As the baby slumbered last week, I decided to take 5 minutes away from my desk for a quiet walk around our garden, albeit in the drizzle, to drink in the green lushness of our cottage garden in full bloom.
It made me stop and realise just how far this little 1/2 acre plot has come since we moved in 2 years ago, so I thought I’d (proudly) share a few snaps.
After 30 years of neglect we had to lose 6 mature trees and take most of the landscape back to bare soil (not to mention rebuild the 80ft boundary wall when it blew down). In fact, this time last year we were down to one rather straggly buddleia and a stump of Japanese anenome.
Now look at it:
We build some wigwams out of old canes we found in the shed and scattered some sweet pea seeds around the base. They grow like weeds and best of all, I get a fragrant posy for my bedside table three times a week.
The aforementioned Japanese anenome is such a beauty and the once bedraggled buddleia is now acting as a fully booked butterfly hotel.
The hollyhocks have been a huge success. I like a bit of height and drama in the garden. They’re over 8ft now:
The biggest success has been the combo of fennel and verbena. Two more giants, I love the delicate yellow and wispy fronds of the fennel against the structural vibrant verbena. Great for the back of our 5ft deep bed.
We have disguised a long stretch of trellis with a succession of blousy David Austin roses in romantic pastel shades. The flowering is over now but this is the on we planted in memory of my Daddy back in May:
On the edible front we’ve had a reasonable crop of cherries from the new Morello tree and a good punnet or so of blueberries from the trio of bushes we brought down from London.
The cherry tomatoes are just ripening and the Williams pear and Cox Orange Pippin apples are bending the boughs with fruit:
Gardening in general has been such a tonic these past few months, it’s distracting, physically exhausting, rewarding and mind-calming. I can’t wait to get the chickens in and the veg plot landscaped with raised beds and a fruit cage next spring. Stay tuned…
CF x
