My sister's garden - a Summer blog

melchisedec your sisters garden is beautiful... and there's more?? amazing! what to write (struggling) why,because i think all you have said in your blog really for me says it all.... if i had a garden like this (or just this part) i would be very content and happy...

please do tell your sister its perfect!!!

thank you..
ps:- i understand why you say about your photos not doing it justice...but you have taken them very well(i love so much) thank you for sharing...

Wat a lovely peaceful place - it must be an inspiration to you! Fantastic to have all those species of wildlife in one garden.

Thank you, Jane! As soon as I saw what you are doing in your garden it reminded me of my sister's. There is a lot more of the garden - I only photographed the first bit. There are lots of trees and bits in the larger part - it's very wild! I love it, but it's so big to keep on top of. To have a garden like that you have to be content to let it go its own way quite a lot. At least, you do if you also have a job!

Thank you, Steragram. It's a lovely place. She has bat boxes, and owl boxes and quite a lot of nesting birds,. When I was there, we saw and heard different small birds ganging up on an owl roosting in one of the tall trees. They were making a fearful noise to try and move it on.

i saw you mentioned there's more (i gulped ) as i was, already in awe...this to me is perfect... i look forward to seeing the rest..and i promise you i will keep coming back to take in more...it will inspire me no end...poets would walk that path...the plants/wildlife/ and more to come wonderful...

:-))))

your sister yes indeed worked really hard.

Plenty to drool over in your sisters garden Mel. I wonder she has time to sit and enjoy it. Ask a busy person comes to mind. Thank you for sharing.

what a lovely place for you to visit....looks soo inviting...:-)

Absolutely delightful blog, Susanne, and lovely generous comments about your sister. Which part of the country is this . . . too far for you to visit more often?

I am full of admiration for your sister's achievement - particularly for such an abundance of wildlife :))

It's a lovely peaceful garden where I could just dream the day away :o)

Oh, Mel, you are just tempting us with these wonderful pictures, making us wait until next year !
Apart from myself, my hubby would just adore this garden, especially the wild life ! We used to get every bird you could think of at Willow Cottage , but here, there are so many neighbours feeding birds, we don't get so many varieties. We have a very large pyracantha where approximately 20 sparrows lived and it was so funny to watch them shoot across the garden and then back into there again. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones watching and one day last week a sparrow hawk dived straight at the pyracantha and the sparrows have, for now vacated their "home ".
It must be wonderful for your sister to come home from work to this beautiful garden . Tell her from me, she has done a brilliant job, as you have with the photos ! Can't wait for more !

Thank you so much for your lovely comments!

Yes, Scotsgran - she is an extremely busy person. I know she would say that the condition of the garden comes and goes according to how much time she has, but that is part of its nature. She has some real treasures growing there.

It is indeed inviting, Sandra - I always feel as if I'm stepping into another world.

It's actually only a couple of miles away, Sheila! You wouldn't think it's at the side of a busy road although it's set back, and outside the town. We don't get that much time together because she is so busy. We mainly chat on the phone, and email.

Thanks, Rose! I meant to go back and take some more photos, but never got round to it. I am determined to do a "Part 2" next year, though. She and I have a very similar approach to gardening, but she has much more space (and much more work!). I am amazed at the variety of plants she grows, and she's very good at seeds as well. I'm a bit too slapdash to nurture them properly. I start with good intentions but so often forget them..

I'm glad you like it, Hywel.

What a lovely garden, so peacefull looking, a great place to chill and gather your thoughts. You described it beautifully Melchisedec..

Thanks Ydd!

Loved this blog & the pics are great .How wonderful to have all that wildlife. I did hear some owls the other night , but can never see them. A young fox comes by every evening, it seems in good shape at the moment,tho' I wonder how it will fare when the cold weather really starts. A touch of frost last night, then a change to yet more rain!

Thanks, Feverfew. Plenty of rain here too this past week. We've not had any frost yet, although there has been frost a couple of miles inland. It's a bit easy to become complacent right here on the coast. I've still got some things to bring in! I wonder what sort of winter it's going to be.

Well, the birds here are feeding like mad, Mel . . . not sure if that's a sign of a cold winter, but no point in worrying yet . . . :))

Hope your fox survives, Feverfew (tho' don't let my friends with chickens hear me!). They seem to manage pretty well in towns these days: do you have any idea where it sleeps?

So peaceful! A lovely place to sit and read!!

Oo, Mel, what a lovely blog...and what a gorgeous garden. Your sister is a gardening goddess...with such a great attitude. I don't wonder that you love to go there. Break it to me gently, now...how many years' labour of love has this been?

Thanks, Karen! My sister bought the house from my parents. After they sold up, they bought a narrowboat and spent the next 9 years cruising the canals (they had a local mooring, because the system isn't entirely open in the winter, and because everyone has to have a licence and a base somewhere). When it was Mum's garden, what had been a tennis court was like a field, kept mown, with a long hawthorn hedge (still there). Mum and my sister used to breed Miniature Schnauzers and the kennels were down near there as well. The rest of the garden was a series of smaller and narrower "rooms". They were fairly conventional, although Mum always liked self-seeders and wildflowers. She still does, though - at 87 - her gardening is pretty gentle these days. (It must be where my sister and I get our gardening style from!)

My sister has lived there for over 15 years. The garden gradually naturalised over her early years there, and she got a grip on it a few years ago. It is really over the last 5 years or so that it has become such a wonder. She would laugh and say that its fortunes rise and fall, but in truth she has worked very hard on it. Encouraging the plants to develop so naturally is a real skill. She has also done a great deal of planting, growing a lot of things from seed, both bought and collected.

I'm glad you like it!

Oh my goodness, Mel, what a woman, your mum! Leaving that wonderful garden to go and live on a narrow-boat - that takes some doing! (Don't tell my OH...he has a hankering for doing that...)
And how wonderful that your sister was able to take over. I think she must love it very much.
And I think that you're both very lucky that you've inherited your mum's style! :)

Thanks, Karen. Sadly, Dad died nine years ago a few years after they left the boat. Mum lives in a Park Home very close to my sister's house. (She can see the trees at the bottom of the garden). She's pretty indomitable - still driving and walking her dog. The narrowboat was beautiful - it was called Colonel Bogey. I used to love visiting and meandering along the canals. It's a very hard life, though. Water has to be taken on board every few days, and the waste has to be pumped out at special pumping stations. Some locks are extremely heavy. There's very little storage space, so shopping is a regular activity, sometimes involving a long walk. They went all over the country - into Wales and down onto the Thames. They adored it and it certainly kept them fit.

It's wonderful, isn't it? She's just sent me a photo of some amazing double hellebores that she has - they are really beautiful. She works crazy hours, but she has some time off coming up, so I guess she'll be outside most of next week, weather permitting.