Garden in Progress

7 comments

I moved into a small farm cottage in November 2009 – the garden, as you can see from the first two photos, was a real mess, infested with ground elder, creeping buttercup, horsetail and mint. Our neighbour on the right at the time didn’t bother with his garden at all, so when the snow brought down some of the enormous Berberis growing over from his side of the fence, I took the opportunity to reduce it in size a bit! The next person to move in then removed ALL plants from that garden, and while it wasn’t exactly the best thing he could have done, it did at least improve the amount of light our garden and living room received! He also put up a new fence around both gardens, which I don’t find particularly attractive but which is excellent at reducing the buffeting winds we sometimes receive here.

Since then I’ve been adding plants, moving them, and very occasionally taking things away. I work as a gardener so the last thing I want to spend my weekends and evenings doing is weeding, so my plan is to pack the borders with as many plants as possible, including lots of groundcover to reduce weeding to a minimum (out of sight, out of mind!). I’m hampered somewhat by having no budget for the garden, but luckily some of my clients are generous enough to let me take plants away when I’m dividing them, or take cuttings. It does mean I generally have to start with very small plants, but they’ll fill out eventually so that’s fine with me.

The second pair of photos show the garden today, after another bout of ‘joogling about’ this week. I removed a couple of aquilegias (I’ve got several in the back garden anyway, so I won’t miss them) and a dead hebe, and added some lavender, a couple of Spiraeas, some Solomon’s seal, hostas, hellebores and some bulbs.

I plan to make the shady area bounded by the cherry tree, the big ferns, the Forsythia and the Spiraea a woodland area, so I’ve chucked in lots of shade-loving plants such bluebells, snowdrops, winter aconites, Solomon’s seal, Ajuga reptans, hellebores and Hostas.

I’ve added lavender, thyme, oregano and basil to the sunny spot which already contained chives and purple sage to make it a herb corner. I’ve got some variegated lemon-scented thyme and more oregano ‘Country Cream’ to put there too – and parsley if I ever get round to sowing some this year! – and then I will edge it with short round wood posts at some point to make it look a bit neater. Not sure whether to keep the bench there or move it – I’ve got half a mind to grow a climber through it, but I’m not sure – it might be better to remove it altogether or transfer it to the back garden.

I’ve still got a long way to go, and some self-seeded hebes need shifting, as do the aquilegia, and maybe I’ll move more of the Ajuga reptans…plus I’ve got some other plants to go in soon…and a million other jobs, but hopefully this summer it will be starting to look pretty full. Half the fun of gardening is tweaking things and experimenting though, so I’m sure I won’t be able to rest even when it’s packed to the brim with plants!

• 5 Jun, 2011
• 2 likes

More blog posts by annies_plants