monalogue

April in my cottage garden. Tulips, daffodils, snakeshead fritillaries, primroses, the final few hellebores and underplanted with clouds of forget-me-nots (hardly planted, more self sown wherever the garden has wanted them). #garden #cottage #ducks #runnerducks #gardening

A lovely start to March in the garden 💜 this year we’ve had a good amount of sunshine, so the bees have been happy and the crocuses in the lawn have been really beautiful (last year they only flowered briefly before heavy rain destroyed them). I also decided to add a few thousand snowdrops in the green recently, so that next winter and in winters to come we have those to look forward to. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the launch of my book Growing - a year of living and nurturing with the seasons, whether that’s through kind comments, orders, story shares or ordering it to your local library. It has meant the world. ☺️ #cottagegarden #garden #ducks #runnerducks #crocus #gardentok

A slower and more realistic walk around the garden for anyone who wants a bit of calm 🌱☀️ #garden #ducks #growyourownfood #cottage #runnerducks

Some happy and colourful moments from my garden 💚🌱 I love this time of year, and we have been so blessed with sunshine too. Have a lovely Sunday. #garden #cottage #runnerducks #ducks #spring #cottagegarden #gardeninspo #slowliving #cottagelife

Gentle moments from my spring garden 🌱💕 spring bulbs are in full swing now. The badgers have eaten all of the remaining red tulips, but left the yellow ones alone. It looks quite nice actually 😂 such is trying to garden around the wildlife. #garden #ducks #cottagegarden #wildlife #spring

Calming moments from my cottage garden. We’ve noticed loads of newts in the wildlife pond this week, and three sets of nesting birds in the trees around it. A beautiful time of year. 🌱☀️ #garden #ducks #cottage #runnerducks #wildlife #calm

A beautiful few days of sunshine, crocuses (complete with bees resting within the petals), hellebores, and ducks. I keep the ducks away from the bulbs that I’m most precious about as they would flatten them in a matter of minutes. They’ll be pleased to regain that part of the lawn next week once the flowers have finished. 🦆💜 #garden #ducks #runnerducks #calm #cottage #cottagegarden

Some highlights from March so far. I love this time of year. The garden gets more generous every day. Have started sowing food for the growing year ahead, the first few tomatoes germinated today. 🌱 #cottagegarden #ducks #runnerducks #garden #spring #gardening #calm

Hello and happy Sunday! With just four days to go until Growing: A Year of Living and Nurturing with the Seasons is out in the world, I wanted to properly introduce it. It’s hard to sum up a whole book in a reel, but here’s a glimpse of what you’ll find inside—practical sections on keeping ducks, creating a wildlife-friendly garden, planting bulbs for beautiful spring displays, and growing food and flowers in a cottage garden style. Beyond the practicals, this book also gave me space to reflect on why I garden and how it has become a central pillar of my wellbeing as an autistic adult. I hope it brings readers that same sense of calm. Preorder via the link in my bio—ordering now means a copy will likely arrive on your doorstep on publication day as it’s just around the corner (March 6th)! #cottage #garden #ducks #runnerducks #gardensoftiktok #cottagecore #cottagegarden #BookTok

Recent moments of calm from my cottage garden. Moving quickly through the seed sowing window now and trying to keep up. The ducks are helping me with slug control as usual. 🌱🦆 #garden #ducks #cottage #runnerducks #spring

Beautiful sunshine over the garden this week 💛 some things are a bit slower to wake up than usual, including my mini meadow, pots of botanical tulips and various patches of daffodils. We are letting the grass grow long where the crocuses have finished flowering. Sometimes people allude to that looking a mess, I say get used to it because it’s not going to change. 😅 Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. #cottagegarden #garden #spring #ducks #runnerducks #gardening

Such a relief to be in spring (and to actually have good weather and little slug damage!). It’s hard to make short videos this time of year as there’s so much I want to share. At the moment the newts in the wildlife pond are very special indeed. I’ve not had tons of luck growing intentional pond plants because the dogs always pull them out, so this is my third and final attempt at planting the pond up. Some plants arrive by their own accord and cope fine as long as I keep the ducks away from them. I really would like to grow a waterlily though. Keep your fingers crossed that the menagerie behaves itself this time. 😂 #cottage #garden #ducks #runnerducks #calm #gardening

AD It’s been a gloriously sunny start to the growing year in my cottage garden, and I’m getting my seedlings ready with some help from @sarah raven I ordered a mix of edible and ornamental seeds for planting up my polytunnel and vegetable garden - Sarah Raven always have a wonderfully curated selection of seeds and plants, and I find a mix of edible and ornamental plants is practical, beautiful, and enticing to pollinating friends. I also ordered some rubber seed trays that will be reusable in future years, and some organic peat-free compost. I am so excited to get growing again this year. Stay tuned to see how we get on as we move through spring into summer. #cottage #garden #cottagegarden #spring #gardeninspo #gardenideas #cottagelife

It’s publication day! Growing: A Year of Living and Nurturing with the Seasons is now out in the world—you can find it in your local bookshop and all the usual places online (Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith, Bookshop.org, etc.). Following the rhythm of the seasons in my cottage garden, Growing blends practical guidance with personal reflections. Inside, you’ll find guides on keeping ducks, sowing seeds, growing food and flowers, and creating a cottage garden style. I also share more personal reflections—especially on how the garden became a safe space for me to process my autism diagnosis years ago. It means so much to finally be able to share that in this book. I’d love to see where Growing travels—if you spot it in a shop or receive your copy, please do share! Thank you so much to everyone who has ordered, shared kind words, or supported this book along the way. For international orders, Blackwell’s offers free shipping, and you can also order through Waterstones. Find the links in my bio—I hope you enjoy reading! #garden #cottage #ducks #runnerducks #cottagegarden #BookTok #gardening

The magic of spring from my cottage garden 🌱🌷 I can’t believe we are nearing the end of April already. It’s been a beautiful start to the garden year, and relatively easy compared to last year when heavy rain meant a huge battle against slugs. Mind you, the ducks probably preferred last year. Most of the tulips have gone over and now it’s time for apple blossom, spring clematis, bluebells and the start of the cow parsley. A few more tulips popping up that I planted late. Squashes and courgettes are starting to germinate in the greenhouse and the tomato plants are just starting to get a little bigger. #gardening #ducks #runnerducks #cottage #garden #calm

A glimpse of how the garden will look in a couple of weeks time. Some of the spring bulbs are just starting to break into flower now. 🌷 #cottage #garden #ducks #cottagegarden #runnerducks #spring