Some pictures from our garden over the last couple of days. I’ll start with the pretty ones…
Our plum tree in blossom – it’s looking so much more promising than last year, when we had about 12 bits of blossom.
The first forget-me-nots of the season – I love these, and am hoping that they are going to spread all over the garden.
My dad planted purple snake’s head fritillaries on the slope under our horse chestnut tree, and we’ve added some more more, including these pretty white ones.
There’s lots of fresh green growth on our loganberry – it’s looking very hopeful for a good harvest. The loganberry is something else we owe to my dad.
My lemon verbenas are just starting to sprout after spending the winter in the greenhouse. They don’t look that good yet, but they will be. The smell of lemon verbena on a hot day is so lovely, and I think that the fresh green growth against last year’s grey branches looks amazing.
Some delicate white narcissi – also planted underneath our horse chestnut tree.
The japonica blossom is really luxuriant this year. This colour makes me think of bright pink strawberry ice cream.
So here are the bad ones…. But only bad because they’re an insight into the hideous hard work we’ve been doing over the last few weeks. We’ve been levelling the garden, which is very undulating (to say the least), mostly because there are a load of demolished Victorian outbuildings right underneath it. Here’s what we’ve been digging through (not using the plastic spade – that’s just for purposes of scale!).
This is the stage we’re at now – this is part of the lowest terrace with 2 new raised beds all set up and ready to go. We’re looking forward to getting some seeds in..
And the ugly? Well this is just some of what we’ve dug up so far (with lovely weeds – how do they grow so fast?):
At least we’ve got plenty of bricks for paths…!
Oh good grief, that’s quite the rockery you’ve got going on there! Glad to hear you weren’t having to use the red spade to shift it
The garden looks so lovely. I’m gathering inspiration for the windowsil gardens I hope to grow in our new flat – the current one is too dark for anything but a peace lily, so I’m hoping to make the most of the light. The Japonica in particular looks beautiful. Wonder if it would grow in a pot…
We levelled our garden when we moved to our present house (which was my grandparents’) and found lots of little, old glass and clay bottles, some of which we washed and put on display.
I love forget-me-nots; they are my favourite favourite flower which is odd really as blue is not a colour I’m that mad about – for wearing or anything else! I’m going to be on the look-out for some now as I’ve not seen any yet this year.
Teresa x
Looks like all your hard work is paying off, the planters look great. Did you find anything interesting under all that rubble?
By the way, have you tried making anything with the lemon verbena? I’ve made Hugh F-W’s lemon vebena lemonade and it tastes great, here’s the link if you’re interested:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/jul/28/foodanddrink.recipes3
The flowers are lovely. You can make a nice path or maybe a sitting area with all the the bricks you’re finding.
The flowers are all so lovely, such a welcome sight after our harsh snowy winter. And don’t worry – those forget me nots will spread – everywhere! I don’t think the new ones will flower in their first year though, but worth the wait for that blue burst.
http://www.sewrayme.co.uk
Blimey, what a lot of hard work! Gorgeous piccies though – that japonica is lovely. I love Forget-me-nots too – my mum & dad’s garden is full of them. Always reminds me of sitting in Mum’s garden, enormously pregnant, waiting for Becky to arrive…Messy as bringing forget-me-nots into the house always is, I do like to have a few stuck into a little cup on the table.
Our garden is just the same; the rubble I mean! We found a bone last summer, looked awfully like a human leg bone. We called the police who sent it to forensics in Cambridge, and it turned out to be a cow!
Like yours, ours is built over older buildings and I’d love to dig far enough down to see what is there.
Beverley, it’s awful isn’t it – totally exhausting. We were, in fact, hoping to find a human bone so that the police would come and dig up the garden FOR us. We thought it would be quicker!
Yes forget-me-nots do make a bit of a mess don’t they. We used to have loads in the garden where I grew up – so pretty. Love that shade of blue – shame it’s the last colour in the world that I should wear!