Garden Time (at long last)

The Yucca, the not wife. the Yew and her weeding. Also some painting needed

Now the Late Spring Bank Holiday weekend is here it is high time I got my finger out and joined the not-wife in doing the garden chores. By our standards it was a cold, dry winter and as a result things were late to get going. However, Mother Nature is like a coiled spring and as soon as it started warming up the garden blasted into life. That means the grass needs cutting and there is a fair bit of weeding to do.

Warts and all but the grass looks worse than it really is

Our garden is not large (about 30 something metres long by about 4 metres wide) but we were lucky that the previous owners were keen gardeners and had an eye for the unusual. The main framework was therefore already in place with a range of quite large shrubs and trees including a Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) a large Photinia and to my great delight a Tibetan Tree Peony that is now over 3m tall (Paeonia lutea var. ludlowii)

Tumbling Ted (Saponaria ocymoides)

We have added our own plants including a monstrous Cardoon, Several Echinops (the Globe Thistle), a Cephalaria Giganticum (basically a scabious on steroids) and, to remind me of my many holidays in South West Ireland as many hardy fuchsias as I can find space for. In addition we have many self seeded foxgloves and teasels.

Felis hirsuta var. robyn

We tend to use smaller perennials as filler plants and a few easy to grow annuals. The emphasis is on a lot of green, and attractive, but not overly showy blooms. Our planting also reflects our wish to attract butterflies, bees and other friendly insects and being mindful that we live in one of the driest parts of the UK, we try to choose plants that require little watering. We do not use pesticides or weed killers.