I nearly called this The Lady Garden, but then I decided to be mature for once, and so now it’s called:

Hi. I’m Jayne. I’m middle aged (God, that’s sounds so frumpy, but alas, it is true). I know very, very little about gardening. This is me in my garden.

That guy with me is Mr Bozzle. He’s a pug but also my best friend. You’ll see him a lot. Here he is again:

So. The garden project. In September 2022, I had a breakdown. A pretty catastrophic one. I ended up leaving my job, my vocation, my church, my life, as I knew it. It’s taken a long time to recover, and one of the ways I’ve been doing that is by the power of gardening.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow,” and who doesn’t need to believe that there’s going to be a tomorrow, one which is fertile, colourful, and full of fragrant, beautiful things? I do. I’ll be writing free posts about how I’m trying to make that happen, so do subscribe if you fancy joining me.

To repeat, just in case you’re labouring under the misapprehension that this is a Substack containing advice or expertise: I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. I’m learning as I go, through trial and many, many errors. It’s an adventure.

I’ve written about the plan for the midlife themed garden over on my original Substack, Off The Rails. That’s where I write my paid content, essays, and longer form pieces. You can read those posts here:

Off the Rails
I’m planting a midlife garden
“All it takes is one bloom of hope to make a spiritual garden…
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Off the Rails
#2 The midlife garden project
Hello! (Every time I type that I hear Justin Fletcher, AKA Mr Tumble, singing the hello song from Something Special. I really must find a new way to open a newsletter…
Read more

That’s it! Thanks for reading so far.

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Anglican Deacon. Writer. BBC Radio Four contributor. My book, Waking the Women: Faith, Menopause and the Meaning of Midlife is out now, published by Canterbury Press.