It’s five years this week since Dave and I moved into Bluebell Cottage and I am still asked quite regularly how we ended up here. So here’s the story, with the benefit of the sharp perspective of a rear-view mirror.  Go on, you know you want to know…

Dave and I ran an IT company together, both working full time there from 1996 to 2006. He was happy enough, but I had become desperate for a change. I slowly dropped into part time work, studying at Reaseheath College for the RHS Level 2 in Horticulture one day a week, and volunteering as a gardener at Dunham Massey for half a day too. To say I was an avid gardener would be something of an understatement. I kept a blog, Diary of a Weekend Gardener.
I don’t remember why, especially, but I sent off an application for the BBC’s Gardener of the Year competition that summer. I have never entered a competition before or since – I don’t even buy lottery tickets. To cut a very long story short, I got through the Q&A round, survived the garden visit round and made it into the final. A few weeks later I drove to Tamworth with my valiant assistant Hazel (our eldest) in a large white van to build a real garden for a family of five against the clock and under the merciless eyes of a barrage of TV cameras. After three frantic days of garden building and question answering, Joe Swift told me I had won and gave me a pretty little glass trophy. The programme was filmed in September 2006 and broadcast in December 2006. 
A few weeks before filming, I had visited Lodge Lane Nursery, looking for plants for the competition garden. The place was clearly badly run down, but the plant range was fantastic, albeit weed-ridden.  I found a chap called Rob, who was attempting to weed one small corner of a huge polytunnel. He explained that the original owners, Rod and Diane Casey, had moved away two years ago. The new owners had soon found that running the place was beyond them. Key staff had left and the remaining people were struggling to to cope.  But he helpfully found me many of the plants I wanted and sent me for a wander round the (closed) garden while he tidied them up.
A few days later, I suggested to Dave that we might go there for a walk along the nearby River Weaver (and to pick up a few more plants of course). The ever-helpful Rob once again sent us for a stroll in the garden. We walked up between the apple trees, heavy with fruit, and stopped at a seat at the top. The sound of a heavy diesel engine chugged towards us on the other side of the hedge and we peeked through, expecting to see a tractor. It was a canal boat. The garden backs onto the towpath side of the Trent and Mersey canal. Dave was clearly impressed and said ‘You know we’ve been thinking of moving when Holly (our youngest) finishes college? Well, if this place came on the market, it would be perfect…’ I said, ‘Dave, we could never afford it, and anyway, whoever lives here isn’t going to sell in a million years…’.
We went to collect our plants from Rob, said our thanks and goodbyes and went home.
Three days before I left for Tamworth, I realised I had a bit of money left in the meagre £1,200 garden build budget. I drove back to Lodge Lane Nursery to see what I could pick up. There were two signs on the gate. One said ‘Clearance Sale, All Plants Half Price’. The other was an estate agent’s ‘For Sale’ sign. I phoned the estate agent from the car, then took a deep breath and phoned Dave. ‘Do you remember that place by the canal, the one you said…’ He remembered, of course. The asking price was more than we thought we could raise, but the place was in need of a lot of work…. Dave’s advice was sound. ‘Forget it for now, get that competition out of the way, and if you win it, we can talk about it when you get back..’
Well, I won the competition and five months later we bought the cottage, garden, nursery, meadow and woods. And that, folks, was just the beginning…  
Dave still runs the IT business – I’m still closely involved but rarely need to go there now. His commute is now twenty minutes instead of two, but this is a fabulous place to come home to.  I run the nursery and gardens and Dave mucks in on summer weekends. I finished the RHS Diploma in 2010 and have a host of new friends, new skills and fresh adventures under my belt. It’s turned out to be the best thing we’ve ever done. 
February 4, 2012