**SOMETIMES SIZE IS NOT EVERYTHING**

Kudos! Marvelous, you had a small three dimensional canvas and you painted a lovely picture on it with natures living palate. Are your neighbors catching on to what you have done and following suit?

I love it, Dd. You are a natural at garden planning - it's amazing! :-))) I award you 10/10 or ***** if you prefer. ;-)

Lovely front garden with so much interest DD.

beautiful Dd2..its lovely to walk down streets with lovely gardens..x.

I agree with you if every front garden was like yours wouldn't it be a pleasure to walk past them instead in so many cases you have to walk past loads of rubbish.

I agree Peter. Its an absolute treasure of a front garden, and I love the way you've achieved all year around colour. Everything looks right in its place and that conifer in the centre of the fence is so pretty! Gorgeous clematis too! On the subject of size, I often think that a small space is a real opportunity to do something special. You don't need a fortune to make it really special and with careful planning you can create a real sanctuary, especially in a back garden where there you can create a bit more privacy. I think there's a real art in creating a great 'courtyard' garden. You've done a brilliant job in your wee front patch. :)

You are a natural for garden design. I try very hard, reading all the books, searching the net etc. but just doesn't seem to achieve what I really want. You have got that "je ne sais quoi". Have you thought of starting a group in your street so that you could have lots of lovely gardens. It would not cost a fortune for people to participate and you could all chip in with the initial labour, which as the areas are small would not be too onerous. Food for thought?

What a marvellous all the year round design. It must be a real inspiration to your neighbours. I so agree with Sunshinesue. Fortunately nobnody can see ours from the road so I can make my mistakes in private!

I agree totally with all that has been said, but my front and my back garden is never viewed by anyone but friends and family as we have no neighbours. I must add that it was so lovely to see sunshine in the garden once more, have missed the sunshine, only had a couple of sunny days in what seems months of cloud and dismal weather days. Hoping that the weather picks up soon, so much nicer to work in the garden in sunshine. Lovely lovely pictures thank you :O)

I knew a garden like this. The householder removed all the soil and imported tons of ericaceous compost. That was the secret of getting so many small conifers and plants to grow. People living in heathland areas are extremely lucky.

It is a perfect garden for the whole year and you have designed it so well.
How lovely to have such a pretty garden for all passers by to be inspired by. I love it.

Small is beautiful :)
Your garden is lovey. I don't think people do enough with their front gardens. Wherever you go most of them look boring.
Yours is full of interest and colour :o)

Wildrose thank you, it is a joint effort OH keeps it pruned and up to scratch...
Diane each year it is given a dose of ericaceous compost..
I accept on behalf of my other half Meadowland..
Thanks Micky...
Olive thanks for looking weather dry sunny and cold here today..
Stera it helps having mostly slow growing plants, less hard work.
Sunshinesue this is a joint effort so I cannot take all the praise... the road we live in which is a long one, all the houses are different, mostly older people who are not interested in gardening whatsoever, I can count just four gardens out of fifty!! that are worth looking at, sad but true.
Karen thank you so much for your kind words, to us it is a challenge as well as a passion, and there is always room for improvement.
Peter I know just how you feel, whenever we go for a walk we always look at other people's gardens, and some are a real disgrace.
Sandra thanks, I do agree it does cheer you up..
Thanks Spritz and Lindak I will have to share the 10 with OH..
Loose strife 2 thank you, how beautifully put, our immediate neighbour's yes, but that is all unfortunately, at our last house, small road, identical houses, again very small front gardens, we again made a very pretty garden which inspired all the road to do the same, it was a delight to walk up the road.
Thank you all very much for reading this blog and for all your extremely kind comments..

Looks amazing DD.

Your lovely front garden is a credit to you, Angela, and an inspiration to all of us!

Linda thank you, sometimes we long for a larger garden, but, now we are getting older, would we have the energy?
Sheila that is so sweet of you thank you:-)

Dotty is not really true at all is it ?

