OPEN FOR VISITORS

So the day dawned bright and beautiful and the people came to share the garden for the afternoon.

the Patio

Neptune and his many pots.

 into the garden

redesigned flower bed at side of new log cabin

some old plants and some new helping to fill this bed.

Through the gate into the flower garden.

New Iris bed.

the seating and the beds.

 other side

other side

The Cloisters

End of Cloisters

View to side of Cloisters

round to the left of the Cloisters, going towards the back gate and greenhouse.

the greenhouse area was out of bounds due to the raised bed boarding on the right needing replacing.

This Pineapple lily was placed to stop entry.

Then you are at the folly and the centre of a choice of ways to go.

Carry on round to the back right hand side of garden and this spot to sit and dream or

Or turn back towards the lychgate and into the formal box garden.

The formal box garden , the box needs cutting but no time before open day.

The view from the bench in the box garden looking towards the Lychgate.

the statue of David's head is adorned with a flower from the weed , bell vine.

Then from the side of the box garden back onto the cloisters to head back to house.

The bed in the house garden

The pots and hanging baskets by the log cabin.

On the left the rockery , then back onto patio.

The tour ends .



Everyone was very complementary, asking about design, folly and plants etc. So had a lovely day with a few hundred visitors.


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GETTING READY

So it was work all weekend to starting counting down towards the open day.

I've cleared the path to the seating area at the back of the garden, trimming back some plants and sweeping the path.

The little potting shed is looking tidy.

A new view from the little stone circle at the very back of garden.

Still need to clear this area of the winters earth and leaves and weeds.

We decided that box square was now too big for the new design.

So it had to go! Looks much nicer in there now with the space from the box square.

Last week Paul built a small section of wall on this side which we've put a climbing rose called Gertrude Jeykel up against.

Paul's added some more bricks to the wall, he still needs to add some linking the arch to the wall but needs to cut the bricks to suit, so that's on hold for a while.

The old wooden edging is now rotting and falling apart, so I removed this section, what was left of it and placed these large stones along the edge to help keep the earth back.

So this week it's the big clear up with maybe a little more folly building if time allows.


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FINISHING THE IRIS BED

So while I went off to work this morning Paul kindly planted in the Irises, getting some from around the garden and adding them to the four we bought earlier in the year.

We could have filled this to overflowing but kept it to a few  with a view to maybe adding a couple next year.

Then four bags of gravel later it was finished!

So it probably took me about four / five hours spread across the day yesterday and Paul an hour today. So not a bad days work.

Before  and

After ..

Now it's back to the clearing out the rubbish, weeding and seeping jobs!
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MAKING THE IRIS BED

Last year we decided we needed somewhere to put most of our bearded irises. They were in amongst the flower beds, which means that when the flowers grow the corns of the irises no longer get sun on them, which they need to help them flower.

Also whenever we garden in the flower beds the iris are always getting taken out and left to one side then put into a pot and left for years waiting..

So last year we decided that a good place for them would be round the sundial in the flower garden.

So today I started removing the grass between the circle for the sundial and the paving stones that go round it.

I had thought the gap between would be big enough for now but it appears that over the years a good four inches or more of the centre circle had vanished under the grass, so as I removed the grass only a small area of earth appeared but a lovely area of tile!

 now I want to edge it with the same grey bricks that the rest of this garden is edged in.

You can see here that of the bricks go in the area for the irises would be even smaller. Paul had said last year to remove the paving that circled it ...

So first of all I removed half the grass between the paving and then one of the paving stones. seeing that although it would make the area bigger with half removed , I'd then have to repair the half of ground not used plus again with the brick edge reducing area I decided in for a penny in for a pound!

So I decided to remove the paving and take the circle out to the edge of the area revealed. Which means it will be plenty big enough for the irises.

I love redesigning things , I find it's always best not to be focused completely on the first plan because things will always evolve as you work. And so it is with this iris bed.
It's now bigger than I planned and since removing all the paving and stopping for a cuppa on my return I decided to change the design again.

I've laid out some grey bricks round the centre circle which I'll dig and and make level with the circle and I've left in the paving stone either side of the circle which lines up with the original path.
This I am going to widen by adding two bricks flat either side.

This will mean you can still walk up to and round the sundial if you want to. Right time to stop for Lunch before I tackle placing all the grey bricks.

So several hours later it's almost finished. The paving stones that I've put grey edging round I like so much that after the open day I'm going to dig out the rest of the path and edge it all with the grey bricks making a clearer path.

You can see that at present it's just stepping stones set in the grass which then get covered and almost vanish until we remove the extra grass.

so all ready for the irises to be planted in and then the earth covered by gravel.

Some pots of irises that have been waiting ages for a place to stay!

Plus some irises made homeless when we buried Archie in the garden can now go back in plus we have lots more around the garden getting shaded by the flowers growing up round them.

So they will be planted tomorrow along with others that we have elsewhere and then a dressing of gravel to keep the weeds down and leave the corns to bake in the sun.

View from the gate into flower garden. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out.




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