DABBLING WITH THE FLOWER GARDEN

 So even though we are supposed to be getting the kitchen finished Paul cannot help starting doing little things in the flower garden, especially now the weathers warming up.

Our large old blue pots have been placed on a small square of paving just inside the border at the corners to the seating.

We also found some black plastic tubs of tulips from when we had the formal box garden, we had stored them down the side of the workshop and they had started growing. We have bought these out and placed them on four more small paving in the borders These we will change for some of our nice terracotta pots planted up later with geraniums.

We also decided to add a line or curve of Hidcote lavender plants on each of the curved edges to form a fragrant edge. We found a company online that were doing one litre plant pots at a discount.

We have also planted some fragrant rose cutting Paul took, up on each side near the benches.

We still have work to do on the benches later .

We still have some space along the edges towards the next area to plant up but everywhere plants are beginning to grow and fill the beds.

The Black Tulip Magnolia is looking beautiful, full of lovely blooms.

Lovely big blooms

also the stellata is still going strong

The Lenard Messell, a pale pink stellata is also starting to bloom down at the end of the garden.

This one has only been in a couple of years but it's got plenty of flowers on, so I have great hopes that as it grows bigger it will be a good small tree.

MAGNIFICENT MAGNOLIAS

 

This Magnolia Stellata, the first we ever planted, flowers without fail every spring. Always full of beautiful blooms.

And this one called Black Tulip, now it's grown bigger, it's starting to become a star with so many beautiful deep pink blooms. This years the best so far.

viewed from the side.

These two are always the first to flower, so can get hit by the frosts, if they arrive. However we have a few others, that I will share when they also flower in a few weeks.

One of the most beautiful of the magnolia's around.

MARCH

 Well after the wettest February for years and one of the wettest starts to March we have had a couple of brighter dry days!

My small Japanese cherry tree is in full blossom. This has to be one of the best things I have purchased over the years. Back when Woolworths was still on every high street, they sold small plants every spring in clear plastic bags including trees. So one year I bought a tiny cherry tree, it was probably a four to six in twig and cost the princely sum of £1.50, now this was at least thirty years ago. I planted it up in a border at my then house, then potted it up and brought it to this house, where it was eventually planted here by the lychgate.

It's faithfully flowered each year and I have only had to trim it back a little when it's tried to reach for the lychgate.

The spring bulbs are flowering.

The old bench still in need of a re-stain or paint.

The Camellia's are all in flower. This pretty deep pink one is up in the shrub border.

You can see it in this photo on the lefthand corner.

Even thought it's still cold, Paul could not resist repotting and putting out the Lemon tree!

A very wonky photo showing the tree!

The Magnolia, Black Tulip, is full of lovely flower buds. Hopefully they will all get to flower before any frosts return to damage them.

It is one of the best Magnolia's in my opinion.

So colour appearing everywhere now that Spring is working it's way in.

WAITING FOR WARMER WEATHER

 So still just early March, so some bitterly cold days even with the sun out.

So decision made for the four blue pots, just beside the pathway to the seating areas. We bought four small paving slabs and placed the pots on them. We also splashed out on this lovely pale blue clay pot for the centre which hopefully the lemon tree will be able to fit into come mid spring.

other side.

The two new arbour seats are in but we intend to paint them and add a couple of other touches but since it's too cold and we are still finishing things indoors, we have put them together and stood them in place until the weather improves.

The raised side.

Hopefully once the warmer weather arrives , the dogs won't be leaving three ton of dirt and dust on the paving and it will all look much brighter.

FINIALLY IT STOPS RAINING FOR A DAY!

 So we have been able to get out into the garden. We have taken the two old arbour benches apart and re sited one down on the stone circle at the end of the garden.

 

You can catch a glimpses here

It's more visible than the blue metal bench especially now in the winter but once it's had a new coat of stain or paint and the trees and shrubs grow their leaves it won't seem so big.

The raised bed is looking lovely and full

The hellebores adding a nice splash of pink to the greens.

Along with the purple of the crocuses.

Back in the flower garden we have been filling in the edges with homemade compost and playing musical pots!

We have four large blue pots which have always stood one either side of the arbour benches. But some of the pots would get covered above by plants growing in the borders and one would always have a lovely display for trailing plants every year.

So we placed them back where they used to be.

But remembering how they'd get covered, we decided to try them in a few other places.

One was to have them either side of the path to the arbour seats as shown.

Another was to place one in each of the four borders halfway round each circle curve.

Or to place them just the other side of the path into the arbour seats. At the moment we are deciding between on the paving either side of the arbour seat path or in the border either side of the arbour seat path!

Guinevere has gone back on her column and hopefully we won't have any more gales for a while and she can stay in place.

ALL FINISHED

 Well the paving is! Now it's down to us to tidy and fill in.

The step up on the uphill side of the flower garden is all paved and looking good

The downhill side has now been levelled and due to them doing the perfectly even circle with the four small paths off, our concrete seat base on this side was slightly out of line with it's opposite sister seat. S

Now, I was all for putting the arbour bench seats back in place and sanding them down for a re-stain later in the spring. But Paul decided that now was the time to buy a couple of new ones. These ones are eighteen years old, so have given good service and are still sturdy with only a little bit of rot here and there.

They are also very heavy, so this one, which the landscapers moved into the middle of the space, we left rather than try and get it back up to the raised area.

Since they put this one on the flowerbed ! at the side, we only had to heave it up onto the new paved area.

Now these one's are not going to waste! We are giving one to our next door neighbour and the other we are going to put down on the paved circle at the end of the garden and move that tall metal blue bench into the raised pond garden. The small white metal bench that's in that garden will be moved elsewhere.

So we'll be taking the benches apart and moving them to their new homes over the weekend, ready to receive the new benches next week. Al though these will need painting and a little bit of tweaking but more about that once they are all done.