MOVING ON ANOTHER FEW INCHES.

Today Paul decided to clear part of the raised bed at the end of the garden and plant his grasses.
We have not split any of the plants in this bed for a good few years, so it is beginning to look overgrown and out of control.

On the way down to take the photo's I came across Mabel the lodger cat sunning herself on a pile of dried weeding, I don't think the ducks were too happy about it!

Paul had already made a start.

There were plenty of nettles plus the Geraniums have taken over quite a bit due to not being split in previous years.

This area will need sorting also over the next few months.

This Acer leaves are turning a beautiful red.

Lots of Apples on the Cider Apple tree.

Last weeks work is looking good

This side shadier but also looking good.

Yet more leaves turning red.

Yesterday Paul finished digging up the Roses and Clematis from this bed. It is amazing how open it now looks when you walk out the door of the house that's to the right hand side.I am really looking forward to having this building taken down and seeing the space opened up!

Here the raised bed area has been cleared and the grasses along with the green Banana have been positioned and planted.

From the side, Paul moved a formium with red leaves from the front garden to this area to add a splash of colour.

This space will need to be sorted out next weekend if the weather holds good.

This Orange Abutilon is still give some colour it the Cloisters.

When we put the new fencing up I took a few photo's from the neighbours side, shown above.

He spent a big part of this year levelling the ground and then relaying the lawn.

I thought you like to see the length of our garden if it was not split into rooms and different levels, our neighbours garden is narrow than ours we have about another ten foot in width up by the house going down to about another six foot wider at the bottom. Also from this position there is about another 25 ft of garden behind me! Ours must look like a jungle compared to this!!

GRASSES...PLUS....

We have spent today cleaning up the patio area where over the summer things have been left about and rubbish stored to one side.

It's involved a trip to the recycling!! and we are to make another later before they close for the day. But when we were at the garden centre earlier in the week they had some nice grasses on offer. Paul loves the tall grasses and we decided that we'd have a break from the cleaning up and go and buy three of them for the raised garden, which is at the very end and will need weeding and some splitting of plants before the winter sets in.

When we arrived there was not so many left and Paul could not find one of the one's he particularly wanted, so we decided to have a look round then go along to another garden centre.

Well we bought three grasses at the first garden centre then two more at the next so that's five not three!!

In the end we purchased five grasses.
Miscanthus Ferner Osten, Falmingo and Gracillimus plus Panicum Squaw and Hameln.

Yes that's a couple more than we went for but that's not really the plus, this is what else we bought totally unplanned.

Yes SEVEN box! Four Pyramid's and three ball's. And the reason we bought them today was that they have new stock in and this is the old stock and is starting not to look it's best especially up against the new stock, so it was reduced.

The three biggest Pyramid's were down from £60 to just £20 each

The two larger box balls from £25 to £10 each, the forth smaller box Pyramid also only cost £10

and this little one was down from £25 to just £5!!! So  a saving for all these shaped box of over £190!!

A couple of years back we'd put some box balls around the Magnolia on the left hand side of the Rose arch and had always meant to match this on the other side but had not got round to it due to the cost of buying shaped box.

Now if you were paying attention you will see we are one box ball short for the other side, this is because we were not going to necessarily repeat the positioning but of course now we are back home, we have decided to! So we will need to see if they have another ball on their old stock or failing that buy a new one!!

Paul's already planted them in place and it's meant that the rose arches and the trellis have now been removed and Paul is taking them apart.

Here are a couple of quick photo's I will take some more once the area's been completely weeded and edged etc.

We have now added a pyramid each end of the walk way.

The same this side plus the box balls have been put in matching places to those across the way!

I know that the new additions look a little tatty and brown compared to the four lush green existing balls but these will soon green up now they are out of their pots and in the ground, they will have the autumn winter months to settle in and start recovering ready to be lovely and lush next year.

We often wait until garden centres are going into the winter months to buy as this is when they have the best discounts on the bigger or more expensive plants that are no longer looking their best and they do not want to look after until spring!.

So though an unplanned purchase a very happy one because it 's saved a fortune, will have time to settle in and by next summer will be looking good and helping to bring the new design together.


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ANGLESEY ABBEY

Today we decided that we would take a break from the garden work and go and visit one! The National trust property Anglesey Abbey is only an hours drive from us and we have been there before a few years back.

It has beautiful gardens and a lovely country style house to visit. We were looking forward to seeing any changes that had occurred.

They have built a lovely big new building at the entrance that houses , the shop, tea rooms, toilets and ticket office plus improved and made bigger the car park. Which was quite full when we arrived just before one pm. It is a very popular site due to the gardens and grounds.

We'd walked through most of the winter garden, not taking photo's because the plants although lush and green were still in leaf and the garden is arranged to show the beautiful different coloured stems of the Dogwood, Cornus .
It leads you to this grove of Silver birch trees whose white trunks look lovely in the light of day and beautiful in winter,

There are statues scattered all around the grounds.

At this time of year they have a beautiful show of Cyclamen either side of a path through the trees.

The path.

A beautiful sight.

We came across these amazing climbing stems that had worked their way over a large brick wall.

They make a great photo and are so old to be so thick because..

they belong to a Wisteria that's taken it's self up into the branches of this Ivy covered tree.

The path carried on through this doorway in the wall.

Which takes you to the Mill, which we did not photograph as it was covered with scaffolding and plastic to protect passers-by, but you then walk along the river on which two swans were swimming.

Then round into the Herbaceous garden which is in a Half circle, with deep borders all round sheltered by a beech hedge.

These are Summer borders so not too much colour left but still a little here and there.

 Amongst the deep borders are benches to sit and enjoy the view of the flowers.

This one is a seat for the devil!!!

I loved the detail and look of this bench and the pots of box either side.

Next is the Dahlia garden, always beautifully full of colour .

Start at the far end with red and run through orange, yellow, white, pink ,lilac and back to deep burgundy red.

Wonderful colours from one end to the other.

 At each end of the Dahlia garden are statues.

A little burred because Paul kept walking!!

 We arrive at the house.

The last owner of the abbey was Lord Fairhaven.

More Dahlia's on display in the house.

These were the only photo's we took in the house, you could not use a flash and the rooms were quite dark.

Back outside after leaving through the servants entrance.Lord Fairhaven was a very fussy man but also very kind to his workers. After the war he houses all his staff out in the village so they could have a family life away from the house and even hired a house for his chauffeur's family when he stayed at his house in South Wold for the summer !

 Why this horse is sitting in a water cistern I have no idea!

On the way back to the entrance we came across this tree hanging with ball of colourful Dahlia's.

The gardeners had also laid a line of Dahlia head's in a line leading people along a path.

More statues.

These two stand either side of the path out.

Looking back for a last view.

To find a last view through a hole cut into the shrubs across the way.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this look at Anglesey Abbey, well worth a visit if you find yourself in the area.

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