Grow Write Guild #2 My Dream Garden

* Read about the Grow Write Guild writing prompts here.

My dream garden is lush and moist and has many canopies. There is very little manicured grass. It is on an incline, with rocky parts, and some scattered small flat areas. There are lots of native Irish trees and a massive Scots Pine. There are other Scots Pines in the neighbouring lands, which are not my responsibility, but they are teeming with red squirrels, which will visit my garden on occasion. It is a place of refuge for the local wildlife but the variety of species keeps a healthy balance in the garden. I don’t kill the slugs but the resident thrushes help to keep their numbers down. The nasturtiums give me a place to relocate the caterpillars that I have removed from the broccoli. My two cats take care of any rats or mice that come close to the house.This garden is difficult to cultivate certain plants on, but is nonetheless lush with beautiful growth. There is enough space for containers to widen my choices. It is not an easy terrain designed by a human but a landscape cut out by time and weather. I have a small glasshouse that I have crammed with healthy flowers, vegetables, fruit and herbs. There is a sheltered area which is a suntrap and completely private. I have a bench here. I have a small patio area just outside my back door which has some chairs and a small table. Apart from these little areas of space for human use, it is beautifully wild. A small stream runs down the incline just inside the outermost boundary of one side of the property. The sounds of nature are loud.

Grow Write Guild #1 My First Plant

* Read about the Grow Write Guild writing prompts here.

My first plant was a 35 year old cactus that was gifted to me by my father, a relic of my grandmother’s decades spanning collection. It was akin to adopting an adult in the place of a child - an imposing specimen, unmoving and deadly to the touch. In fact I once accidentally drove one of the spikes through my fingernail and had to patiently allow my nail to slowly grow to a sufficient length to allow me to cut the spike away. The reason for enduring this injury-afflicting plant on my kitchen windowsill, always threatening to harm me with a misplaced brush of my hand, was that once a year, around April, it would bloom an incredible large white and pale pink heavily scented flower, seemingly out of nothing. The flower would last a day, delighting my olfactory system while washing the dishes, and then turn flaccid and withered where upon I would carefully pluck it from the cactus and throw it in the compost. The cactus would also regularly sprout baby cacti from its motherboard and I could remove and pot them on. They made wonderful gifts, whether people wanted them or not and if you are reading this story, I would wager that you have been the lucky recipient of one in the past.

Garden Writing Challenge

I've always been drawn to writing. I will never avoid a chance to consciously communicate with the written word, whether it's something as simple as a grammatically correct text message, as technical as proof reading CVs for my family or as indulgent as long contemplative emails to long distance friends. But right now I am looking for something more creative and intense and direct - a step above blog posts about my home and garden. My kitchen table is inviting though messy, I have a nice lamp, a map of my local Cork harbour and a my much loved globe. The stove is lighting regularly and I am extremely comfortable.

I started searching for garden writing prompts and found a perfect challenge - the Grow Write Guild challenge on a wonderful looking website You Grow Girl. The challenge is a few years old now but each post has loads of comments and links to other gardening blogs. So I've started writing little stories built around the prompts and am hoping to post one every week here. Hopefully some of you will join in too or add links to similar challenges in the comments.