Love in Dark Settings

I don't know anyone who's written anything about this, but what I'm aiming for in my own tiny garden is meadow, not lawn.

I want clover and daisies and buttercups - and other flowers, if I can persuade them to grow. I want different kinds of grass, seeding themselves. I have a herb bed which I try to keep more or less neat, but I love my meadow - the thick rich grass, scattered with tiny bright flowers. It's taking time and patience and sometimes I try things that don't work because I don't know exactly what I'm doing here.

My neighbour's granddaughter wandered into my garden one day, and looked around, and said "You've got so much more here than my granddad," and I said something anodyne about how everyone has the garden that suits them, which is true... but secretly I rejoiced, because, yes. His garden has tidy flowers in pots and a neat lawn and one well-trimmed small tree.

Mine has tall flowering clover plants, white and red: buttercups and daisies. Moss and mint and lemon verbena. Native herbs growing in big healthy bushes.