Trying to be Positive

The Haphazard Gardener is back with FeedARead proofed and waiting to be printed.  I have made some changes and hopefully found all the mistakes; but I seem to find typos in a lot of things I read.  With so many hours spent by different people checking and yet still missing the most obvious mistakes I am convinced that you read words as you want to read them.

FeedARead contacted me today to say I could order my author copy to check before launching!  This time it worked – I could go to my account and order one – although the postage seemed a bit steep BUT I couldn’t have it posted to my address. They don’t deliver to Italy.  I am so confused with all of this.  One reason for choosing them was that they were International – they have known from the outset where I was based – I asked a few questions before I took this route! 

I’ve sent an email with HELP written in large text and have received a reply today – if I send them my address they will send one out to me – so I am another step nearer to having the book out in the big wide world!

I have been working on my new website to be published when the book is launched.  I was given the domain name by my daughter and son-in-law ‘because we are so proud of you’.  I won’t tell you what I felt for a couple of days whilst trying to set the website up – but now it is well on its way and looking good.

I need to add gadgets, create a QR and add lots more text.  I’ve used the phrase ‘learning curve’ often but for me it is a very steep hill I am climbing.

Reading the review copy

FeedARead and I batted emails backwards and forwards until at last I received my ‘author’ copy for review.  OMG it is such a pretty book – it brought tears to my eyes.  I jumped up and down a little and then remembered my recent diagnosis and told myself to calm down and breathe deeply.

Now I can see the manuscript as a book – which I can hold in my hand.  It’s a nice size – the line spacing could be closer but I like it as it is.  The older black and white photographs shown are the best they can be – they’ve been rattling around for years – in boxes and folders – some of them date back to 1934/35 so you can expect them to be a bit faded.  I tidied them and enhanced them with Photoshop.  The interior looks very nice.  The cover is great - the front cover a photograph that my daughter Sorcha took at least ten years ago - whilst I was busy gardening.  The back cover a photograph of mine - of one of the woodland walks in the wild garden at Orchards.  Wonderful memories.

The book is now published

The Haphazard Gardener was completed last year with the help and guidance of Sue Johnson - tutor with Writers' News Home Study Courses.  The words came thick and fast; suddenly I knew where the book was going and in which order to put it all together.  Sometimes one assignment critique from Sue was followed swiftly by my next finished assignment.  She spoke of 'letting her coffee go cold' whilst she read the next piece.  My confidence grew.

The manuscript has had so many read-throughs, each time I came across silly little mistakes; whether read to myself or aloud.  My daughter Sorcha gave me the final proofread. 

I offered the manuscript to several publishers and received some nice responses - but all rejections except via Vanity Publishers; some of which required a fortune to publish, whilst others were more modest.

An advert for FeedARead appeared to be the solution I was looking for.  The book is now published - privately - whilst I wait for my copy to review.  Once reviewed it will go public.  In the meantime I am working on a kindle copy.

The Book

The Haphazard Gardener has been in the 'writing' since 2002, when, whilst convalescing from major surgery, I began to write about my beautiful garden in Sussex.  Pieces of prose, thoughts about the garden, poems, were all part of my daily writing life for several weeks, whilst others worked in the garden on my behalf.  March 2003 found me hospitalised once more, yet still I 'crutched' my way around the garden with my first visitors of the new season.

The late Rosemary Verey, a family friend had suggested in 1990, that I wrote a daily journal about the garden and the jobs that need to be done.  This I did from then onwards and it is from these journals, the bones of the book took shape.

A rare treasure

Liriodendron tulipifera

A very tall specimen had become hemmed in amongst other mature trees at Orchards.  Any flowers - given their subtle colour - were difficult to see in the higher canopy.  One year at eye level these two flowers were captured on camera.  Days later a wind ripped through the lower garden and tore one third of the tree down like a huge heel cutting.  Such were the challenges of gardening at Orchards.

Verdant confusion



I loved this walk to and from the selling nursery.   I loved all the greenness, the textures and structure of the different herbaceous plants.  Any flowers were a bonus to this verdant confusion. 

A Stalwart Salvia



Salvia nemerosa 'Amethyst'



This salvia was one of the best cultivars that we grew at Orchards; flowering over a long season even without judiscious deadheading.  Loved by bees and other nectar-seeking insects; the plant hummed throughout the day.  The dun-coloured seedheads gave added attraction to the winter border.  Its placement on the widest curve of the Yew border meant that it could be viewed from several angles.