As someone who had never gardened before, moving into a house with both a front AND a backyard to manage was fun, but also a bit intimidating.
I could kind of bluff my way around the backyard because it was full of veggies and herbs, which I didn’t know much about from gardening, but I knew plenty about from eating!
The front yard was a different story. It featured loads of pretty (if slightly unruly and unloved) flowers and plants, many of which I still don’t know the names of.
To paint a picture of how little we knew about what was going on in our front yard, during one of our first gardening blitzes there was an emergency photo SMS to Mama G (aka TG’s mum) where we asked something along the lines of: “Um, is this a weed?”
Besides being our on-call gardening hotline, I learned two very important things from Mama G about looking after flowers.
1. Pruning is just cutting
I know there are techniques involved in pruning that take into account important things like seasons and flowering patterns. But at the end of the day, pruning is just a fancy word for cutting, so snip away! After all, as tip number two says….
2. Don’t worry, it will grow back
When I first started pruning – no wait, cutting! – I would approach each plant nervously, making timid little trims. I was so worried about getting rid of the wrong branch, or cutting it too far from the bud, or taking it off at the wrong angle. There was so much to think about!
The thing to remember is it’s very hard to prune your plants to death. So get your Edward Scisssorhands on and go nuts with the secateurs. It’s super satisfying, and just saying “I’ve been pruning my roses” makes you feel something close to a real gardener.
me just playing house 