’t manage to get going back in the spring. The gardening months have passed and I’m putting the garden to bed for the winter. I’ve really been lacking inspiration to review for the last six weeks or so, but I want to try to get back on top of things.
2025 has been something of a seed change year for me. Gardening replaced reviewing and miniature painting as my main creative outlet. I’ve done far more work in the garden than I expected and far more than in previous years. I have cleared out areas that have been choked with weeds and rampant shrubs for a long time. More cleared areas means more maintainence, so I may regret this development.
Possibly for the first time ever, I have a plan for what I want to do, and tried to think about elements of garden design. I know nothing about design and am mostly just googling and looking at pictures but there we go. This autumn, I have planted lots of bulbs – many in containers. It will be interesting to see how many of the come through in the spring. I fell foul to the temptations of Sarah Raven, and her A Year full of Pots as well as multi-buy deals on sites like Crocus and Farmer Gracy.
I ended up with about about twice as many daffodils as I needed, which in turn meant I had to buy some planters to put them in. What I haven’t quite worked out is where I’m going to put the planters once they’ve finished flowering next year…
One thing I have noticed about spending time in the garden is that I’ve become more attuned the the rythmns of nature. The growing times, the slow decay into autumn, coupled with fecundity as plants start to lay down what they need to thrive next year. Now the time is approching to bring pots indoors and protect frost senitive plants from the cold weather. For the first time ever, I have taken many cuttings in the hope of propgating new plants for next year.
Plot-wise – This is a reading and gardening blog after all. I have a few paperbacks lined up for Autumn half term. I have just finished reading “All That We See or Seem” by Ken Liu, and I hope to make that the first proper review of Pots and Plots. – I have to come up with a consistent rating scheme, and some ways to weave my pots and my plots together!
In the meantime, here’s a few shots of the garden from throughout the year.
PotsandPlots 
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