Welcome to the potting shed, where I shall be writing this, my first ever blog. In fact, this is where I do most things. This is where I cook, eat, read, knit, tweet, sleep. Yes, this is where I live. One of the few things I don’t do here is potting.
I had always wanted a potting shed. Real gardeners have potting sheds, with shelves lined with pots and seed trays, all meticulously scrubbed in winter ready for the new sowing season, with boxes of seeds in alphabetical order, with tools hanging on hooks, each cleaned at the end of each day’s labour, with a chipped mug for tea and a packet of custard creams* for that well-earned mid-morning break. I wanted to make a garden, so I wished for a potting shed. But, as the saying goes, be careful of your wishes. I got to make a garden and I got my potting shed. I just never expected to be living in it.
How I came to be living in a potting shed on a half-hectare field as far south as you can go in France without tripping over a mountain and landing in Spain, with no mains electricity, no mains water, no telephone line and an outside composting toilet will be the subject of the next few posts, while I wait for winter to loosen its grip and to let me get out into the garden and do something useful.
I would like too to share the process of creating this garden, the progress so far, our plans for the future and the day to day challenges, successes and lessons learned (i.e. failures) that are actually what makes gardening such a wonderful activity (remind me I said that the next time I have spent all day on my knees pulling up weeds and can’t stand up straight). I hope you will enjoy reading it and I look forward to your comments. The photos, for no particular reason, are of pollarded willows and my cat Pogo wrapping herself in grass.
One final thing: as I said, we are lacking the mod. cons that most of you probably take for granted (I would settle for some ancient conveniences some days), this includes a proper internet connection. This blog is being written from an iPhone, with occasional visits to the local internet café. Therefore, I will not always know if it looks OK on a full screen, so please let me know if there are any problems.
Thank you for visiting the potting shed and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Please bring your own mug next time and more custard creams.
À bientôt,
Gillian
* This is the start of my campaign to be invited to write for the classy blog ‘Encounters with Remarkable Biscuits’
The view from the potting shed 