The whole concept of what a garden is for had been slowly changing for me over the years but made a sudden switch because of one happening.
To go back: when I bought my present house I inherited a beautfully landscaped back garden, slightly sloping because it is situated on the foothills of a mountain. The various levels had been differentiated with patios, a small lawn and a pond. It was absolutely as I would have designed it myself - had I the expertise. So, why change anything?
The pond is made out of stones and is natural looking and attractive. It was home to goldfish and overshadowed by a large jasmine shrub, seen here covered in snow.
In one of those named storms that winter, the shrub fell into the pond and had to be extracted by my fearless lady gardener. I should explain that I am partially disabled and can do very little myself. More on that anon. Because the covering plant had gone, a predator ate all the fish plus a couple more replacemnents. I was very sad because I had lovingly named the originals, partly after the cows in Cold Comfort Farm: Feckless, Hopeless, Pointless, Aimless, Mindless and Reckless. Once they had names, they became individuals and I enjoyed talking to them. They were good listeners and never answered back.
The next frustration was that the pond developed a leak and, during the hot, dry summer of 2026, I was filling it up almost every other day. This was simply not viable for long for both ecological and economic reasons. Having realised the horrendous cost of finding and stopping the leak in order to provide breakfast for the local heron, I had a total epiphany.
Why not accept the situation and take an Existentialist leap into having a bug and bog garden in the space instead? The marsh flowers would attract insects and my whole garden would spring to life.
So - that's what I did - and this my bug and bog blog.
