Inside The Backyard

Surely I’m not the only one. Ok, hands up, date lovers, who’s ever been sitting there enjoying a handful of yummy, soft, chewy dates, then randomly thought… these are so good!… Where do dates come from?? I don’t remember ever seeing a date tree or date bush in anyone’s backyard recently, and that doesn’t sound right anyway. Surely not a date palm. Like, I know there are date palms, but surely those ‘things’ you see at the top of date palms in images aren’t what I’m eating ri

Now, “helping Nan weed” when you’re three is perhaps a fairly loose description of what was actually going on. There was plenty of investigating, chatting, digging and generally enjoying discovering the gardens' hidden treasures. And then she found a frog. A real, live little frog tucked away in the garden — which, as you would imagine, was suddenly far more interesting than pulling weeds.

“Why won’t anything grow in my garden, I’ve tried everything.” “I fertilise, water all the time, I even talk nicely to them. But every time I plant new plants a few weeks later, they start to look sick, go limp and die. What am I doing wrong?!😩”Sound familiar? Please don’t give yourself a hard time, it’s not your fault. Most of us have been taught to garden from the top down. But Mother Nature works from the ground up . The world’s best gardeners don’t actually grow plants…

Cold, wet winter months, walk outside, and guaranteed somewhere in your garden you’ll find sour sobs! As little kids, my brother and I would wander around the yard picking sour sobs, a few to give to mum to put in a vase, and a few for us snack on, we’d chew on the crunchy, sour stems. I can still hear Mum’s voice calling out from the back door, “Don’t eat those! They’re sour because the dogs pee on them!”