STILL WORKING ON THE GARDEN

 

All the flower beds have now been increased, so naturally we wandered off to do a little change around.

While sitting in the flower garden, we decided to return the four blue pots, which were originally either side of the two covered benches, and that we put in the pond garden, back to their original place.

We lost our two bay trees unfortunately over the cold winter, so we decided that the two big terracotta pots the trees were in could be put with side of the lychgate in the pond garden.

So we went off to the garden centre and unplanned, as usual, we returned with four Azalea's! Two of which we have put in the big terracotta pots.

Two are evergreen, so the pots will have some colour through the winter.

So a lovely splash of colour in May.

The other two are non evergreen and are now potted up and standing the other side of the lych gate.

a lovely pink

and a white

so now back to sorting out the flower garden.

SLOWLY COMING TOGETHER PLUS PLENTY OF COLOUR

 The flower garden now has two lengthened beds.

this is the first one and Paul's now done the one diagonally opposite.

This bed was easiest to do next due to not being so full of weeds and grass. It has quite a few groundcover plants under the shrubs at the back.

The tree peony in the other beds is having it's best year so far, with lots of lovely blooms.

A close up

We put in this tangerine Ranunculus to link to the Geum in the opposite flower bed.

a closer view

Some ground cover along the raised side back border.

Very pretty blue flowers similar to forget me knots.

The stone trough below the folly window has been replanted with the hope these we actually not vanish like all the previous plants we've tried here.

inside the folly

Pleased with how this area is working.

The Rhubarb is coming along nicely in it's pot.

We planted up the wall and hanging baskets.

We lost a few large shrubs this winter but other plants appear to have enjoyed the cold spell followed by all the rain and are doing well.

It was the King's coronation on Saturday, so we had a small celebration lunch with our close friends on Sunday, which turned out to be the best day weather wise for the long weekend.

So it's carrying on with the change in the flower garden this week, weather permitting.

WORK WORK WORK

 Well the pond is all finished and bolted back together, with a new liner and a new plant added.

Hopefully the issue is now resolved and the pond will enjoy many years of service.

We moved this little birdbath from round the back to the front garden, near to where we have a bird feeding station. It looks really good in it's new home.

We also moved our other birdbath, to near the back garden bird feeders after removing a shrub that died due to the harsh winter, which enabled us to clear a section of that flower bed and have a change. We also planted a crab apple tree here, to celebrate the king's coronation this coming weekend.

We landed up with a tree for the king, because we wanted a tree for the late Queen Elizabeth's 70th jubilee which we were meant to plant last year but being us, didn't get round to it. So this tree, for the late queen, is a flowering cherry and placed very near my studio, so that when it's bigger it will help give some much needed shade to the building, at least that's the hope.

The tubs of tulips have looked lovely by the lychgate but we will need to find some proper pots for them for next year.

The left hand side is the raised beds, which need to have their edging, which has now rotted away, replaced, so another job needing doing.

Along with the flower garden, which needs a circular base put in then covered with paving or some other finish and also the surrounding beds made slightly bigger and planted up.

Paul's made a start by removing the grass and lengthening the flower bed. We need to do all four, so we can tweak it to remake the circle he cut round last year and the decide how we continue, either a raised circle or digging down to make a level way across.

This and the back raised bed wooden edge replacement are the biggest jobs that we need to get done this year, in order to make life easier for us as we get older.

So a long road of work ahead to get all this looking back to a nice tidy garden.

REPAIRING THE POND FINALLY

Finally the weather improved enough for Paul to start repairing the pond. He decided that it would all need to be completely dismantled and rebuilt.

So we also decided to get a better pond liner as well.

The seven fish survived their reduced water level winter and have grown quite well , so we managed to catch them all and put them in a large tub to wait out the refit.

On our last pond , which was fine and had not issues, we'd overlapped the ends and used wooden dowels to hold the sides together.

So we could not cut these down and over lap them or the pond would shrink to much and more of the concrete base it sits on would show. But this time instead of relying on just the brackets inside, Paul's glued and dowelled all the corners and timber together and glued each timber to the one above.

Then he has also added some long metal bolts into the ends joining the wood at the corners. More metal plates inside and these have been well screwed in this time. So it hopefully won't be moved apart if the rain fills it with too much water. Oh and we also added an overflow , which we had left off last time.

The new liner is now in place and the pond filled. The fish are back in, wondering why the water's so deep and clear no doubt!

Just needs the liner cutting back and the top wooden edge re attached and then it's job done.

SOME GARDEN COLOUR

 

 Now the box garden is no longer around, the pots of tulips that used to stand between the box hedges needed a new home, so we spread then around the garden.

There is still lots of work to be done around the garden even without the general tidying up.

At least the lemon tree and it's lemons have survived the cold winter.

more tulips

These pots of tulips are still flowering well after several years.

AT LAST IT'S APRIL!

 So hopefully the weather will finally start to warm up and allow us out into the garden for more than half an hour at a time!

March this year was unusually wet, lots of heavy rain showers especially in the last couple of weeks but the weather was also cold. But it's been much brighter in the last few days so hopefully we've turned the corner and won't get quite so much rain!

The Magnolia's are finally starting to flower.

and the tulips in the pots are starting to flower too.

So loads to be getting on with now the weather is finally starting to warm up 

STILL TOO COLD TO GARDEN

 Well it is for us at least and they are saying we will get more cold weather this week! 2023 and it's a cold start to the year.

We will have lost a few plants by the time we finally start to get some warmer weather. This Plant whose name escapes me, we used to keep in a pot and shelter over winter but then put in the ground a good few years back and it's been fine but I think it's not going to recover from this winters sever minus temperatures.

There are a few others that will also probably not recover but you have to look at it as an opportunity to maybe replant that space or area. The plant above was really a little too far forward in this border, so we will plant something further back if it's a lost cause.

But nit until we finally start to get some warmer weather! We have so much to do in the garden, that the sooner it warms up the better!