Me, in a Nutshell

I am really happy with my tiny little garden here chez Highflyer's. I started growing some herbs, plants and flowers last spring and most of what has reappeared this year is from that first attempt, only much more luscious and abundant this season.

Gardening and "green thumbs" run in the paternal side of my family. My beloved grandmother was the supreme expert of them all, having apparently inherited a lot of wisdom from her grandmother. Both my father and his sister, my paternal aunt, are avid and knowledgeable gardeners. My mother is not a gardener and neither had I been by any stretch of the imagination until I got to spend a lot of time in a house with a garden that started out as just a backyard with a lawn. The man of the house generously donated a stretch of his lawn to my efforts and I went about sowing seeds without any method to it. I was totally overgenerous and I didn't put any labels or markers to remind me of what went where. This means that whenever new leaves appear that I don't recognise I typically take a photo and do a reverse image search and/or send it to my dad to ask for his expert advice. It could be something I sowed or a weed. It could be edible or mildly poisonous...who knows. In any case it reflects my experimental approach at pretty much anything. I don't do to-do lists, I don't project manage or read user manuals at length, I just DO. Yes, I could at least write down somewhere which side of the patch the cucumbers should appear and where the radishes, but I just assume they'll either die prematurely and never make an appearance above ground or I'll recognise them anyway. I've had great success with rocket salad, lemon balm, parsley, rosemary and swiss chard that all grow as if they're on steroids. The rest remains a mystery and pleasant surprise.