First Ever Blog

WOW Marion........... Gorgeous garden, and you and hubby achieved all that yourselves!!! Fantastic achievement x my hubby doesn't know one end of screwdriver from the other!!!! Send yours up to me for a week or so please!!!!!!! Your plant choice is top class, adore the purple allium and the trio of bronze, red in first pic!!!! Have you got any before or work in progress pics you could share. Thanks for taking the time to write your blog, look forward to seeing lots more :)

That is stunning - love the modernity, and the planting, and the lighting - in fact, I love everything about it. Thanks for the treat, Marion.

love , love ,love your garden...Your decking looks so stylish and agree that your plant combinations are stunning..
Don't worry about only only blogging now and again and lurking. That's me for most of the year when I'm chasing my tail.. its only now when exam groups have left and i have more free time that I blog and contribute more :) I hope no one else minds

I like your style, it looks fabulous congratulations on achieving the fab look, a great use of space and background for all your plants. You should be very proud.

It all looks gorgeous. You and your OH must be very proud of your achievements

Wow...what a garden. How proud both of you must be to have achieved this. I can't pick out any favourite bits...it's all gorgeous.
Thank you for sharing with us Marion :)

Your garden is very nice. It's got a fresh feel to it. I like the night photos too :o)
I hardly ever look at the questions because I can't answer them ... sometimes I try but I am never confident about it.
Your blog is great. I enjoyed it. When are you going to write another one ?

Thanks everyone, your comments mean a lot to me as I am quite a novice, I just love being out there and spend all my spare time in it. I am really proud of it as when we moved in 5 years ago it was just a mass of concrete, hence the decking as it would have took a lot of time and effort to get it up, my only problem now is that I keep seeing beautiful things which I want to plant and I have no more room...... We have just fit a new kitchen and part of my wish list was knocking the windows out and replacing them with the 2 patio doors so that I could make the garden an extension of my house and it has really worked well, where ever I am in the kitchen I can now see pretty things! Sorry Magnadoodle I dont have any before pictures but it was just old brown broken fence and concrete!!!! When hubby did the fence, I insisted on trellis on almost most of it as I wanted to be swathed by climbers, we painted the fence black to contrast with the cream walls and the black fence really does showcase the foliage and the flowers.

Beautiful garden! Well done to you both!

Congratulations on your wonderful planning and stylish garden. Its very smart, and I can see why you are so proud of it, I would be too. Husbands do come in very handy don't they.

Straight into favourites! Beautiful and inspirational.

Well Marion I have seen you in that deck chair for a long time now....I never thought you were doing that.! have you another chair I could sit in please.? It is beautiful.

Congrats on both your fabulous garden and your 1st blog. Excellent job done on both fronts!

I always enjoy visits to members' gardens. Will that Tree Fern be ok over the winter ?

Its great Marion, you have done well with both the garden and your blog, it might only be a small garden but you have designed it really well, lots of lovely colour and a great seating area with the decking, it looks good in the night shots as well..

Wow Marion this is stunning ,well done both of you .

Such an excellent blog.

You should start doing this as a job and getting paid of it.

Just so beautiful .

Great blog, Wow I love your garden. Ignore the so called experts on the questions page you must have a lot of expertise to offer so go ahead and answer some, and if like me you dont always get it right it still makes for an interesting discussion/learning session.

Love the plants. The 'modern' garden is not my cup of tea, but it's yours, so ... enjoy! :o)

I keep sneaking back to look at this again.............really lovely Marion :)

Dianne, the tree fern is now 4 year old and been snowed upon quite a lot, in the winter I just cut all the stems off as some of the leaves go brown, up till now I have not covered it or wrapped it as you are supposed to do so I guess I have just been lucky. The new growth and fonds shoot up again pretty quickly in the springtime and seems to get better with each year.

Ah thanks, Magnadoodle, I am glad that you are enjoying it, this blog has spurred me on to finally update my profile with my plants etc, so there will be more to follow...

Marion, do cover your Tree fern just to be on the safe side. I lost three in the bad winter, managed to get another good size one that is stunning at the moment. I gather the leaves together and stuff the crown with straw and hay then place a fleece bag over. The old leaves are only just going brown, I will cut them at the end of the month.

