It’s a gloriously sunny morning, with the promise of heat to come and so I’m bumbling around the garden in the comparative cool, watering the containers before the plants and I wilt.  

I love this time of day; there is still some moisture in the air, which draws out the scent of the roses and the crushed grass between my toes.  Above, me the sun glances off the ginger undercarriage of a wheeling red kite, which is riding the morning thermals.  Not for the first time I watch enviously, wishing I could soar with such ease.  

As I wait for my watering can to fill, I turn my eyes from the infinite blue above to the minute detail of my garden.  I snap off faded blooms and take time to really look at each plant.  I graze on sorrel leaves, fresh dill shoots, the occasional alpine strawberry, spotting their flashes of scarlet peeping out from between corrugated leaves.  

There is a saying that the best manure is the gardener’s shadow and there’s some real truth in this.  Taking time to really look at your plants as you water them is not only relaxing, it enables you to notice and tackle any problems easily before they escalate into an exhausting challenge.  I squish the beginnings of an aphid colony, whisk out a weed before it sets seed and wander on.  

Pottering time is also time to notice how many little allies you have, learning to recognise the alien black and red bumps of a ladybird larva or the shimmer on the shell of a beetle.  As a rule of thumb, if it moves fast it is a hunter and will eat the slow moving pests that munch on your precious plants. If in doubt, don’t squish it or spray it, sit down and look it up.  The same applies to weeds.  I explore each territory, judging whether a ‘weed’ should stay or go.  Is it pretty?  Will the insects gorge on its nectar or is it’s rampant growth shading my carefully tended plants, stealing their water?  Is it about to distribute the seeds of its next generation and create a bigger task for later on?  

My morning bumble is not only good for my garden, it is good for me.  The overlooked marvel that is my skin is busy making vitamin D from sunshine, which will help me to digest the nutrients my body so desperately needs to heal itself.  I am totally absorbed in what I am doing with no time for worries.  I have forgotten to do my morning stretches, a sign of how much progress I have made over the past few months.  This time last year I couldn’t get out of bed without stretching out each muscle to ease the aches and pains.  Complex exercises freed my feet to bend enough not to stagger against the walls on my way to the toilet.  Now, as I potter, I am bending and stretching, walking without thinking in a gentle workout that will leave me feeling relaxed and energised for the rest of the day. 

 Mid way through my watering I begin to feel a little woozy.  I’ve learned this is one of the first signs that my body gives me that it needs a rest.  It is time for a sit down and a large glass of water under the parasol.  Above my head a frantic sparrow is advertising his nest box, ‘CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!”  He has been sitting on its roof all day every day for weeks now with no success.  The female birds are all busy elsewhere and scorn his cheap accommodation and desperate tones.  I will move it to somewhere less exposed in the autumn and maybe next year he will do better.  In the meantime, I admire his rich brown and rufus markings, the black bib and tucker beneath his stubby beak and the grey fluff of his chest as he preens and struts on his tiny roof.  Under the shade of my parasol I am happy and relaxed, content to sit a while and just watch.  


Do you have somewhere in your garden or a local park where you can just sit and watch the world go by?  On a chilly day wrap up, sit on a cushion and slip a small hot water bottle in your coat. You'll see a very different garden in every season.