Next month we will have been
in this house 13 years. We have never changed the basic layout of the
garden. I'm not sure if it was one of the previous occupants or the
original housebuilder who put in the walled patio area but we've
certainly never thought to change it all. The purple campanula runs
its way around the wall year after year without any care or
attention. I know we didn't plant it but it has crept into the garden
somehow.
The two hydrangeas are the
only surviving plants from when we first moved in. Everything seems
very late this year and the white hydrangeas are still tight in bud.
After the heads have dried I wait all the way until the last frost of
the year has past to cut them off but that's all I do with it.
We have cut things down;
most notably the conifers that blocked out the morning sunshine and
refused to allow anything to grow underneath it. On this side of the
garden we put in a couple of scrubs in the place of the conifers but
these got too big. After hacking some off of them a little Welsh
Poppy came out of hiding. I'm seen several of these in the local area
and our neighbour has one in his garden. How long it had been there I
don't know but it was very nice surprise to find it.
On the other side of the
lawn we planted many years ago a ceanothus. It was only small when we
bought it and we liked the fact that it was evergreen. It didn't stay
small for long and it grew and grew to the extent it has stopping my
'whirly gig' washing line from going round so that got the chop as
well. In its place I put some edible currant plants and the
strawberries have run wild over the patch. Joining the strawberries
are the aquilegias. They're just after their best now but there will
be more next year as the seed pods will soon burst and spread in the
wind. They make great free plants and an easy way to fill gaps in the
borders but once germinated can be tough to pull up.
Last November I wrote about
the flowers
that were still blooming. One of them was the potted geraniums.
Well three of them never blackened despite the snow so I left them on
the patio and now they have bloomed again.
My favourite find this year
in the back garden is this fabulous foxglove. Under the shade of the
Golden Spirit tree at the end of the garden I spotted something
growing but didn't think it looked like the leaves of the usual
weeds. Once it developed I could see the buds were one of a foxglove.
I thought the flowers were going to be yellow but once they opened
they turned out to be white with purple spots.
In the front garden a couple
of years ago a heuchera appeared in the ground covering conifer. Then
last year another heuchera of the same deep plum colour turned up
under the bench on the patio. I thought it was wasted there so I
moved it into the front garden where as you can see it is thriving.
It looks like it will be joined by a third heuchera as under the
bench in the same spot this year yet another heuchera has grown. I've
seen these in the local garden centres priced at £6.99 each but yet
I seem to be breeding them without any effort.
An old-fashioned garden
favourite is antirrhinums. I can't remember when the first ones
turned up in the front garden but each year somewhere in the front
garden at least one antirrhinum will grow. I showed my son why they
were commonly called 'Snap dragons' but he was deeply unimpressed.
Before last year I had a
garden free of valerian but now it is trying to creep into every nook
and cranny possible. One of the spots it took residence in last year
was the front bed. It pushed other well established plants out of the
way with its woody base which was hard work to dig up. The flowers on
this one are pink but around the neighbourhood, in gardens, by the
side of road and growing out of walls there are varieties in a much
deeper pink and white. When these flowers die off they will turn into
tufts like candyfloss, full of seeds ready to be carried on the wind
to grow somewhere new next year.
Do you have any flowers in
your garden that you didn't plant?
I'd say about half of the plants and flowers in my garden are inherited from the previous owners, so there are quite a few that I probably wouldn't have chosen myself but they're lovely, so I've kept most of them. I'm still waiting for my foxgloves to flower, yours are way ahead!
ReplyDeleteYour garden flowers are looking gorgeous. We just moved into our home this Spring and it's been rather exciting watching so many different flowers spring up every week. The hydrangeas, however, haven't started blooming yet but I'm hopeful they will soon.
ReplyDeletesuch a lovely well stocked garden and by the sounds of it, low maintenance which ticks all the boxes for me
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are looking so lovely - it's so great when plants make their home in your garden without you doing anything isn't it. We haven't been as lucky as you but always have lots of foxgloves and hollyhocks appearing that we didn't plant, and rather randomly a clump of lemon balm appeared in a border last year, it smelled lovely but is part of the mint family and very invasive so it had to go. Everything is very late to bloom in the Midlands too this year, it's all starting to catch up at last though.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking fantastic - and how nice to have all those nice things you didn't plant :) Quite a few of my favourites in there. There was nothing at all in our garden when we moved here so we haven't had any nice surprises, although I have spotted some wild strawberries growing in our neighbours garden. I hope they trail across the path and root in ours!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Our front garden has so many pops of colour which we never planted, I do so enjoy seeing what the wind has gifted us.
ReplyDelete