Garden Diary 28th February 2006

Weather: Sunny but cold AM with a northerly wind. PM Cloudier with snow showers from 1600hrs. Maximum Daytine temperature: 8.8c; Minimum Daytime temperature: -0.8c;

In Flower: See posting for 27th February.

Observations: So much for it being 1st of March tomorrow. We are still firmly in the grips of winter, with no end in sight as yet. Managed to get into the garden this afternoon and had the bizarre experience of gardening in the snow! So many jobs to do yet so far the weather has allowed precious few to be done. Will let you know later in the week what i have managed to do in the garden this week.

Garden Tour Part 3

The Terrace

Once a sloping lawn, this area was landscaped in the winter of 2002/3 to create a level seating area and a place for displaying pots and containers. The surrounding beds are planted in a 'mediteranean' style suited to the hot sunny conditions this area receives in summer. The first picture shows the area in July 2005

The second picture shows the same area in late autumn (November 2005)

Garden Diary

Garden Diary 27/02/2006

Weather: Cold and overcast. Dry with light breeze. Max temperature: 5.3c Minimum recorded daytime temperature: 2.5c.

In flower: Erica carnea, Erica darleyensis, Jasminium nudiflorum, Galanthus nivalis, Crocus, Helleborus foetidus, Primula vulgaris. Plus the odd flower on Hebe 'Great Orme', Cerinthe and pansies (Viola cvs). 2 Helleborus x hybridus (orientalis) flowers in bud.

Jobs Done: N/A

Jobs to Do: N/A

Garden Tour Part 2

Main Lawn and Borders

This is the very heart of the rear garden and has evolved over a number of years into what you see here (with the lawn growing smaller each time!)
The top photo shows the area in its prime in early July 2005



The second photo shows the area in early October 2005, looking almost as good i am sure you'll agree.

Garden Diary 27/02/2006

Weather: Cold and overcast. Dry with light breeze. Max temperature: 5.3c Minimum recorded daytime temperature: 2.5c.

In flower: Erica carnea, Erica darleyensis, Jasminium nudiflorum, Galanthus nivalis, Crocus, Helleborus foetidus, Primula vulgaris. Plus the odd flower on Hebe 'Great Orme', Cerinthe and pansies (Viola cvs). 2 Helleborus x hybridus (orientalis) flowers in bud.

Jobs Done: N/A

Jobs to Do: N/A

Garden Tour Part 1A

The Front Garden

The first picture shows the 'Driveway Border'. Little more than a small lawn witha tiny border by the fence when we first moved here, In the autumn of 2003 I removed the lawn and turned it into one big border. It has since been planted with a box hedge at the front and seasonal interest shrubs in behind. In front of the box hedge are planted daffodils for spring colour.
Once entirely covered by lawn. The main part of the front garden has had borders added in recent years to give interest. The soil here is poor and the southerly aspect make the garden hot and dry in summer. I have reflected this in the planting, concentrating on sun lovers and drought tollerant plants.

Garden Tour Part 1

The Patio

The first area you come to in the rear garden, this is the largest truly flat space the garden has. It is here we have most of our summer containers (shown in the first photo) and where a lot of work is done, be it DIY , potting up or taking cuttings etc.
The second photo gives an idea of how large the area is and what it looks like in winter.

Introduction

Hello

This is my first posting in my new blog. I have never done a 'blog' before so this is a new experience for me.

I am a keen gardener an in this blog i hope to share some of my gardening experiences through the seasons, hopefully with some photos too. At present though weather conditions are too cold to do any gardening so the log proper will not start until conditions improve. In the meantime I will offer some background and some thoughts on future plans.

Firstly some info on my garden. It is approximately 100 feet long and slopes uphill away from the house. The soil is chalk based but with some clay thanks to clay subsoil. The garden faces south east and is dominated by 9 very large pine trees at the top which cast some shade and create amini woodland area at the top of the garden.

The garden is divided into areas or 'rooms' with a flat patio area by the house, then moving up through a lawned area with traditional borders, a mediterranean terrace, large fruit and veg area incorporating a small greenhouse and finaly the woodland area under the trees and a utility area for compost bins etc. Recently a new 'wet' garden incorporating a bog garden and pond (still under construction as i write this) has been added between the patio and the main lawn area.

Now for a little history.

The house and garden are around 40 years old and owned for 20 of those years by my grandparents. When we inherited the property in 1996 we decided to move here and after some renovation work to the house moved in in May 1997. The garden itself was another matter. After around 10 years of neglect it was decidedly overgrown and in need of a 'masterplan'. Rather than be daunted i saw this as a challenge. After an inital clearance phase which included many trips to the local tip, I set about turing it into a pleasant place to be in. This is a process that is still going on.

I am now well into what i call the 'third phase', the 'design' phase of the garden's development. As my knowledge has grown I have sought to make the garden more than just 'neat and tidy' and am trying to bring a more unified, designed look to the space. As they say a garden is never 'finished'. There are always bits that could be improved and made nicer.

Finaly a few words on my gardening style. I suppose i am quite tradtional. I like plants and have a very 'planty' garden. That said am not adverse to new ideas and like to experiment from time to time to see if there is a better way of doing something. In time i may share some of these in this blog.

Well thats it for now, i think i have said more than enough for one posting! Hopefully next time i may have some gardening to talk about, but if not maybe I'll tell you a bit more about myself or maybe something about future plans in the garden. Who knows?

Bye for now!