Landscaping done - just need to do some planting now

The new garden

Some more photos

End of day 2

It rained and poured all morning. About 1.30 the gardeners had to go home as they were unable to do anything because of the weather. The lawn was turning into a mud bath. About thirty minutes after they left the sun came out - and its quite nice now.

The soggy patch in the lawn is still a problem even though a lot of water is running into flower beds. The gardener is going to put in some gravel on Monday to help with the drainage.

And I so need to remove that big bit of concrete by the lavender. It really sticks out now!

day 2

We were really lucky with the weather yesterday. Not so today; its been really drizzly. Its REALLY muddy. The lawn is taking a battering.

I can't stop looking out of the window at the garden as it takes shape though. The new camera arrived first thing and the battery is just charging. How impressive is that from Amazon though - less than 24 hours from ordering to delivery. Slightly better than the xmas parcel that took over two months! Hope I'm not making them nervous out there - every time I look out they look up!

The gardener has moved some of the bushes around and found a pear tree. Its started sprouting some leaves so cant be moved until next winter. It was hiding between two bushes down on the right. He thinks it might have been there for 8 or 9 years. It is only very little though - about 60cm tall - so its not grown because it was being hidden.

Photos to follow..

end of day 1

Its taking shape

My work computer is a bit quicker and I can't resist temptation to tell you how it is going - well.

The soggy patch in lawn has drained into new flower beds which have now been shaped. The big plant that hung over the path is going to go at back where the xmas tree hole is. Two pretty little bushes that are hidden under a bush can be brought forward. The ash trees that are sprouting every where will be removed.

The gardeners showed interest in my old pictures of the garden and told me what was weed and what wasn't. The cute little seedlings were actualy new ash trees so they are getting pulled out. Two unidentified flowers are forget-me-knots.

And a new 8 mega pixle camera is ordered and arriving tomorrow.
Happy days.

Very Over Excited

The concrete is now in a skip in front of the house - yeah!

The slates have arrived and they are lovely

The shape of the flower beds has been marked out and started to be dug

A big tree has been removed which has given us more space at light at the end of the garden

I'm working by the window that looks out over the garden and I'm finding it VERY HARD to do any work

And I can't get the camera to work - I should have just ordered that new fancy one last weekend

James the gardener

Is coming tomorrow. How exciting. Camera still on holiday so can't take any before and after shots. Boo. Hopefully it will work long enough to take some pics over next few days.
Dreaming of my lovely slate stepping stones and big flower beds.....

Easter weekend

It snowed all weekend and i didn't make it into the garden except to feed the birds.

No pics as my camera (which is on its last legs) is skiing at moment. Hopefully I'll get a nice shiny new camera soon. If Mr L approves it. I was trying out my dads at the weekend - it will take some lovely flower pics..

kew

A lovely day in Kew. We went to see the spring bulbs. I really liked the magnolia trees as well. The sculptures are Henry Moore.

16th March

Yesterday I planted some fuchsias that arrived as plugs into little pots. They are three different hardy species - four of each plant.

There is quite a lot in the plant house now - but its only 1 degree warmer than being outside. I put the fuchsias in here.

I also sowed some salad and chives. These are on the window sill in teh spare room. The sweet peas I sowed last year which are in pots in the spare room are practically dead but the ones I sowed earlier this year are doing well.

Its been raining all weekend. The flood patch in the lawn has come back.

I've included a couple of pictures from the back door which show where we pulled up the crazy paving. Not entirely sure what we'll do here...

Not just yellow but pink, purple and blue as well

As well as the daffodils some pink and blue bulbs are now showing their head.

After the amusing row of gladioli bulbs I had last summer I really have been trying to plant bulbs in clumps as opposed to lines. Doesn't look like I did a very good job with either these crocuses or the hyacinths. The crocus are really pretty though.

The crocuses that had come out before last weekend all took a real hit at the weekend. It was very wet, then very cold and then very windy. I had a really pretty container of crocuses outside the front door. I went away for the weekend and when i came back they had all gone limp and looked like ex-crocuses.

The wind has been really bad over the last two days and I've been fearing for all my new plants. Especially the clematis and the honeysuckle. I went for a little look today and nothing has blown over except the fire. There was one daffodil casualty but I used that as an excuse to pick a small bunch for the house.

The newspaper had a 50 most influential bloggers list in it this weekend - I was so disappointed to not be there - surely there are 10,000 people out there hanging onto my every gardening word.. oh maybe not...

I'm now writing each blog like it is my last. Both the camera and the computer are on their last legs.... We will be updating the camera soon and hopefully I'll get one which is especially good at taking wildlife and nature photos.

Fern Garden

Today in the back bed I planted:
3 holly fern
1 fatsia Japonica
2 snakes head fritillary
1 perwinkle vinca minor
7 gladoli Albus bulbs
1 American sword fern
1 dryopliens affins (golden male fern)
3 Asplenium Scolopendruim (harts tounge) fern
1 Athynium filix - femina fern
1 Clementis snow queen
1 Lonicora Japonica Helliona (honeysukle)

They all went in with lots of home made compost, grit and a bag of manure. A few new shoots that were coming up were a little crushed in the process but not all. Now I just have to keep off that bed and give it lots of water.

There were even some Robins in the garden keeping me company today.

The rest of the garden is looking awash with the yellow of daffodils.

1st March

I had a bonfire today to burn all the spiky twigs we cut off last weekend. I had to retie the protective green netting at the back as the wind this week had pulled it off. It now has about 50 ties in it so hopefully will hold. It really does get very windy on that back bed.





I planted 30 lily of the valley from T&M and some that came free from a gardeners world offer. The ones from T&M had really long roots and i wasn't sure if they could go in sideways or whether they needed to go straight down. I also wasn't sure if the crowns were meant to still be under the soil or whether I should plant them poking up a bit. In the end most went totally under the soil. I also planted some snowdrops in the green by the Clementius pergola.





The first little blue wood anemone has come up and another snowdrop that was planted as a pip.

The ferns I ordered for the back bed came this week. I've got 3 Asplenium Scolopendrium (hearts tongue), 1 Athyrium filix-femina, 1 Dryopteris affins (Golden Male Fern) and 1 polystichum munitum. The last three should all grow to about 3ft. I don't know how long it will take them to do that though.

The ferns that I planted last October are 3 Buckler Ferns and 2 soft shield ferns. They should all grow to about half a meter high. They are also meant to grow half a meter wide which means I've planted them to close together. I guess I'll worry about that when they've grown a bit.

I've also got a clementis and a honeysuckle to grow up the back fence.

I put quite a lot of home made compost on the back bed but didn't get time to plant the ferns. I'll do that tomorrow. Lots of Daffs have come out now plus 10 tulips (Banja Luka) near the house.