Our Changed View - and my New Acquisition!

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Thank you all so much for your sympathetic and helpful comments following the installation of the new fence which has spoilt the view from our garden.

There was, as I have been hinting elsewhere, a small bonus for me when our new neighbours decided to define their boundary. The line went straight across part of a flowerbed in their garden!

That’s it, the part to the left of the 5-bar gate. You can just see a couple of very old roses, not pruned or fed for years. Well, they made the decision – so that bed is now in MY garden! You can guess what I did, those of you who are familiar with my ways of working and how I plan my garden…

Yes, I extended it! I couldn’t take it outwards any further than the curve in the photo, as the old stone bridge runs under the grass from that point – there’s only about 3-4" of soil on the top of the bridge.

I suppose I gained at least a foot round the edge – which of course I curved! You may know that I don’t go in for straight lines in my garden! Then I had a look to see if there was anything in there worth saving. Oh dear – nettles and couch grass. The roses had a lot of dead wood on them and I decided to dig everything out, but save a few of the ‘Honesty’ plants and a trailing Campanula at the edge.

Then it was time to dig, dig again, and bring down a barrow-load of compost from the bin. More digging! Of course, as usual, I hit several lumps of blue lias stone, and needed husband + pickaxe to lever them out. One piece, I couldn’t even lift! However, I got it cleared eventually and ready for planting.

I did put back a large clump of native primroses and four or five Honesty plants. I had been planning what to put in there, and decided that the colour scheme would be shades of pink and white.

While I was buying all those primulas for the boxes, I had been looking around to see if the GC had what I wanted. I found a Hibiscus syriacus ‘White Chiffon’ for the centre-piece, two miniature roses in different shades of pink (planted well away from where the old rose was!) another Skimmia ‘Magic Marlot’ like the one I bought in the autumn, some pretty pink primulas to edge the bed for the moment, two tiny pots of Anemone Blanda (pink) and two pots of Aubrieta to soften the edges by the path. Oh, yes, and the little Euonymus that Gee has in her garden! Thanks, Gee, for the introduction to this little shrub.

My friend had given me a small Sorbaria when my Mum died, and this seemed the perfect place for it, as she works in the next-door garden for our neighbours. She will see it whenever she goes in or out of the new gate.

So there we are! A new flowerbed. It looks a bit sparse at the moment of course, but things will grow and spread (I hope) and in the summer, it should be blooming! Hmm. I forgot two other plants which aren’t in as yet and won’t be for a while.

I have had two Clematis ‘Early Sensation’ bought as real babies and being potted on as required. They are safely tucked away in my cold frame, and I shall plant them out next month to hide the ugly wire fence. I may have to install a small trellis for them…we’ll see.

Here’s to my new flower bed! At least one good thing came from that fence across the gardens. What’s that saying? ‘Every cloud has a silver lining?’ – well, a pink-and-white one, anyway, in my case!

• 30 Jan, 2009
• 8 likes

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