The Tired Gardener

Healing Through Growing

Healing Through Growing Blog



  • Blackbird eating ivy berries.
  • Female blackbird, nesting.
  • Sparrow.

Playing With Time

I have been given a time machine for my birthday. It only looks like a camera.

A Miniature Expedition

When the outside world is too big to face and you don't have the energy to re-connect with nature outside, a cheap microscope opens whole new avenues of connection and beauty to lift the soul.

  • Crocuses, hellebores and snowdrops: bee survival supplies in the late winter.

Spring in My Steps

Recovery is a frustrating business with lots of twists and turns. Today a bumblebee helped me to navigate a corner.

  • Mango
  • Mango stone
  • Avocado

Baby Steps Towards Recovery

Should I be resting or moving?  Learning how to take baby steps and manage frustration is a huge challenge in the early stages of recovery or after a relapse.  Sowing a few seeds is a manageable activity that gives a sense of achievement and anticipation.

A Corsage of Runner Beans

There's a difference between learning about recovery and understanding.  Sometimes it takes a set-back to help the penny drop and grasp what being guided by your body really means.

  • Sunflower seedlings emerging.
  • Snowdrops, crocuses and hellebores at the foot of my plum tree.
  • Tête-à-tête narcissi

Straining at the Leash

The hardest gardening task in March is to hold back. The hardest part of recovery is to acknowledge that you are not quite there yet, but take heart, both spring and a return to full health are on the horizon.

  • A fluffed up sparrow. Image courtesy of Unsplash through Rapidweaver.
  • A house sparrow, courtesy of Unsplash through Rapidweaver.
  • Winter sparrows, courtesy of Unsplash through Rapidweaver.

Fighting the To Do List

Sometimes it’s important to rest, even when the blue skies and crisp, clear mornings of late October are calling to you.  Be guided by what your body and mind need, not by the weather or the tyranny of the ‘to do list’.

  • Blackcurrants.
  • Sitting down to strip the fruit from the canes.
  • Part of my gooseberry harvest.

Super Fruit

Berries are extremely nutritious, tasty and easy to grow in small spaces, even for people with low energy levels.

  • Hardy geraniums and pulmonaria leaves bring light and colour to a shady spot. I didn't plant them, they just like it there and look after themselves.
  • Self-sown feverfew frames a greenhouse-sown cosmos flower. Lots of 'weeds' have beautiful flowers.
  • Cecil the sparrow — I can relax watching his frantic calls for a mate.

Sunshine and Shadows

Gentle, slow gardening gives me time to notice and learn about the world around me as well as giving my body sunshine and stretching.


My illness has meant that I have had to give up my work and so I am now looking to find a new career through my writing. If you have enjoyed this page and would like to encourage me to produce more, click the coffee cup below to make a small donation; no strings, no fuss, just a little, 'Thanks, keep it up.'


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I have categorised my blogs by the 8 segments of the wheel of life, as identified by The Chrysalis Effect. These need to be addressed and balanced for effective healing and sustained good health. Click on the Categories tab to search through these, or the Tags tab for more detailed searches.
All of the photos that accompany my blogs are my own. I find that taking a camera out with me helps me to notice so much more of the beauty and detail of the world around me. When I've taken a photo I try to stop and watch whatever I've been snapping, so I appreciate it in real life and not just through the lens.

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