Not exactly gardener of the year

I live in a built up city where all the houses are close together with very little space for gardens. Mine, would be described by estate agents as a low maintenance courtyard garden. North facing, paved, tiny with barely space for a rotary washing line and over shadowed by other peoples houses. As for low maintenance? It gets overgrown with passion flower which looks like ivy most of the year, I get leaves piling up from neighbouring trees and bushes over hanging and I have a dog.  So it does need an annual spring clean at least.  When it rains heavily It floods where the paving is uneven in the middle. So basically it's miserable and gloomy. As a family, we have never spent much time in our garden, we are lucky to be a short walk from a beach and there are plenty of parks so we behave as though we live in a flat and that small outside area is not much more than a balcony or a place to store bikes and hang washing out to dry.

Lavender

I enjoy cooking and I use lots of herbs but unfortunately waste so much because once herbs have been cut they die very quickly. They aren't expensive, but I respect the earth and don't like to waste things. It was suggested to me this year that I might try and grow some in the garden and then I would only cut what I use. I thought the idea was ludicrous. With only a tiny corner of sun in the garden and the dog running all over the flower bed. However I decided to give it a go.

First of all we tidied the garden by cutting away all the overhanging branches to let in a bit more light. I got some big pots to put herbs in and also bought some flowering bedding plants to cheer things up a bit. I am really pleased with the results so far. 

I use a lot of basil so I put the small plant into a large pot and it grew to an amazing size very quickly. In the picture below you can see it is almost the same height as the garden tool beside it.

I bought lots of seeds but they needed to be sown in a green house or indoors so they are a work in progress but every time I bought  herbs from the supermarket this year I got them as potted plants rather than cuttings and I put them out in the garden. I have parsley in with the bedding plants, chives and mint. Unfortunately my coriander didn't survive.  

The transformation of my garden so far has made me actually want to spend time out there. I may not be gardener of the year but It isn't rocket science and it's an enjoyable fulfilling pass time. Nature takes care of most of it anyway and we've had a good summer. 

I do have a flower bed with a small tree growing in it but nothing has ever flourished there apart from weeds and the dog likes to dig. So I threw a packet of wild flower seeds on it just to see what would happen. I have got some weeds there but I decided to leave that patch to it. Yesterday I noticed that one of my so called weeds was flowering and they were really pretty blue and pink flowers. I found out it was Borage also known as star flower.A Mediterranean herb and both the leaves and the flowers are edible.I even tasted it and it's delicious. Hopefully it'll spread it'self all over the bed which I've heard it has a tendency to do. 

Mint

I hope my herbs survive the winter. It's all a learning curve for me and as a kinaesthetic type I learn by doing and not through endless studying. I never read instruction manuals I just go right ahead. Please feel free to advise me in the comment box.

The wild flowerpatch.

Chives

Next year I will try planting some vegetables.