Gardening & Photography go hand in hand

If you've been following my Instagram endeavours, you'll know I'm getting into my photography in a big way (another of my unofficial 30 Things). At the moment I'm being very self indulgent - over exposing and filtering to my heart's content because the vibrancy and contrast is really appealing to me. I've no doubt my tastes will change as I develop my skills and I'm due to inherit an SLR soon so watch this space. I've barely even begun to master my digital camera (preferring to work on my humble iPhone. Did I read somewhere you can now take a degree in iPhoneography?!) before I'm plunging headfirst into SLR!!! It's all a little daunting...
"Getting into photography" has sparked my interest in the little things of nature (animate and inanimate) and trying to get up close and personal using macro. Before I was only after the big stuff, the safari stuff. It hit me whilst at Arnside in Cumbria last week that stalking nature's minute creatures is just as exciting as stalking the big ones... and when you get the coveted shots, it blows your mind!
With regards the inanimate stuff, that has actually sparked my interest in gardening and all things flowers. I'm starting to appreciate the colours and purpose of the things around me. We've hung a bee and ladybird house in the garden and I've even joined BBC's beewatch initiative because it combines my bee photography with recording and conservation efforts.
Re-designing the garden was another unofficial 30 Things for this year and you can see in my pics the story of what we started with and what we've got now. It's definitely been a journey! Wandering through Shipton Bellinger yesterday in the sunshine, I was reading about the decision to include horticulture into the curriculum which I think is a fantastic idea. There is a distinct lack of skilled and knowledgeable workers in this field and those jobs are currently being filled by overseas experts. It makes sense to me that we should be nurturing home grown talent. Excuse the multitude of puns there. All we ever did at school was grow cress. Now there is a pop up garden initiative being introduced to kids up and down the country. If there's one thing I've learned with my classroom antics, it's that kids today need stimulating activities to keep them interested. Their attention spans are so short - but that's a whole new blog post for another day... Touching on the subject here if you're interested in some facts and figures. Otherwise, enjoy the pics!

Late Feb - planning has begun

Think I spent all of March digging and shifting soil whilst the sun shone good

Late March - who needs a roller when a gas drum will do!

Late March - almost ready for the grass seed but have I taken too much soil?

Late March - as flat as it's going to be!

And then it rained for the whole of April and most of May...

Late May - 25 30 litre sodden bags of compost later and I'd built up the soil again, or so I thought...

Early June - finally we're ready to plant and the new lawn doesn't look half bad

Mid June - plants all in

Mid June - and then more rain argh!!!!!

Early July - looking good

Early July - but still it keeps raining

Mid July - finally a dry (ish) spell

Mid July - really really happy with the garden except our poor bedding plants have been washed out and the ones still alive never really had the chance to get going

Late July - ta da! Replanted part of the garden and chucked in another 6 30 litre this time dry compost bags to boost the soil and prevent further flooding. So far so good!