Upper garden 25 May 08

its sooooo beautiful

Your garden is so beautiful

Spectacular and artists dream all in one place.

So perfect .

I would love to have a large garden you must keep you very busy. Keep up the good work

the colours are amazing!!

Picture perfect!

Your garden really is amazing, a true masterpiece !

Thanks for your very kind comments - we do benefit from the "borrowed landscape" from the adjoining park. As the azaleas finish it's time to think of the summer. I have my work cut out over the next few days planting up tiered baskets with begonias to place amongst the shrubs and acers. We have as much colour in the summer as we do in the spring - but it doesn't come naturally!

We both work full-time, but are both just as passionate about the gardening. My husband loves photography and it is my challenge to create the views! We are both hard task masters but reluctantly have to accept that we can't have all the garden worthy of a photograph all of the time! I know from the views he takes (or more accurately - the views he doesn't take) if there is more work needed in creating interest in one part of the garden at particular times of the year. I sometimes have to tell him to have patience - "Honestly - there will be colour in a couple of weeks!!"

What garden dreams are made of! Beautiful. To have such talent......

Sorry I sent you an email just now asking you if this is your garden.

I realise now that of course this is your garden - wow. Stunning. I look at mine now and think gosh I need to make some improvements - I'll be out there like a rocket when it stops raining.

Well done - good for you. Fantastic.

Kindest Regards,

Amalfi.

I just happenend upon this website dreaming of spring to come and it was the ticket. How amazingly beautiful your garden is. We just moved to our house last year so i envy your enchanting yard. How do you keep up with the weeding and watering? Thanks for the pictures!

Thanks for your kind comments, Mountainmom

We don't "do" weeds - they are not allowed. One years seeding = seven years weeding - so we try not to let it happen. We mulch with forest bark and so can see rogue weeds fairly easily. We need to water in the summer because we have lots of pots filled with begonias and summer bedding. However, by watering thoroughly when we do it, we can miss the occasional day.

Today feels really spring-like and the sun is shining, which is a relief because tomorrow we have our first open day of this year (with 11 planned in total throughout the four seasons). This is "winter" - the primula are just beginning to show definite colour, we have a lovely display of snowdrops and aconites and the cyclamen are stunning.

That really sounds dreamy. We still have 5 inches of snow and ice on the ground. I'm planning to start many perennials from seed so that will keep me busy until late april when the ground begins to thaw.The sun is shining here too so its not all bad.The birds give me hope spring will be here soon. Do you buy your bark mulch? Thanks for the tip on the weeds! I'm in a zone 4 climate how about you? I'm new to this website so what are some of your favorite plants? I love them all but lupines and delphiniums do very well here along with black eyed susans and forget me nots.
Good luck with your opening day aalthough it doesn't look like you'll need luck!!!

We do have perennial flowers in the lower half of the garden - but the slugs are a pest and we fight a losing battle. The upper garden colour in summer is mainly from begonias - which we overwinter in boxes in a shed. Begonias are very drought tolerant and deadhead themselves. They are in bloom from June until late October.

We buy bark in very large lorry loads - you will see some if you look through our blogs.

We don't go by zones here. We have had quite mild winters for the last few years - but this one has been an exception. Several shrubs have suffered and even been cut back to the ground.