Welcome To Gardening Journal International - Wales, UK

Hi, I'm Liz

 

 A Bit About My Blog

Perhaps you are visiting out of interest, or maybe with the intention of joining our gardening family; whatever the reason, thank you for taking the time to read this.

May I say a very warm welcome to my blog network - Gardening Journal International (GJI).  This is the headquarters - England, UK, and I live in Nottinghamshire.

I started this blog because I knew many people (including myself), who wanting to keep a log of their gardening activities, but found it hard to stick to 'journal- keeping' without the motivation of others.  GJI is about giving people an opportunity to record their gardening life.

The blog is jointly written by passionate gardeners who are happy to share their experiences with you.  You will find their journals on the right hand side of the blog screen.  If you would like to be considered as a blog author, in order to write your own journal, then please read Invitation to Write A Gardening Journal

A Bit About Me

I am a professional Visual Artist/Designer/Writer, specialising in the Fine Arts, but I have many other interests, including gardening. 

As an organic and wildlife gardener, I am very aware of my environment, and treasure the fact that I am lucky enough to be the temporary guardian of a small piece of this earth. In the years 1989 - 1996 my husband and myself were totally self sufficient with vegetables, salad stuff, and eggs from our chickens. We had a family of five at the time, and so I am proud that we could produce enough food to eat.

My fascination for plants started when I was only two years old. Whilst staying at my grandfather's house in Norfolk, I was taken to visit his elderly neighbour next door. He was a very keen gardener, and was drying out a peach stone on an old dustbin lid. He then explained how he was going to put it in the ground next to the house, and I would be able to watch it grow. Several years later I returned, and the old man showed me the now towering peach tree. I was amazed and intrigued, which was the beginning of my love affair with plants.

At the age of eleven my mother had grown many more plants from seed than she needed. I offered to try and sell them, so with nothing to loose, I was allowed to try. I took an old wooden tray with a trouser belt looped through the handles to hang round my neck. I then loaded the tray with plants and newspaper to wrap them in, and went door-to-door until they were all gone. My mother was so delighted when I came back with £9.00 (in 1974) that she let me keep all the money I made. I used this money to buy more seed, and so it went on. I still sell my surplus plants today, to recoup the money I have spent on compost, seed trays, seed and other equipment.

Growing plants from almost nothing, whether from seed, cuttings or root propagation is an ongoing cycle in my garden.  To put a seed the size of a grain of sand into the soil, and watch it grow into a plant, is nothing short of a miracle to me. 

Happy Gardening

Liz x

Article written by Elizabeth Colley (Liz)  - Owner, author and administrator to this blog