A gardening year

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As I write, it's December, I'm drinking tea and have just cracked open my Tiptree Christmas jam to put on my croissants that are in the oven. It's a weekend morning and I'm living out my cottagecore dreams, looking out on the garden that is peppered with jewel-bright cyclamen among the fallen leaves. 

It's been a wonderful year for gardening. I have almost completed my first year of doing it full-time. I've seen the hottest, sweatiest summer and am going into a very chilly winter. I've cut down huge shrubs, built raised beds, planted in whole gardens, put in over 700 bulbs (and counting), laid bark, laid stones, pruned, weeded, tidied front gardens and driveways, done container arrangements, and made a LOT of hanging baskets. 

I reckon at the latest count, I've worked for almost 100 different clients. Some I've done one project for and that was a standalone thing, others I see for three hours every single week. I've been made millions of cups of tea and coffee (black, or with oat milk if you have it), handed biscuits, given Diet Cokes on the hottest days and mince pies on the coldest. 

Some of my clients have become friends, which is an amazing bonus. I went to see my accountant this week who asked if I'd finished for the year now - I said no way. I'm taking bookings right up until Christmas if the weather allows it. The work is still there, and as long as it's not fully snowing, and the ground isn't fully frozen, I'll be out there. In fact I've had a few panicked texts this weekend from people asking "Can you still come before Christmas?!" - if I can fit it in, I'll do it!

In recent days I've been wearing a huge amount of layers. So successfully that on Friday, the only thing that was cold was my face (and there's not a huge amount I can do about that). For my last job of the week, weeding the communal area of a local mental health charity residence, the low winter sun was golden on my face, I had a hot cup of coffee, and it was seriously pleasant. One of those moments where you want to mark it in some way. Then, it hit 3pm and the sun went behind the buildings, and the cold really set in. I marched home to have a hot bubble bath followed by a mug of mulled wine. 

I really just wanted to say thank you to all my clients for this past year - it's been a total blast. I've loved it. Even though I've been COVERED in dirt for most of it, or been constantly scraping soil out from under my fingernails, or blowing soil out of my NOSE like the absurdly classy bird I am. It's not bad going that the only low points have really been the ones involving treading, sitting or kneeling in fox/dog/cat/undisclosed poo, but you gotta take the lows with the highs eh? There was also an incident with a poorly made shed roof that almost made me cry, and some bamboo roots that took roughly 8 hours to hack away at with a recip saw, but let's not dwell on that. 

The bits where a robin has followed me around for hours in a garden hunting worms beside me, or where a client's kids have come out to chat to me while I'm planting, or where I'm filling six trolleys with plants at a time, or where I'm faced with a client saying "Oh my god I can't believe what a difference you've made!" - those are the bits worth hanging on to. 

Right. I'm off to attempt to get myself sorted for Christmas (not written a single card or wrapped a single gift yet). But if I've been in your garden this year - thank you. Hopefully see you again next year!

Rachel xxx

PS. Don't forget you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. If you'd like me to work some magic on your garden, drop me a note at terralegra@gmail.com

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