The sun warms my skin as I sit, parasol partly shading me, sipping lemon and mint tea. The season turned as I plucked that first mint leaf from its terracotta, garden pot. Hidden away during the winter, gathering strength, the plant lay dormant under the soil, waiting. Sun and showers prompted it\u2019s growth and now it is lush and green, waiting. Waiting for me to enjoy as tea or soon with freshly pulled new potatoes is my human view of this plant. But the mint wants to flower, be pollinated and reproduce and in this wanting is reliant on me to carefully manage how much I take.<\/p>
Everything is responding to this change in season. The birdsong is strong. Plucky wrens belt out their tune, competing with robin, goldfinch and chiff chaff. We\u2019re here and ready to be heard, to be seen, to be noticed once again.<\/p>
Little dots of yellow have appeared across the lawn, lesser celandine. Self-set and self-spreading. A welcome pop of colour for the eyes and pollen for the bees. Cuckoo flowers push up through the grass, standing tall and proud. I watch with sheer joy as an orange tip butterfly flits from flower to flower.<\/p>
A few days pass and once the morning mist has lifted, I take my steaming mug of tea outside and sit next to the abundant blossoms of our apple tree. Each flower so beautiful in its own right but together a sight that takes my breath away. The bees buzz and I dream of apples yet to come and the sheer magic of this transformation.<\/p>
This garden is teeming with life. This is because it is not my design, I\u2019ve co-created it with nature. Plants are not generally bought but instead they just appear, brought by the wind, birds or as seeds hooked to my jumper. It\u2019s not just my garden, it\u2019s our garden. The wild ones and I co-exist in as much harmony and symbiosis as possible.<\/p>
Perfect, it\u2019s not. Messy might be the general view. But in a world where gardens are often rooms: an extension of the home, mowed and weeded and designed wholly or mostly for the human inhabitants, where lawnmowers chomp the daisies, the spines are strimmed from sleeping hedgehogs, front gardens are parking places and unwanted wild plants are referred to as weeds and pulled and poisoned out of existence; my garden (or should I say our garden? For I share it with many) is a slice of a truly wild spring in amongst the manicured suburban landscape. For some people, spring might be a bluebell wood or magnolia blossom in the garden of a stately home; as much as I appreciate those things my slice of suburbia is where spring comes alive in all it\u2019s wildness.<\/p>
If you\u2019re feeling the spring vibe, you might like to know I\u2019ve added vest tops to my shop, a wardrobe staple. Available in black or white they are classic colours to fit with your existing clothing, now that the weather is getting warmer. In all honesty, I needed a new vest top, mine was looking all horrible with bit\u2019s of elastic and slightly see-through patches. Yuk, I thought, I don\u2019t want to replace it with another high street garment containing plastic and not much good when it comes to the end of it\u2019s life! So, I\u2019ve added a sustainable vest top into my clothing collection. It is certified organic cotton and designed to be remade, it features a QR code on the care label to send it back when it's worn out and then it will be remilled into new clothing. This is the sustainable solution I wanted so I hope you might like it too. This weekend is the <\/span>Big Spring Freepost<\/span><\/strong>! Starting Friday (1st May) and running until midnight on Monday 4th May, there is <\/span>FREE UK Shipping<\/span><\/strong> on everything in my shop. No codes needed it\u2019ll be automatically applied at checkout. So, if you are in need of a vest top, T-shirt or tote bag now is a great time to step into spring with style!<\/span><\/p>","urlTitle":"now-i-know-its-spring","url":"\/blog\/now-i-know-its-spring\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/now-i-know-its-spring\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/rhubarb-and-runner-beans.teemill.com\/blog\/now-i-know-its-spring\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1777554145,"updatedAt":1777555329,"publishedAt":1777555328,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":424666,"name":"Rhubarb and Runner Beans"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/yp9pxxh1quknvb2ye1rmqqokl2kc3xz1eroy0cg4zttiu31t.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/yp9pxxh1quknvb2ye1rmqqokl2kc3xz1eroy0cg4zttiu31t.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/yp9pxxh1quknvb2ye1rmqqokl2kc3xz1eroy0cg4zttiu31t.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"","keyPhraseCampaignId":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":54515,"title":"Eco-Friendly Valentine's Day","url":"\/blog\/eco-friendly-valentines-day\/","urlTitle":"eco-friendly-valentines-day","division":424666,"description":"Showing someone you love them shouldn\u2019t cost the earth! If you want to give traditional cards and gifts, how about considering some of these more sustainable ideas for Valentine's day?","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/7xf776fbqragcsrm4dgxlk3znafeniztpf6b8erhhr9pdlqc.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/7xf776fbqragcsrm4dgxlk3znafeniztpf6b8erhhr9pdlqc.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":56867,"title":"Hello June! (plus buy 2 tees, get 10% off)","url":"\/blog\/hello-june-plus-buy-2-tees-get-10-off\/","urlTitle":"hello-june-plus-buy-2-tees-get-10-off","division":424666,"description":"As May turned into June the weather, here in the UK, turned decidedly cool and rainy! The heat wave of the previous month is now almost forgotten as layers and jumpers replace summer dresses.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5jky78gcih9v7p7rasaxcvevp3wmdkstgqywhoav6lgwau97.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5jky78gcih9v7p7rasaxcvevp3wmdkstgqywhoav6lgwau97.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":55701,"title":"Low-Waste Easter and a Treat for You!","url":"\/blog\/low-waste-easter-and-a-treat-for-you\/","urlTitle":"low-waste-easter-and-a-treat-for-you","division":424666,"description":"Yesterday, I treating my family to hot cross buns from nearby Otterton Mill on the banks of the River Otter. I only buy them when they aren't wrapped in plastic so this really is a rare treat! \ud83d\ude0bI bought just two, they were more pricey than the plastic-wrapped, factory produced supermarket version and, to be honest, only two of us actually like them! This is quite typical of how I shop, occasionally having a bag of crisps in compostable packaging, not buying conventional plastic-wrapped crisps, buying organic yogurt in glass sometimes and never buying it in plastic. This honestly helps me appreciate them more and also helps the wallet! With the Easter Bank Holiday weekend coming up, it's a time of over-production from the big companies, trying to sell us as much as possible.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/srikmid9wvl07equviddyp4oiu7ao4se9nah9ljfy7pqvlxn.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/srikmid9wvl07equviddyp4oiu7ao4se9nah9ljfy7pqvlxn.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}