Growing Your Own Inspiration

some of my faves in the garden this year (Wine Eyed Gill on the left - just love the name!!)

This year, once the craziness of Flowers Magic Art Fest and my other commitments was over, I’ve began leaning into the slow, grounding joy of spending more time in the garden. For the last few years, the wish has been there, but I just never seemed to have time, so this year I am embracing it. And I don't mean just passing through on my way to somewhere else or pulling out the odd weed, but really being there with my hands in the soil, feeling it get under my fingernails and noticing tiny changes and growth. This process is giving myself the head space to simply be among growing things. And I LOVE IT!!

There’s something quite magical about planting a seed or a bulb and then, weeks or months later, watching life, beauty and colour emerge from it. For me, gardening is a creative act in itself. Choosing colours, pairing textures, imagining how blooms will sit alongside one another, it’s not really so different from making art. This year I have fallen totally in love with my dahlias, having placed a bulk order of them back in the depths of winter. Their joyful pinks and fiery oranges fill my heart and my head with inspiration. I find myself going out into the garden to see how they are growing. I feel invested in them, having potted them up as tubers, nurtured them, placing them somewhere warm and protected over the winter, watching the green shoots appear, and then finally choosing their spaces and planting them out into the garden. Last year,with this summer in mind, I also grew some Sutton's Apricot foxgloves which put on a rather lovely display and I have also treated myself to some nasturtiums, Alaska Salmon, Pink Blush, and Salmon Baby. I can't wait to see how they all come together towards late summer and early autumn and I'm already planning next year with some new lupins (Beefeater, Gladiator, and Salmon Star) and Verbascum Caribbean Crush and Clementine. Pinks. peaches and oranges in a cottage garden style.

Growing my own inspiration this year has meant giving myself time to connect with something living, seasonal, and endlessly generous. My garden has been a reminder that when we nurture what we love, whether it’s a plant, a painting, or a new idea, it has the chance to flourish and so do we.

It’s such a gentle reminder that creativity, like a garden, thrives on patience, care, and a little faith in what’s to come.

Here is where I got my inspiration:

TV: Gardener's World - a spring to autumn weekly dose of floral loveliness.

Read: Why Women Grow: Alice Vincent

Buying: Farmer Gracy: for their amazing selection of dahlias.

Will you consider how you can grow your own inspiration whether literally or metaphorically? What will you grow and how will you grow it?