Project Bloom - Spring/Summer
Scrap Man Jim, brother blackbirds, dahlia dupe and a seasonal catch up - where soil inspires soul.
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Hi all,
Happy Bank Holiday weekend and welcome back to another instalment of Project Bloom, a celebration of nature's beauty and influence from on our doorsteps to the hilltops of wild adventure.
These posts are a guide, a digital kaleidoscope and a gentle nudge to connecting with the natural world around us outside of our screens. A reminder that time is fleeting and nature is our biggest teacher.
I’m writing these posts throughout the year as a challenge to explore what’s in bloom, what needs more nurture and what the up-level of working with my word of the year “BLOOM” actually means in practise.
I’ve written on the topic since January so there is a little back catalogue if you missed any of them and fancy a catch up. I’m usually very much a glass half full kinda gal but this last few years has REALLY asked a lot of my resilience so there’s some ‘fluff’ but lots of grit in the back catalogue;
How does your garden grow?
In this late May edition, I wanted to share a couple of 360 shots of our garden with you, share a couple of funny stories and explore five native flowers to the UK.
We’ve learnt a lot in the 7 years we’ve lived here in tending to three garden spaces but we’re still figuring so much of it all out…
Back Allotment Garden showing pond and chicken coops - https://s.insta360.com/p/0c32e6793738d58fdb07559374acb7b5
Front Cottage Garden with raised beds and oh so many bluebells - https://s.insta360.com/p/d4712445a40827b1fa8f54d538265039
You can see there is SO much life in our pond.
Also in the allotment garden are mature apple and plum trees, a baby cherry tree, lots of mint and lots of potential for splashes of texture and colour as seedlings make their way through the soil in that curious way they do when we have no clue what they will be.
I’ve pulled out tonnes and tonnes of nettles before they go to seed. We’re drying some for nettle tea and we’re composting and making a nettle fertiliser with others.
At the back of the house the elderflowers are starting to bloom and I’m noticing I’ve massively over planted the bedder - I need to note down what all of the plants are and change it up. I’m working with a gardener who is going to help me with all this…
In the front garden, there is mint, rhubarb and some (accidental) potatoes sprouting. Our String of Pink Hearts (not it’s actual name but pictured above) is the most glorious it’s ever been and I planted out my first dahlia there at the weekend - hope the slugs leave her alone.
Oh and our worms in our worm hotel are SUPER happy and our new soil project toolkit is in development - sign up for updates on the toolkit here.
The cautionary tale of Scrap Man Jim
Walking the streets with my daughter on her pink trike has so much to teach me. I notice everything as we walk up hills and free flow down back lanes. When we first moved here I was taken aback one day at the strangest shouting noise - I couldn’t work it out at all. It was a holler then a pause then a holler again and again and it was getting closer….
Then he appeared - Scrap Man Jim1, never alone and never without an interesting array of metal finds of assorted shapes and colours - a real life larger than life magpie! This week Scrap Man Jim drove up the hill we were walking/ triking on. We heard the identifiable rattle of his truck coming and nestled in close to a bush to wait for him to pass.
He passed slowly and glared at us with his good eye - probably eyeing up how long it would take for my daughter to out grow her trike… we carried on. Luna turned and waved.
Then unexpectedly, (as happens often in toddler land), she changed direction and decided we were going down the hill we’d just started to walk up. As we began rolling/ jogging down it I noticed the biggest pile of scrap - loads of really great shiny finds - Scrap Man Jim had missed it - he was TOO distracted on what he could have in the future to see the gifts of the here and now. And that my friends, is SUCH a lesson for me and us all as we head into this current season ahead…
OK onto my plant research
I have to take gardening step by step otherwise I find it super overwhelming. This weekend I harvested bags and bags of mint for the freezer for mint tea pleasure later in the year when they fade and die back. I also snipped rosemary to freeze for roast potatoes at Christmas!
For this update, I’ve chosen to research some plants I already see/ have and some newbies too. It’s a way for me to better connect and better understand my place in it all.
Let's discover together the wonders of cow parsley, marigold, lavender, and a few edible herbs together that are just oh so inspiring in their own right.
Connecting to nature at a deeper level offers so so much solace and peace and perhaps you’ll even be inspired to cultivate a vibrant haven of your own somewhere soon?
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Ok let’s head inside…