The Tired Gardener

Healing Through Growing

Healing Through Growing Blog



  • Tea-tree and rosemary before the snow.
  • Tea-tree fronds. Resurrected!
  • Rosebay on a rainy day.

Get Outside!

'You can be miserable anywhere, so GET OUTSIDE!' I took some good advice from a friend on a miserable day and my garden took care of the rest.  

Mindfulness and the Call of the Wild

When my head is full of cobwebs my garden calls, and as I immerse myself in the wonder of nature, my head miraculously clears and the world is wonderful again.

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.

  • Winter blue: photo courtesy of Conor McGrath
  • Winter blue too
  • My Secret Garden in January

The Lockdown Blues

For some, lockdown means isolation and loneliness, for others the relentlessness of living in close quarters with other people.  Thank God for my garden and the freedom it gives me to choose between isolation and companionship.

A Single Rose can be my Garden

When dark wet days and miserable headlines engulf you in worries about the future, nature has a knack of catching your attention and providing some perspective.

  • Summer clouds
  • Red Kite, courtesy of Thomas Kraft  (ThKraft) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)
  • Fennel and runner bean flowers

Cocooned

Every journey to recovery has its setbacks, unbearable times of slipping backwards when it's hard to keep faith and hope alive.

Time to Walk

A weekly walk in the woods brings a welcome respite, perspective and calm in a crazy world.

  • Dancing plum blossom against an infinite blue.
  • Joy found in a poppy.
  • The glories of creation in the complexity of a flower.

Finding Calm in the Storm

Against apocalyptic headlines, my garden is a refuge and source of perspective and solace.

  • A young male blackbird, sitting on my garden fork, looking for worms.
  • A grey loerie, affectionately known in South Africa as a 'go away bird'.
  • A hoopoe.

Feathered Friends

It's easy to become caught up in destructive moods and thoughts, brought on by past experiences, and to miss the calm and beauty around us now.  Birds have a wonderful way of catching my attention and bringing me out of these dark places into the beauty of the present moment.

  • Fruit buds on an apple tree.
  • First year apple trees, planted as 'whips'.
  • Beauty of Bath apple tree on dwarfing root-stock.  Pruned into a goblet shape.

A Pruning Meditation

Pruning on a cold January day can be an exercise in mindfulness and a breath of fresh air after the warmth and indulgence of the Christmas holiday.

  • A frosted leaf.
  • A frosted verge.
  • Winter in our local country park with mallards and a cygnet.

Light in the Darkness

It's hard to keep positive in November, but there are small joys to be found in the dreariest of months.


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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