"Would we have the energy? " a good question....I'm up there in age and my world has gotten smaller..... much smaller. Great frustration occurs when my mind says Go! And my body replies No! My garden will have to fall apart a bit just like me, but it is what it is. This year, I will look forward to see what springs up in some areas of the garden on its own as opposed to my planting it there.

Angela you make me feel quite envious I often wish we had less to deal with making it more enjoyable to spend more time on the smaller details , your garden is a credit to you both ,Don't wish for bigger Keep it small and beautiful its stunning x

Amy such kind words, thank you, I know you are right we really could not manage anything larger now......
Loosestrife2 our back garden although small is very time consuming, and we do wonder how much longer we can keep it that way, so I know what you mean......

I Just took a little "walk" on St. James's Rd in London. With very few exceptions the row houses there have beautiful small front gardens there that are well tended to. Each one has it's own individual garden signature so to speak. I also took a look around the back as well and their back gardens a little oasises with ponds, small shrubs, vines, potted plants and quiet little sitting places. It is so nice to see that these good people are content and respect their neighborhood.

Google earth no doubt? unless you have a drone that could fly that far ?.......you most probably picked on a posh road?

It was a random poke at the map of London that brought me down to that road. The it looks to be what by USA standards we call " middle class" . These map sites are amazing in that the people hired to take these images are also on foot. I have " walked" the beach and into a gourmet shop in a small resort town in the UK and viewed their items on the shelf and their bay marie cooler, walked through two floors in a Paris department store and even through an indoor market in Jerusalem. Almost every evening I beam down randomly to anyplace in the word that my finger takes me to on my iPad. Amazing isn't it?
Of course the adventure of direct interaction with other people and cultures is missing but by the looks of it, no matter wherever I "go" they are all on their I- phones texting each other.

Good grief Dd, do you have your own micro climate? It looks fantastic, I'm speechless:-)

BA well obviously the summer photos are amongst those the Clematis and the roses, before you get carried away lol we do have succulents that are still healthy though, and our first narcissus is out, should have been in the photograph.......
Loosestrife amazing what you can do these days....Big Brother and all that!!

Now I feel silly ....still lovely without the summer flowers lol:-)

Love it.......we do have one rose that is still hanging on to its flowers......but all our winter flowering Clems are in the back garden, I might have to rectify that now, thanks you have done me a favour xx

My Eden rose on the front of the house has five buds which never opened but don't look discoloured ... I live in hope:-)

Really lovely Dd. I really agree about front gardens as where I live are some really grotty ones as people round here don't want to garden, period, so they're all overgrown. Mine is tidy with rose bushes, but open to the Close. In summer it looks quite pretty, & at present the heather is in bloom & anemones ( de Caen) are flowering. Latter have produced flowers through the winter, which I didn't know they did. Bulbs seem to be coming up too. Iris
retic. & crocuses. Roll on Spring :-)

Absolutely FAB-U-LOUS! What an amazing space, I love circles and yours is perfect and surrounded with such lovely planting. I am now inspired to make some changes in my front garden this year. I have always wanted a circular lawn and now I am going to create one! Look what you've done - made more work for me :)

Feverfew your front garden sounds absolutely delightful, you must put a photo on......
Ha ha Gee I know I am naughty!! I love to inspire people to be creative, sorry to make more work though!

Hi Dotty ... a very pretty garden ... well done :o)

I loved to see your front garden, DD! :-)) I have just a balcony but have kept it in flower for most days most of the 14 years we've lived here. Though I might be "cheating" a little as I have practically no permanent plants preferring bedding plants that I can change twice a year. I do have lots of spring bulbs though & they make a very colourful display every year.

I plant winter flowering Pansies in pots on the balcony railing & in troughs on the balcony floor. These are underplanted with Daffodils, Crocuses & this year, for the first time, with Dutch Irises & De Caen Anemones. The Pansies give some flowers all winter with a main flush late April which helps to cover up the dying leaves on the bulbs underneath them.

End of May almost everything comes out to be replaced with summer bedding, also underplanted with a few summer flowering bulbs.