Flaming Nora gets down and dirty in the garden...
A love of gardening is something that crept up on me quietly in my mid-30s. One minute I was out dancing and gigging, the next I was spreading manure and wittering about the best way to force rhubarb. And while I still enjoy the dancing and gigging in my life, I enjoy my gardening just as much. I’m clearly not alone in my love of the soil, and the number of female gardening presenters prove on TV that there’s a huge female audience out there who enjoy getting their hands dirty, nails snapped and knees muddy.
Aside from the delectable Monty Don, I find women gardeners much better to watch, if only to prove to myself that it’s not a fetish to get excited about making my own compost, oh no. Apparantly, its quite normal, which came as something of a relief. Women gardeners such as the highly entertaining Christine Walkden, down to earth Carol Klein and posh Sarah Raven who gardens in her frock coat and old shoes are fantastic to watch and there’s an 
earthy, real quality about women who love plants. We don’t mind hard, physical labour. We can lay paving slabs, erect a shed, and if we want life with a rose-tinted bloom then we know how to plant the bushes ourselves.
To develop a garden is to nurture nature, to tame it and capture wildlife in a back yard. When I dig up potatoes from my garden and they go from soil to cooker to stomach in thirty minutes flat, I’m a very happy woman indeed. And when I can fill the garden and my home with the scent of fresh flowers that I’ve grown from seed, there’s a joy I can barely explain. So next time the sun’s out, why not get stuck in to your garden. The fruit (and veg) of your labours make it all worthwhile. [Flaming Nora]
Flaming Nora is editor of Corrieblog and is growing potatoes this year in the veg patch