Garden

Spring 2017

It seems like an age since there was anything interesting to post which I guess means that we have settled into life in our home and garden and less of keeping a building site in check.  However, don't despair there is still work to do and we have a couple of 'Projects' to sort out this year but more of that later.

For now I can bring you up to date on the garden and our efforts over winter to move things along, in particular in the vegetable patch.

Let's start with the Courtyard on route to the garden.  It's looking so much better now that it's not reminiscent of a builders yard!  The hanging baskets suffered in the harsh winter but have recovered a little with the warmer temperatures in the onset of Spring.  As usual I got carried away with J Parkers and Sarah Raven and had a wonderful time planting up all the pots.  Of course by the time autumn comes around I will be regretting that as I will want to plant them all out into the garden as the pots will be needed for summer blooms in the courtyard as well.

 View of the courtyard from the kitchen doors.

Looking through the courtyard towards the front doors.  You may notice that M has also put up a beautiful cedar fence to shield the 'extraction fan' on the roof of The Crown next door.

The sunlight filters through the majestic Scots Pine and provides some shade to the pond, which is good at the minute as it's covered in frog-spawn!  You may also notice a new arbor at this end of the path - rescued from my old house as the wind decided in early january that it was time to demolish it so M worked his usual magic and we have re-cycled it for now - will need to see how long it lasts!

The raised bed, with Gabion walls, has survived over winter but will need a bit more work this year to see what will grow in it as the base is largely rubble so not the best place for plants that need deep rich soil.

The raised beds took 2 tons of topsoil on top of the contents of both compost bins and the leaves raked up in the garden over winter to fill them.  We underestimated the amount of topsoil initially so needed two deliverys but that gives us a little bit over - you can see the little pile under the white jumbo bag - to enrich the patch at the far end which will be a wild flower meadow.  It has now had one planting of seeds, followed by the topsoil with grass seed and I will add another layer of seeds in April to 'layer' the flowers over the summer.

The bed under the apple tree is beginning to come to life, still a bit green but some colour coming through from the daffodils and wallflowers with the tulips about to bloom too.

 View looking back from the garden to the entrance to the courtyard.

April in the Garden