27 May 2006

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.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stop writing about the garden and get out and do some weeding you lazy sod!

jams o donnell said...

Yes mistress!

Agnes said...

She-who-must-be-obeyed is way too polite. I would have used ...hmmm...harsher terms. Like "move your...."

jams o donnell said...

You are quite right Red. I get off quite lightly methinks

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I'm turning green with envy at your greenery, Jams. Here in South Texas, summer means finding drought resistant/heat resistant plants. It's scorching hot. I have a few garden pictures on flickr too.

jams o donnell said...

Surprisingly enough the South East of England is a lot drier than one would expect (although it doesn't feel like that right now as it has been chucking it down for the last week!)so we do need to bear in mind what we plant.

Having said that I wouldn't compare it to the gardening conditions you will face but I am sure you can find attractive plants to grow

? said...

Beautiful!

Sorry for tagging you.

Anonymous said...

Was catching up with your posts, scrolling from the bottom up, and for a moment thought that the origin of HIV was in your garden. Was relieved though to discover that this wasn't the case, as far as we know.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Okay Percy Thrower, I don't bandy around the acronym, "LOL", lightly, but your comment made me bust out laughing.

Jams, some of my garden pictures are on flickr if you click the time stamp on my last comment. Gaw, how link inept I am.

jams o donnell said...

Thanks obokun..No worries about the taggin, I have paid it forward!

jams o donnell said...

Ah Percy, methinks you have seen the garden in an earlier guise when it really could have been a "hot zone" , although formerly my neighbour's garden was more likely to have been a crucible for nasties!

jams o donnell said...

THanks for the pics elasticwaistbandlady! Hey the kids look like they are fearsome spork wielders remind me never to get on their bad side!!!