MOVING POTS AND TROUGHS

 So now the fence is in place, we started to tidy up the cloisters paved area.

Originally we had the small stone trough by the door into the workshop, shown on the left bottom corner of the photo. It was in need of being found a new place and to be emptied and replanted.

Also we have two stone medieval style pots that stand either side of the opening to the pond area. These just needed some refreshing. 

We have moved two stone basket style pots from the pond garden onto the cloisters area and added between them and the original pots two stone troughs which were standing under the window of the studio in the magnolia house garden. 

View from the other end of the cloisters.

The small trough that was by the door is now in the pond garden area where it will get the afternoon sun.

So all coming together slowly.

ANOTHER LITTLE TWEAK

 

So while the statue stands waiting. We had box hedging that ran between the wooden posts that sectioned off the gravel area, leaving a breck between the two centre posts to form the entrance. But again this got the box blight so was removed last year.

We needed to put something in place to stop our dogs from just jumping across from the paved area into the pond area. A plan was made.

So we went for a wooden design.

We adjusted the fence to give space for the climbing rose that's already by the two posts.

So four areas.

Forming the cross pieces.

coming along

Completed 

In the evening sun

z

We had a climbing rose on each side of the entrance posts and another on each of the next posts. Unfortunately the rose on this post had died, so we decided to replace it with one we'd put out in our front garden, that was a bit tucked away, so not doing as well as it could.  We then decided to put a shrub rose between each of the posts. 

Now Paul had taken some rose cuttings last year, so had three nice decent plants we could use. Two are cuttings of the Queen of Sweden, which is a nice upright rose with blooms that sit on top of the stems and are a lovely shade of pink. So have put one each side of the centre fence panel by the opening, which already has a red climbing rose called Tess of the d'Urbervilles on each entrance post.

Another mysterious rose cutting has gone in on the next fence panel , the tag details had been washed off ! So only when it flowers will we have an idea which rose it came from.

Now on the far left panel, we placed a rose called Jude the Obscure, it's a beautiful deep yellow with a wonderful scent, but it's been in a part of the garden by the house , that the gazebo was put up near it, then over time the Camellia in front of it and the Magnolia to the side , have all grown so much bigger than it was only seen through the window of the gazebo and actually catching the scent was rare.

We decided that we'd move it to the new bed by these panels and it was a good job we did, as it was only a couple of thin straggly stems fighting it's way to the sky! So we have chanced moving it and cut it back and hope it will survive. Paul's also used some of the parts he cut off, although there was not much, to try and get some new plants from. We are crossing our fingers that the original will survive and thrive in it's new home and that at least a couple of the cuttings take because the rose is no longer available.

We then had the idea to put some of the bearded Iris's we had left when he did away with the central Iris bed in the flower garden. So Paul planted these along between the roses.

So hopefully we will have a lovely display of roses and irises in a year or so.

TO KEEP OR NOT TO KEEP, TO ADD OR NOT?

 

We have been looking at what was the formal garden , when it had a box parterre, then became the pond garden when these were removed when they got box blight and to save work in the future.

We considered removing the pond and putting in a lovely stone urn on a plight, to be filled with flowers for the spring summer months and one was nearly ordered. Then we decided to think again and what about trying the pond with a centre fountain statue? 

To that end we used the now redundant plinth in the water and stood a small statue we had in the front garden of a girl carrying a bowl of water.

I do like the look of her on the pond, it's a shame she is not a water feature but a solid statue.

She's is the right sort of height , if we decide to try and find something suitable.

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Typically, we have seen one or two we've liked but not round to buying one before the were sold.

So for  now the little girl will stay on the pond, while we think and search for something to replace her.

VENUS RISING

 No not in the night sky but in the garden.

We had our statue of Venus standing on a small plinth on the right of the bench in the pond garden.

However if you look at the statue in this photo and the one above you can see by the trellis that she is standing on the slant. This is due to the roots of the Wisteria that is planted on that side of the garden just behind her. 

First we considered finding some way of covering the roots , so that she'd be back up straight again but then we decided that maybe she could move to another place in the garden.

A few places were considered and we thought we'd try her up on the raised bed in amongst the ferns and palms first.

