(8) My evolving garden

How lovely to see the progress, good blog and good photos. Is that a purple leaved Cotinus in one of the pics (7th from the bottom)?

Lovely... can see you have put lots of effort in here!

what a difference 18months make. lovely photos of lovely plants.

Bamboo, It certainly is, it blends in really well with the grasses and it only cost me £1.35 in the January sales :o)
My wife asked me at the time why I was buying a dead stick...

I love that shrub, its one of my absolute favourites, pity it gets so big - I had one in my last garden that was 12 feet high by 10 feet wide, despite my pruning it every year. But it is so beautiful, its worth it.

It all looks smashing Fleur, lovely photo`s I enjoyed looking at your garden,you have obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Thanks for sharing...

Everything looks great :-) You've done so well.

Fleurdemai, you've got a beautiful garden! Love the grasses, and your dog is so pretty! :)

Pretty..! Thanks, but I think he would prefer to be called handsome :o)

My friend's got one of these dogs - they are more handsome than pretty, I agree, but for some reason, he absolutely loves me - he's one of the few dogs I know that actually grins - the owner assures me he only does it when I'm there! He's lovely though.

~ your garden is really flourishing and your boy is certainly handsome!
A credit to all the hard work you have obviously put in !

Great to see such lovely developments in your garden. Thanks for sharing the blog.

Oh, apologizing! Hope the gentleman don't be offended... :) Hello, clever boy!

Your garden looks great!

Lovely to see the changes thank-you

What alot of difference in 18months well done.

What a lovely blog - so nice to see all the seasons and yes your dog is very handsome!!

Really nice to see all the changes in your garden,he is a lovely dog.

what a big differance in your garden, well done , i love those grasses on your front garden, lovely, enjoyed the blog and your lovely dog to ;o)

I too loved the grasses but had to remove them as they seeded absolutely everywhere within weeks of the seeds appearing :o(

not good, didnt think about that, never mind

Hello there Fleurdemai, I had to laugh when I read the bit about your shrinking lawn ;~)) My lawn is shrinking too and it was only layed a few weeks ago ! Your gardens are looking great mate and it's especially nice to see people using their front garden as a garden. Keep up the good work and I look forward to watching the continued retreat of your lawn !!! Lol ;~))

Muddywalters, mark my words, ''The lawn will continue to shrink''
My wife has recently voiced her concerns that with all the new shrubs I have added, quote: ''Where are we going to plant the annuals''
There is, of course, only one answer. Lol .....!!!!

you certainly love your garden, it looks beautiful. I'm interested in what happened to the feathery grasses in your front garden. Do the plants die back completely later in the year, or did you perhaps move them?
Like the tree with the drastic haircut, I've often done that to mine.

Intrigues me that many very keen gardeners remove their lawns. Where can you walk around barefoot, or lie down and observe insects, or spread out a blanket and picnic? To my mind, a bit of lawn among the plants is very restful on the eye, and so much nicer than gravel or similar - or are you just getting sick of lawn care? Hope that doesn't sound like a sharp criticism. It's looking great, and no way will my poor patch ever be this presentable.

I don't think Fleurdemai is getting rid of the lawn completely, Weeding, just doing what we all do - we have a lawn, and then, as time goes by, we want more plants, and the ones we've got get bigger, so the lawn shrinks a bit every year!

Weeding: my lawn is still 35 feet long x 10 feet wide and there is also a section by my tree which is 10 x 8 where my bench resides.
Re grasses: One has been moved to a tub and now sits on my wall by the arch. The other 2 were moved and given a severe haircut to avoid the seeds spreading everywhere and will be repositioned in the Spring.
Whenever I am not working I spend most of my spare time in the garden and many of my shrubs and perennials get shifted around the garden either when they outgrow their position or I have a sudden thought that they may look better elsewhere.
I am very spontaneous and very few of my plants stay in one position.
My Belle Etoile and Mahonia have now had 4 homes and still thrive :o)
Not everything I do works but I love experimenting and it is a joy when you succeed with a plant in a position where everyone has told you it will struggle..

Lovely walk through the seasons in your garden & lovely plants as well. It took me aback when I saw what you had done to your poor flowering Cherry tree! In the picture of it in full flower it looks absolutely wonderful! Why did you cut it back so drastically?

I hope you get plenty of flowers next year on your Wisteria, they look stunning when in full flower! There's a house here in this town that has an old Wisteria trained over the downstairs windows & around the upstairs windows & it's truly stunning when in flower. In fact I've taken a couple of photos of it!

I live in a flat so don't have a lawn but when I used to live with my parents I looked after the gardens & just like you the lawn used to shrink a little every year! Just as well I left them 40 years ago or they would no longer have had a lawn at all!

Hi Balcony, the crabapple was pruned back 2 years ago in November. During my first year here the top grew to above my bedroom windows. It had so many fruits that the weight of them made the end of the branches touch the ground.When it had a 'Trim' I removed 83 bags of branches and 17 full black bags of crabapples. I'm a bit of an edward scissorhands and when I started cutting the blades didn't know when to stop ..Lol
ps. if you thing the trim was drastic have a look at my early photos ans see what I did to my Wisteria....! :O)

I have had a look at your earlier photos of the Wisteria. That was one drastic cutback! I thought the tree you had cut back was a flowering Cherry! You certainly got a lot of fruit from it!!! What did you do with it? Did you just dump it or was it made into crabapple jam? It just come to mind that when I was a boy in London we often had crabapple jam - though I don't recall being overly excited about it, not like strawberry jam! (Especially if it had strawberries in it!!!)

I understand you when you say you're a bit of an Edward "Scissorhands"! I find it difficult to put the cutter down as well!

It's looking lovely, especially like your combination rudbeckia?? with dahlia. Gorgeous:-)

A credit to all the hard work, you have obviously spent alot of your time doing it and it's paid off,so lovely neat and tidy to.well done