Judith Proctor's Journal

 Slept very badly last night, as I was stressed out by two things that had happened. My normal techniques for relaxing failed me on this occasion.

Luckily, it was sunny today, and I was able to do several hours of gardening.  People who want a low-maintenance garden are those who do not understand that gardening itself is therapeutic...  If you're like me, it's not a chore, it's a pleasure.    

Pottering around, weeding, looking at the flowers, watching the insects moving around the garden, spotting a young frog jumping into the pond, seeing a robin on the bird feeder, all help me relax and feel far more at peace with the world.

I did a little bit of weeding for my two neighbours (I often do that when I'm doing my own front garden, they're pleasant people, and I find a helping hand now and then encourages them to grow some plants rather than feeling an urge to put down astroturf or tarmac)

Had a chat with both the neighbours -human contact is good - offered some ivy-leaf toadflax to the guy on the left, which was accepted. He's the new tenant (along with his wife) and he's new to gardening, but was attracted to the house because of the garden.

I suspect it throws him on occasion when I show him plants like bluebells in his garden and mention that I planted them about 3o years ago!  Many of the plants in that garden have come via me.  The camassia (lovely blue spires of flowers) and yellow loostrife came from my mother-in-law's garden, the globe thistle from my father's. 

if they grow well in my garden, then the odds are high that they will grow well next door.

Ivy leaf toadflax is a pretty little ground cover plant which grows well in my garden.  It is native to the Mediterranean, but has naturalised here without causing any problems. It likes growing on walls, but will often be happy in dry sunny soil.

I'm experimenting with growing it under my raspberries this year.  They are close to a south-facing wall, and every year now, the soil gets hotter and dryer than it used to when I planted the raspberries a couple of decades ago.  I want to try and shade to soil to reduce water loss, so I'm trying ivy leaf toadflax there.

It was already growing on the edge of the path by the bed, so I'm just allowing it to go further rather than weeding it out.
It's a very easy plant to weed - it is shallow rooted - so if it gets anywhere I don't want, it is easy to remove.

Several hours later, I'm still feeling a lot better than I did this morning.