Long post, but I have been requested to show my garden, and this seems to be how we do this now...
Starting by the back door, washing line and tiny lawn...
This huge hollyhock self-seeded by the washing-post - last year it grew to almost 12 feet tall, and I have hopes of more this year. I tie it to the post as it grows. Pale pink, when it does the flowering thing.
The greenhouse is now tidy (well, almost) and the tomatoes are doing well. Cucumbers to plant up today, two long and two round. I had to go and buy more pots!
The unlovely-but-useful oil tank is nearly hidden by the wisteria (now over, but it flowers twice, see you again in August). The hardy geraniums are doing well, apart from the ones the cat has decided to nest on. Beyond that, beans, squashes, cherry, apple and damson trees, sweet-corn, shallots, and so on, all needing watering every day but thriving... You can just see the corner of the fruit cage, repositioning of which which may mean I get some white currants this year
And gooseberries!
Lawn, not shown, is nicely shorn, and I'm using it for qigong and sitting-about-in-shade-in-chair-with-book. Note the scrap pile. I am working, honestly...
My lovely summerhouse, refuge, workroom, showroom (whenever), place of safety for parcels, and slowly getting covered in hanging baskets...
Purple spotted petunias
and pink pelargoniums...
These pink things appeared when I mowed something else off the top of them. Once, a very long time ago, I asked John what he wanted in the garden. After some thought, he said "Not too much pink" - that might be a fail, then...
(I note here that the new Blogger is utterly screwed, will not format or reposition the text or the images, and is soooooo slow)
By the front door - this greeted my on windy Friday, my lovely Hydrangea Petiolaris had made a spirited attempt to escape. I bought this from the Estate nursery when I first came here, in an 8-inch pot. It was a lot of money, I thought... Now about 9 feet high and the same wide, and just about to be awash with creamy flowers, so perhaps not expensive. After about half-an-hour of ladder, swearing, and string, I got it behaving again. Might need pruning next Winter... The base stems are 3 inches thick and twisted like ropes
This clump of posh thistles (can't remember the name) and Bear's Breeches was weedy, sad, and full of dead stems, and was one of the first things I attacked in the front garden. I remade the wibbly-wobbly brick edgings at Easter, and have saved all the potted spring bulbs in here for next year. I'm waiting for rain to seed some grass. I also appear to have baby rabbits. I may have to Pie...
This Rowan was planted after we had a drunk driver run through the hedge at 3 am, ruin my Laburnam and Holly, and run away.. The police were just so nice..
When the "I had it stolen" man turned up; having been threatened with a £200 bill to return his car; to tow it away, he said it was "Our fault, because we was incomers and had flars" (Took a while, "flowers") - the police were with me that, if you dump a stolen car you do not politely turn the engine off, close the doors, and take the keys with you...
The gate and gateposts went too - the bill from the estate for remaking solid oak 6-inch square posts and a handmade gate must have made his eyes water. Or, at, least, I hope so...
It has yellow berries in the Autumn, much loved by blackbirds
Finally, this wonderfully sweet-scented rose was here when we came. Every Winter I give it a major haircut, and every Summer it flowers for three months. The purple Cotinus behind it I planted about 10 years ago. It did well for a couple of years, then fell over, and I cut it off at ground level, intending to dig it out. It threw a side-branch skywards and is now thriving.. So, perhaps I won't be mean to it.
The part of the garden behind that still needs a lot of work. it was laid out in squares, like a slightly under-endowed chess board, with the idea that it would be best viewed from the bedroom window. Bedroom is now my workroom, and I'm rethinking (probably remaking) it. We planted pears 5 years ago (John loved pears) but he never saw any fruits. Apparently you plant pears for your children..
My lovely three-legged Muesli is buried in on square, and a cherry has self-seeded there...
Thanks for walking round with me, and I will return later in the year when different things are flowering