We liked how she looked up in the 'woody' area.

Paul cut the leaf off that was sitting on her shoulder.

Being there , it allows us to also be able to see her from the back, when walking to and from the greenhouse. 

 So she will stay in her new raised area for now and see how it goes. We how have a small plinth available since if we'd used it with her she would have been way too high up.

We also have plans to change up the pond garden over the summer. Always evolving.

ONE OR TWO GARDEN ITEMS

 

This is the first proper statue we bought over thirty give years ago at least. Venus came along with us from our old house.

David was bought a good few years later but still over twenty five plus years ago.

Neptune is around twenty five years old and once was knocked off the wall ! I couldn't look as I was so worried he was broken but he managed somehow to survive undamaged.

Igor here used to sit in our front garden at our last house, which was on a main road into the town of Hertford, he faced the front wall. A lady who worked in a shop in the town told me she always said Hello to him as she passed by on her way to work and missed seeing him when we moved.

Our two other gargoyles have also come with us from our last house and are over 30 plus year old, we bought them we were visiting my sister in Littlehampton, at a garden centre a few miles away from her house.

They sit either side of what we call the Cloisters, due to the rectory paving and the medieval style statues that are around. Starting with these tow.

Above them on the wooden framed entrance are some church bosses, we bought back from our holidays in Cornwall many years ago ,

Big fan's of our country's long and varied history, we like nothing more than wandering around some old castle, abbey or country house and if we can bring back a little something then we do.

The boss and the next one , are either side of the entrance from the cloisters into what is now the pond garden.

Because these items are quite small they usually vanish into the background when the roses are climbing up the posts.

On the gated archway leading out of the flower garden into the magnolia garden by the house are these two very small bosses.

This little devil fell off a good few years back and smacked his nose and fingers but managed to save his pint! naturally ;)

This wall planter was bought around the same time as Neptune from the same garden nursery in Enfield.

If I tell you we had to ask the people we bought this house from if we could send our garden items on ahead and luckily they agreed, so a full sized removal van was filled from front to back with our pots, statues, bikes, garden benches etc and arrived on the Wednesday with us following the next Monday !

Niamh we bought when we arrived here from some money that Paul's elderly Mum gave us. We travelled to Wells, in Somerset to a reclamation yard to buy her, travelling there and back in a day. She sat on the corner of the pond we built on the patio and only moved when the folly was built and a base was bought for her.

This lamb and flag we first on the wall under our front porch but removed it when we extended into the porch. It was then lost for a few years, you know the thing put somewhere for safe keeping ! The we suddenly found it, so it was put here.

This roof finial belongs on the Lych gate roof but was knock from it's place by the branch of our big Bramley apple tree, during a storm, a few years back ! But fortunately it must have slid down the roof  and come to rest on some wooden trellis we had in place across the bog garden to the side. It's now been waiting a good few years to get put back in place.

We have just reduced the side of the apple tree and so getting this back up, it's very heavy, will be a job for this year.

When we decided to build another wall to the folly, it gave us the opportunity to add a couple of wall items by the same maker who'd made Nimah all those years ago and they were delivered, so no all day trip to somerset!  This is Edward the first, Long Shanks 

and his wife Eleanor of Castile 

Which did set us off on a little buying spree of other items by this maker Marcus of Tudor Gate.

So either side of the Lych Gate is this one Dark Pan and the other side

Bucca boo a Cornish spirit. I have to say this one I was not sure about he was only one big enough to balance against Dark Pan. I won't say he's grown on me but I'm used to him now.

And we were able to buy Guinevere, who we had wanted at the same time as Nimah but could not afford both. 

So after all that, we stopped and luckily the garden is long enough and broken up enough that it doesn't look full of 'things'.

Over the years, we have bought or had given to us, Greenmen , which my husband loves. These are all on his workshop that is The Cloisters area of the garden.

another

This one is metal and the nose lifts to use like a door knocker.

We have had a few others over the years but they have not survived being outside .

A brass plate of a brass rubbing of a medieval tomb, that on the folly wall.

There are probably a couple more small items about and it's only having deciding to take some photos as I walked about seeing more of the items that are usually hidden by foliage.