Ask Siân in Belgium

I’m feeling quite toxic with cold today, and frustrated that I can’t get on with some gardening. So if I can’t do it, let’s talk about it!! I know people haven’t done this question time format for a while, but I thought I’d give it a go....

1. How did you come to join Gardeners Corner?
Feeling isolated living abroad (a common feeling amongst expats) and wanting some gardening advice, I searched the internet, and found GC.

2. Name the countries or counties you have lived in?
I’ve lived in England, Wales, and for the last 14 years, Belgium.

3. Describe the type of work you do.
I was initially trained as a mainframe computer systems analyst, and also have 12 years experience as a church administrator, running community centres as part of the job.
I’ve also done diverse part time jobs (when the mortgage was a monster looming over us). I’ve worked as an administrator/website designer/tester/general dogsbody for a small, but internationally-recognised computer software house; a freelance gardener; a plants person in a garden nursery; sold plants and baking on a WI market stall, as well as selling various craft items (lavender “corn dollies”, handmade cards, jewellery etc).
Having said all that (!) I have not had paid work for the last 10 years, but I am slowly establishing as an artist, with my ink drawings.

4. Describe how you first got into gardening?
I honestly can’t remember when I started. I know I was given an area of garden at home to look after with my older brother, so probably around 7-8 years old? My brother hated gardening, and we were supposed to work on it together, so that didn’t go well. But before I was 10, I’d taken over neglected corners, which were either overgrown or had no soil, and fought to establish plants there. Experience that has come in useful over the years!
As a child, I was fascinated by growing things from seed, and “the Pip Book” was the first gardening book I bought.
(My first paid job was working for a plant nursery - a family friend came round, saw me taking cuttings, and offered me a job!!)

5. What would be your dream type of garden and do you think you will ever be able to achieve it?
Oh, how to get my dream garden in words! First of all, it would have SOIL! Not sand, or flint mix over chalk-bed, but actual, plants-can-grow-in-it, soil....
Hubby and I dream of a garden big enough to have a fruit-tree orchard. Lots of apples, plums, cherries, and the more obscure fruit like medlars and quince. I would love to have a greenhouse, and maybe a conservatory? Oh, and flat enough that we could use a ride-on lawnmower...

6. Have you any particular favourites in celebrity gardeners, flowers, shrubs and/or vegetables?
I have always admired Monty Don, in his honesty about coping with depression, and how gardening helps him. Alan Titmarsh and his basic “let’s make it ourselves” attitude, and companion planting. Is it Adam Frost, the occasional presenter on GW? He’s so positive, and seems to get on and get things done - my type of gardener!
I love wildlife, so simple-structure flowers, that are accessible to insects always get my attention. I love roses, and herbs, especially the different thymes. But trees!! Oh, I would be happy to be accused of being a tree-hugger!

7. Have you ever entered any of your plants into shows?
Nope!

8. If you had a garden created in your memory, what plants do you think would most adequately sum up you and your life?
It would be a wildlife garden, with herbs, fruit trees, and a wildlife pond...
...with places to sit, and enjoy...

 

If you had to compare yourself to a flower which one would it be ?

 

Now, that’s an easy one!
The wildlife pond! I can sit and watch the activities for ages, occasionally looking across the rest of the garden, and the view across the valley.

 

...and that’s a tough one!!
Hmmm, it would be something fairly simple, but productive. Apple blossom, maybe? Ask me in a different season, and I’ll suggest a different flower!

 

Sian. I'm saddened to hear you are one degree and. I wish you a speedy return to good health.

JWK. I'd be inclined to answer. "All of it." As I may have mentioned before. Us gardeners soon realise that gardening doesn't begin and end with a bit digging, weeding and planting
To me the garden is the REAL world. We for perhaps just a few moments find an escape from the trials and tribulations of every day life. Soon we find ourselves fitting in with the jig-saw puzzel of life. The garden could perhaps be termed, my, your' daily therapy session. Soory for ramberling on. Enjoy your garden.