The Dutch Delta Gardener - Introduction.

 Hi there, welcome to my garden blog.

Let me introduce myself, seeing we are strangers and this is my very first blogpost. My name is Renée and I am an enthusiastic gardener-against-all-odds in the Dutch Delta. I don't know how good you are at geography (if you are, skip to the next paragraph), but if you don't know where the Dutch Delta is situated, never mind. Us Dutchies are used to being misplaced as a part of Germany or a province of Denmark. My small country is in the West of Western Europe, opposite the UK only across the water, and the entire country is a delta. I live on a small island in the delta of that delta. #soggy. Still with me? Good.

Once upon a time, in a town not so very far away, there lived a woman who had a beautiful cottage garden. That garden was her pride and joy, her happy place, her sanctuary, but Life happened whilst she was busy planning where to put the Salvias, and she had to leave her piece of paradise.   

This woman is me. The large cottage paradise has turned into a 3x4m balcony groaning under plants. But what is it that those American self-help gurus always say, when life gives you lemons, you grow them on your tiny balcony? Well, not quite (yet), dear, but I certainly grow a lot of plants there, whilst on the waiting list for an allotment. My green thumbs cannot help but itch, and my green space, tiny as it may be, keeps me sane. (I'll tell you more about the link between sanity and gardening in a later post, promise)

So, what can you expect? Wild tales of battling the elements when you garden at height. Typical problems when you'd like certain plants but your garden faces SW and is always windy. The myth that slugs don't exist at 10m up. Visiting birds of prey that try to eat your songbirds. And lots about plants, plants, plants.

PS: due to thunderstorms which have been lashing my plants for over a week now, I had to dismantle the display and put them all on the floor, resulting in a mess. This happens only too frequently, I'm sad to say. But hey, won't it make a marvellous contrast when the sun is out and the display is as it should be?