This week, after almost six years, I am leaving Stephanie’s Garden to move on to a new garden and new challenges. As any gardener who has ever left a garden they have loved (whether through work or through house move) will know, it is a bitter-sweet time. Having loved and nurtured a garden for a long time it is so difficult to leave it. I have planted vegetables that I will not harvest and pruned wisteria that I will not see flower but leave safe in the knowledge that someone will be there to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
Right up until my last moments here I am frantically trying to get jobs done so that my last glimpse of it will be perfect. The new gardener is already here and the place is in safe hands but the feeling of protectiveness and the sense of loss that I will not be here on Monday morning as I have for so many seasons is overwhelming. There is, of course, excitement for the new garden I am heading towards; hoping to sprinkle a bit of Harrod-learnt magic on it in the coming years and to love it as much as I love this one. But it is tinged with sadness.
I am luckier than most; I can still follow Stephanie’s Garden through the blogs and social media. I will still be able to see how it grows and blooms over the seasons ahead. But for now, I need time to process the fact that it is no longer ‘mine’.
The gardens we tend over a lifetime remain with us always and when the gate clicks shut for the last time there will undoubtedly be a touch of grief in my heart.
