How I'm learning about gardening

Although I've had a garden for many years, this is the first year that I've really paid any attention to gardening, and it's become a bit of an obsession! We had quite a nice garden in our first house, but I never did anything with it. I think that it had been landscaped at some point in the past but it had become overgrown, and with a newborn I just didn't have the time to do anything with it apart from chopping things back to make a bit more space.

The garden in our current house was pretty much all laid to grass apart from a vegetable patch and a couple of small borders. I always hated the long boring fence across the back, but I lacked the confidence to do anything with it, and we only really wanted a garden that was suitable for small children to run around in.

But since we had an extension built and our garden properly landscaped I have learned so much. I've used my new found knowledge to shop at garden centres and plant lots of things - and so far everything has thrived and looks amazing! It makes me so happy to go out into the garden and admire all my beautiful plants.

Canna lilies

Here are some of the ways that I've increased my gardening knowledge:

* I'm addicted to r/GardeningUK on Reddit. I've picked up so much useful information, like ideas for what to plant, how to care for the things that I've planted, and just general inspiration when it comes to making the garden look how I want it to. I'm not a poster, I only lurk, but I find that often people are asking something I want to know the answer to, and it's really good for seasonal information.

* I've started watching Gardener's World and am seriously considering subscribing to the magazine. I love the slow format of the show, and there always seems to be a segment on something which is relevant to me.

* I've been using the RHS website to look up information about the plants that I've bought and I've also purchased a couple of their books - one on pruning and one on cut flowers - which are excellent.

* I take a lot of walks and runs around our estate, so I've been paying particular attention to what people have growing in their gardens (and judging the scruffy ones - even though ours was worse a year ago!) I'm really proud of myself when I can identify a plant.

* I've been taking much more interest in the gardens of people that I know, and asking them questions about what they've got growing there. Especially my Mum who has been digging out various things from hers to give to me!

* I do some volunteering work for a local community group that maintain the floral displays in the village and this has given me so much confidence when it comes to planting. There are also lots of lovely other volunteers that are happy to help with my questions!

I'm so proud of my garden, and I can't believe that I didn't start caring about it sooner!