Plants

#30DaysWild Day 2 – Creating memories outdoors

Take a relaxed woodland or beach walk, for example, just a wander. So often we are often oblivious to what our eyes have seen, our ears have heard or what smell our noses have picked up. We are creating memories all the time, many still strong from our childhood and I believe they become part of the garden spaces we create many years later.

Perhaps that sounds a bit of a romantic notion, but I’d say we put way more of ourselves into our gardens than we realise and once we become aware of what we are doing we open the gates to creating an outdoor space that connects us to nature and truly refreshes our soul. Gardening ‘isn’t just for summer’ 🙂

My contribution for 30 Days Wild today is to celebrate being in the outdoors as much as possible, especially if you have young children/grandchildren. Create many memories. Here’s three from my garden tonight…

Pebbles and rocks along waterside edges, as shown above in my, seriously in need of rain, wildlife pond tonight. Something drew me to the water’s edge of a local river when I was growing up. I found myself rearranging the rocks and the angles of larger stones to help the water flow through routes. Creating small pools I became transfixed by the reflections and the patterns they created both above and below the water. At the time, I had no idea that I was connecting to the natural world. My memories were of the most peaceful of places.

Having finally taken the plunge and committing to the build of a wildlife pond in my garden a few years ago, it is the most special place in my garden and I absolutely recommend adding one if you have space. I also recommend the ‘gardening’ fun of planting up a water garden 🙂

Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil

Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil arrived in my garden a few years ago, deliberately. Again, coming from my childhood memories where it was seen growing along the grassy edge of a pebbled river with colt’s foot, violets and many other wild flowers. I grew this plant from seed many years ago and it always makes me smile, growing by the edge of my pond. It was the one of the first wild flowers I brought into my garden 🙂

Chives, Allium schoenoprasum.

The herb, Chives arrived in my garden a good few years ago and is one of the very few plants that I have never moved! It gets a gold star for that alone. Strictly speaking, I’ve no childhood memories of this – just the loose connection to the intense smell of wild garlic on woodland walks. However, growing herbs in mixed garden borders is one I’d like my daughters to take forward to their gardens of the future. They are fantastic for pollinators too and we seriously need to help our bees.

This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in June 2018.

3 thoughts on “#30DaysWild Day 2 – Creating memories outdoors

  1. I always think water in the garden is so important for exactly the reason you describe. We all have nice childhood memories of playing with water and pebbles.

  2. Hello to you both, thanks for your comments they are very much appreciated 🙂

    Sue, yes, I’ve seen them in my clump too 🙂 Their flowers are so pretty too growing below alliums here.

    Kev, welcome, thanks for stopping by 🙂 I’m delighted to hear you have great water/pebble memories too!

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