Why a blog

I was with a friend the other day who is also from SA. We got talking about gardens etc and she said that she really didn't know what to plant where and when in the UK.

I was amazed! She had just echoed the same sentiments I had when I wanted to get stuck into my first English garden. Things are very different here. From where we both come from, Kwa Zulu Natal, the climate couldn't be more different. Although the English summers can be quite hot, in Natal summers can be very hot and muggy. Things grow very well and a lot of time is spent cutting back vast amounts of seasonal growth.

I have had three gardens of my own in the UK. I would consider myself a keen part time gardener, with limited knowledge of botanical names and certainly no expert on most things in the garden. I'm the sort of gardener who sees a plant and says "Wow!, I like that!" and gets it; not worrying if it will like London clay or where I'm going to put it. I have learnt a lot by trial and error and feel maybe others could benefit from my amateurish endeavours in the garden.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my gardening experience. I get a heck if a kick at getting things to grow and produce flowers or fruit or vegetables. I have spent a lot of time pouring over gardening books and have a some favourites on the web as well. The internet is great for advice on "how to" most things.

My current garden is very shrubby, which is just as well, on account of my dog, who came after most of the shrubs were in. More about Casper the friendly spaniel later.

This is a light-hearted account of a gardening journey in a new country. where things are different and where I have often thought "where do I begin?" A journey with snippets of reference and insights into the land of my birth. My up bringing included exposure to horticultural excellence with a botanist mother and a father who was 40 years ahead of his time with organic vegetable growing. In this journey I have marvelled at nature, how clever it is and how lucky we are to have such amazing plants and animals on this earth of ours, inspite of all our efforts to destroy what we have.

On a lighter note, hop on, lets see where this takes us!