Wow Marion! Very modern, very different and very beautiful!!
You say you're a novice...you're obviously a natural! :))

WOW!!!!!!! agree with all of the above and then some
your garden is ........I'm amost lost for words .........it's stunning modern and you are obviously a natural :)).........
and the blog was well worth the wait ..Well done both of you :)))

Hi Marion, good to meet you and a great big well done for such a great blog and stunning garden. Jx

Fantastic!!! You've every right to be proud of your garden, it looks great. I'm no expert but have a go at answering some of the questions- just use your experience to date if you've an idea or suggestion. That way we all learn and there are some really knowledgable people on here who keep us right if we do get it wrong. I've not long been on here but reading others comments, suggestions and looking at their posts has been really helpful to me.

your garden looks fabulous, you clever girl and OH too, i really love the plants you chose and every one of them seems to be growing so well.

the clems look fantastic and the tree fern is beautiful; loved the night pictures too.

Hi Marion I absolutely love your garden, its my type of gardening! Love your plants and yes do take care of your Tree fern.

Thanks Booboo, its so easy to maintain and no bad back for me bending over digging and weeding..... I just hoover the decking and jet wash ever now and then lol. Yes I will definitely take more care of the tree fern...

It really is a credit to you Marion in both planting and design. It looks a lot bigger than I think it may actually be and I will be using the black trellising Idea one day.

Every bit as good as any seen at the gardening shows, a gold medal winner.
So glad you got up the courage to do a blog, the first of many I hope.

My new back garden will be v. low maintenance, no grass! yay! just decking, paving and gravel and a few small beds

Lol @ hoovering the decking, now there's a thought....

Booboo, your new garden project must be so exciting and I cant wait to see it, if there was any advice that I could give you it would be to ditch the gravel, I had black pebbles in my borders surrounding my plants up until this year, although it looked lovely they were a nightmare to get the fallen leaves, petals and all the other bits of stuff out, not forgeting the birds doing there toilet, here there and every where!!! I now have just bark and its so much easier..... Yes hoovering the decking is pure joy, my neighbours think I am crazy lol...

Pimpernel, the black trellis is really nice, the foliage and flowers really stand out agaginst it and Stroller, thanks ever so much for your lovely compliment.

Beautiful garden,Marion..I have noticed you on Questions a few times..but it's so nice to actually see your garden...
it looks like you have many more skills and knowledge than you thought..it's a credit to you both..and I love it...
Well done on your first blog and pics,Marion..no stopping you now:o)

excellent garden and super blog..some fantastic planting..love the area around the top decking..excellent and thanks for sharing

Wow! what a fantastic garden and you say you're a novice....

This a super duper blog Marion and your garden is wonderful. I look forward to seeing more photos. I love your garden design,Fab.

Very stylish, Marion. I can't believe you think you're a novice either. Looks like a design from Chelsea.

Love it Love it Love it!!!!!

georgous love the colours and low maintence decking areas. The tree fern - always wanted one of those. My garden is more wild and rustic as it has been neglected for many years. This is my second year here and I know I'll need a few more to get it how I want, although as I'm renting I'm loathe to spending money on it, hence recycling, cuttings etc.

Well marion your garden is amazing, the decking is lovely but I really love your small wall it is so fresh. I am studying garden design and yours is really fresh and modern. well done both of you its is beautifully laid out and planted :)

Marion, the gravel won't be IN the borders and the borders will be edged with sleepers or similar, but thanks for the advice anyway! :))

Very,very stylish and so cleverly done. It looks lovely during the day and just as pretty at night. It could be a garden at Chelsea Flower Show!!

Its inspired and so perfectly done -really original too and the plants are gorgeous.

In a word, GORGEOUS! Very stylish and lovely collection of plants.

What a lovely garden-even got the lighting right! Oh hell what a long way I have to go with my garden-just super!!

Hi Marion..
This weekend I've been trying to catch up with blogs.
This one of yours has wonderful photos ...
Well done on your first blog :o)))

What a super garden you have created Marion. I love your planting schemes and the black fencing with the black trellises work really well. Well done for sharing these ideas with us - look forward to your next blog! (What does your front garden look like??)

Thank you Petal and everyone else for being so nice!!! My front garden is just plain and boring with grass and a few ugly bushes, I keep meaning to get round to doing something with it but I get so carried away with my back garden that it is quite neglected.

What a wonderful garden,I lv the way you have planned your garden.

Wao... So Lovely.. Awesome.. Even i don't have words to say.... Pretty awesome. looks like heaven on earth... Jesus... That so so so beautiful.. Thanks for sharing Dear.

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Different than the usual setting. I love the contemporary feel along with the selective pics. Very well done and considering you did it all yourselves, it is darn right un-believable!