A day in the life of Terra Legra

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It's been a couple of months now since I launched Terra Legra and it's been incredibly busy, surprisingly so. So I thought I'd write a little update on a day in the life of what it's like at my little gardening business. 

It's Friday, and I got up nice and early and walked to my first job of the day. Space282 is a desk hire and coworking space in the heart of Leigh on Sea where I'm based, and they have a lovely little chillout coffee area outside their basement offices. They already have beautiful sleeper raised beds and planters out there, and my task for today was to tidy it up and plant in some bedding plants to jazz it up. For the plants already there, there's nothing like a bit of top-filling with fresh compost to spruce them up. As containers get watered, the good nutrients in the soil eventually get washed away, so it's good to give them a top-up. I planted in some bright geraniums (very self sufficient, hard working and pretty bulletproof) and salvia plugs (these will flower for ages!), and some sweet alyssum in the new PlantLock container that doubles up as a bike stand. 

All in all a good couple of hours' work and it looks pretty neat if I say so myself.

Then it was onto the next job, which involved a LOT of computer time so I packed up and went to finish off a planting plan for a new client. This is for a beautiful garden in the enviable Marine Estate part of town, where landscaping is going to make space for lots of planting. The client loves plants but has a busy life with work and young children and needs a relatively low maintenance suggestion of what to include in the space. 

The planting plans I create at Terra Legra are completely bespoke. I visit the site first and meet with the client to find out what they like, what their style is, and what they'd like to see (or not see!) in their garden. Choosing plants can be totally daunting, so I like to take the stress out of it. 

This planting plan was in its final stages already, so today I spent a couple of hours finishing it up and making it client-ready. Time for a quick sandwich from Liquid Flair (lovely cafe near me) and a nice coffee and then off to my next job...

Part of Terra Legra is also good old fashioned garden maintenance. Not everyone has time to keep their gardens looking fresh, so I like to take that burden away. For this client, this is a regular, weekly session to get the garden tip-top. This garden has no water supply and the client does not have direct access, so possibilities are limited, but thankfully the garden has made itself a buzzing habitat for pollinators. Rather than wrench all these plants up for more traditional planting, I've simply removed the thuggish ones (brambles and clover have been particularly challenging!) and kept ones that look nice - comfrey, bluebells, snowdrops, borage. Now that borders have been created around these wild flowers and the weeds taken away, it just goes to show how plants themselves are the original garden designers. The swathes in which they have planted themselves have inspired garden designers for centuries. They sure know how to grow! 

So now it's just a case of keeping on top of the space and ensuring that it looks well kept. I love working in this garden. It's a work in progress and there's still a fair bit of clearance to do on one side, but what I love about working there is opening the gate and hearing the soft buzz of bees. Bees LOVE this garden! I also shared the space with a very tame robin this afternoon - he was delighted at my digging because it meant worms were easy to pick out. When I was clearing some grass he kept popping onto the corner of the bag I was putting it all in. It was basically all very wholesome and sweet, and I felt like Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. 

So that was my day! A typical Terra Legra day. I'm now shattered, of course, but in that nice, pleasing "I've worked hard" way. I've got a bottle of fizz chilling in the fridge and a whole weekend ahead of me to do  tasks in my own garden. Addicted much? Possibly. But once you get the bug for gardening, it's very hard to stop... 

Keep up with what I'm doing by following me on Instagram @terra_legra_





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