There’s a quiet corner of my garden that I forgot about. Or, rather, it quietly carried on without me – as gardens often do.
Last year, I planted a tidy row of leeks with the usual good intentions. Soup. Broth. Perhaps a hearty autumn stew. But life got busy, as it does, and the leeks… well, they were left to their own devices.
I must confess, they looked a bit sulky for a while – standing tall and neglected and slightly offended. But I left them alone……and something very curious happened. The months passed and instead of withering away, they transformed. They grew into towering stalks that rose with quiet confidence crowned by spiked globes and the most stunning flowers, soft purple and white spheres – nectar for the bees. They are elegant, regal and there’s no soup in sight!
Who knew?
This accidental beauty has become one of my favourite parts of the garden. A gentle reminder from nature: never turn your back on a leek. You might not recognise what it’s growing into.
There’s a lesson in this, of course! A lesson about patience and the magic that unfolds when we let go of control. About seeing potential in what we might have dismissed too soon.
And it turns out, that even forgotten vegetables can bloom into something unexpectedly magnificent.
So the next time you wander in your garden – or your thoughts – take a moment to honour the overlooked, the abandoned plans, the things that didn’t quite go to schedule.
Because in the right light, and with a bit of time, they might just flower into something extraordinary.
And if not? At least you’ve got a great excuse for not weeding.