The Uplifting Power of the Cosmos

This year the garden and I have played a waiting game.

I have waited for plants to make an appearance so that I could see what is planted where (front and back gardens). While the garden has waited for me to give up hope and leave it to its own devices so that it can continue its quiet return to the wilderness.

Bind weed, dendelions, brambles and the rain forest are all battling me very earnestly for custody of our outdoor space. The wilderness wants the garden back. It feels to me that for every weed I have beaten back, pulled, chopped, plucked or dug out, another five have grown in their place. We even have our very own, very nicely established (thank-you-very-much) cedar nurse log, right up against the house.

I guess that it did not help that I vanished off to the UK for about 6 weeks. When I got back I found that all of the beds I had diligently cleared, dug over and removed root systems from in May and June (I meant to put down weed suppressor membrane but I ran out of time) were green again. All choked with bindweed, brambles and something that the Fella tells me is 4 Leaf but has puny flowers that look oddly like Cows Parsley to me.

The only truly uplifting evidence that my efforts were not entirely in vain were two things that I planted from seed this year: grass and three packets of cosmos seeds that I bought when I went to explore a Garden Centre with Dotty.

They both grew - I feel very proud. (Can you tell?!)

So in the middle of all the chaos created by a legion of very hardy and very determined weeds, is a small oasis of colour created by the Cosmos and a patch of green that doesn't have our neighbours frothing at their lips in despair and hacking at our property borders to keep the ruin of weeds contained on our plot.

I am not complacent though, I realise that I have a long struggle ahead.

However, I am hoping that my efforts this year have given some of the garden's longer term, but struggling to survive, inhabitants a little bit of hope.

I have a very long garden To-Do list over the Autumn and Winter. So just hold on, my lovelies, hold on - next year I promise you that you will have more room to breathe and a little less competition for sunlight!

(Although I doubt that our garden will ever be in the running for Vancouver Garden of the Year, nor will our grass ever have the astro turf appearance of our neighbours' lawns!)