Is my garden still right for me?

With each year that passes, it is always worth asking yourself:

1. Who is my garden for?

2. To what extent does it still meet my / their needs?

Gardens are rather like clothes and houses; you can love them but sometimes need to consider if they still fit? Pets, jobs, babies, children and aging all make very different demands on our time and environment. Inevitably, it takes time for us to acknowledge what has changed and why. Only then can we consider what we need to do to our garden to get the best we can from it.

This process doesn't need to be deeply traumatic, and sometimes you need to just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. There is a right time and place for everything, and it may not be now. Alternatively, you may be willing and able to do this yourself or possibly just need a little help to get started. This is where we can come in, or indeed anyone able to provide a sounding board and a pair of strong arms!

Avoid settling on a solution too early in the proceedings. There is always more than one way to skin a cat (apologies to the cats). Do sit with it and consider what gives you pleasure. What is the best way of securing or preserving this? Once you've worked this out, alongside your options and constraints eg budget, you can then choose your approach and start planning how to put this into practise.

One e.g. is where small kids or aging means you can no longer maintain your garden as you'd wish. Here, you can either get help to do what you can't, or change your garden so that it needs less work. If you are thinking of moving, resist the temptation to plant it up with large shrubs as this can make your garden seem smaller and darker. Instead, consider extending your lawn or planting a packet of wild flower seeds to see what happens.

If now is just not the right time, don't avoid your garden or feel guilty about it. Do what you can, let it grow and you might just find that it finds its own new normal and that that's ok.