ME Awareness Day 2026
ME Awareness Day means…being aware that at 58, I’m probably going to be sick for the rest of my life. This isn’t being negative, it’s an honest assessment that the chances of a cure being found before I shuffle off …
Gardening with ME: take a picture
Whenever I’m asked what’s the first thing to do in the garden, my response is: take a picture. Why? Because gardening is work, and gardeners have a tendency towards focussing on all those ‘just jobs‘ that need doing, and they …
Garlic harvest 2025
Whilst I harvested my garlic back in July, I only got around to cleaning, sorting and recording the results recently. This year I had tried 8 new cultivars and of those, I’m saving the best of 4, maybe 5, to …
Gardening with ME: the art of resting in the garden
You would think having a lovely garden to sit in, you would find me regularly resting there. You would think. However, the one curse of being a gardener, even one with ME, is that after five minutes of sitting there …
A little learning: Metasequioa
TIL that I’d been mistakenly calling all Redwood trees Metasequioa. In fact, the only one with this name is Metasquioa glyptostroboides, the Dawn Redwood, which originates from an area of southeastern China. Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia) and Sequoia sempervirens (coast …
Gardening with ME: the best plant
Whenever someone asks me, what is my favourite plant, I stumble. As an admitted plant addict, there are so many I love, that I find it hard to choose. Early in the year come snowdrops, the harbingers of Spring. I …
Book review: When the Earth was Green
The more I learn about plants, the more fascinating I find them. Recently I have been developing an interest in the origins of plants. I don’t mean from where individual plants originate; although that is of course interesting. Rather, my …
Photo essay: recently flowering
Sharing some photos of some pretty that has recently been flowering in my garden. Keeping it simple with just photos! So what’s been flowering in your garden?
Gardening with ME: upon reflection
There is some gardening with ME that you can do in bed. I’m not joking. I do my best thinking about the garden whilst resting in bed. Over winter, I spent time reflecting on the past year, thinking about what …
Gardening with ME: growing alpines
Have you heard of alpine plants? They are lesser known, even amongst many gardeners. Yet for people with an energy limiting chronic illnesses like ME, alpines are smaller and easier to manage. So let me introduce you to alpines, the …