Since we built the pergola walkway in November 2017, we’ve had mixed success with the plants we’ve used to cover it. It’s pleasing that the range of plants that are there now, consisting of ivies, clematis, and evergreen jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) seem to be happy enough and are starting to cover the structure nicely. We went on a narrow boat
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In November our order of crab apple trees ‘Evereste‘ arrived. They came bare root via the post so we had to soak them prior to planting. We ordered 12 so we could plant 3 around each quarter of the wall – the picture below gives you an impression. We chose this variety since they are disease resistant and the blossom
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In September I began studying a RHS horticultural qualification at Merrist Wood college – here’s a link to my programme. We visited Wisley and particularly enjoyed the tropical garden; I really liked the contrasting foliage textures and colour combinations. I was particularly pleased with Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen‘ which we planted into the back of the mixed border in spring- the
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May must be one of my favourite months in the garden. I’m sad before it’s even over knowing I have to wait another year to see the garden adopt its fresh green foliage. As I discussed in last months post, we finally finished the dry stone wall and in May we launched in to digging the paths and central
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I took some annual leave in the run up to Christmas and made a conscious effort to not become totally sedentary – I recently got a fitness watch so wanted to see if I could maintain some semblance of fitness. I decided that walking would be our activity of choice and we went on quite a few decent ambles in
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I forgot to mention in last month’s post that we installed a bird box that Luke made from scratch (he got the build instructions from the RSPB). The guidance suggests that you put these up towards the end of winter; however, they also say that some birds will use these to roost in during the colder months so we thought
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In reflection of the things we’ve done in the garden this year, I’ve gotten so much pleasure from the hanging baskets we planted back in April. Every time we leave the house (especially in the mornings before the commute) I look at them and they’ve changed and grown so much over the months. I particularly enjoy the red tinge the
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At the beginning of September we visited the north Cotswolds on our honeymoon. The main attraction was to visit the garden at Hidcote and it didn’t disappoint! Since watching a programme on this garden a few years ago we’ve always wanted to go – it’s an incredible place with so many garden rooms crammed into a relatively small place.
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On August 25th Luke and I got married! Unfortunately the sweet peas ‘Jilly‘ which I planted as seeds back in January were a little past it. However, all was not lost as we had a glut of sunflowers ‘Micro Sun‘ and also from another multi-headed variety that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of. We picked the wedding flowers ourselves from a
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We’ve had an unseasonably hot few months in the garden – July 2018 has been one of the hottest since records began (second only to 2006); this means that the garden is lovely to walk around late in the evening…but far too hot for midday toiling! As such we haven’t really ‘done’ that much in the garden this month although
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