Change of Plan

 ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’ 

I think it was Henry Ford who said this, and it’s pretty obvious truism really, when you think about it. Which I have been doing. Therefore, I have started to do things differently, changing one habit at a time, just to see what happens. 

One of the changes I’ve made is to try and do either an hour of gardening or an hour of housework first thing in the morning before I have breakfast. I have discovered it is rather invigorating to crack on first thing with stuff that needs doing, and I achieve a lot, sometimes exceeding my hour. It also makes breakfast seem nicer somehow. Whether this will continue as we head into Autumn and Winter I don’t know because it is very easy to go into the garden and start working when the day is light and the weather is dry and warm. Anyway, so far, so good-diddly-do. 

This morning was a gardening hour - or hour and a half as it turned out. I did some clearing of the vegetable beds and a bit of pruning. Picked whatever veggies needed harvesting - beans, beetroot, tomatoes, courgette - and then I went and stared at the space at the front of the house vacated by the leylandii hedge.

I had planned to fill it with lavender. Good for insects, easy to grow because the conditions are favourable, lovely smell, pretty to look at, easy to maintain. There is already a run of lavender established in the border beneath the living room window and it does well there, so this new border would be a continuation. (Note to self: go and cut back lavender TODAY or it will go all straggly rather than maintain a nice bouncy ball effect.)

However, I suddenly thought, perhaps this would be too much lavender. A lavender overload. Perhaps something else would be better. And then I thought - ‘Dog roses!’ These make a nice dense hedge. I can prune it easily to keep it a certain height. The flowers are beautiful - excellent for all insects - they smell lovely (the roses, not the insects) and they produce big fat ole’ rose hips that I can make into rose hip syrup to keep the Winter germs at bay! Dog roses are also native to England and I am all for native planting. 

Before I could change my mind, then, I ordered twenty 2 litre pots of dog rose bushes which hopefully will be delivered by the end of the week. This gives me time to dig in a couple of bags of manure and buy some mycorrhizal powder to help the roots settle. 

It will look marvellous!