Our Garden in April 2016

Today is such a lovely sunny day and things are looking so nice in the garden that I thought I’d take some photos.

All my hubby’s tremendous hard work is paying off. The rock garden is looking lovely and everything in the garden is starting to spout, gr0w and blossom. Wherever we’ve lived before we’ve had a larger garden, and he has been working full-time as well, so any time he had for gardening was taken up with maintenance and keeping the weeds at bay, and it is wonderful to see him now, so enjoying making our small garden into something special, and having time to be a bit more creative. So as you enjoy the following photos, remember that it is all my hubby’s hard work!

We recently had the cloudy kitchen window replaced with a nice new one, and for the first time I an see the rock garden in all its glory from the correct angle! Unfortunately the water feature doesn’t show up terribly well in photos but it’s there! It sounds lovely, too.

Beatrice enjoying the warmth of the rocks in the rock garden.

One of the little plants we bought recently. These are growing nicely, and have started flowering. Eventually they will cascade over the wall and fill the patio with colour.

More of the new plants in the rock garden.

Looking up the steps to the upper garden, to the left of the rock garden. You can see the outhouse at the bottom, and the garage at the top, and a lovely flowering shrub by the steps.

To the left of the steps, further along the back of the house, you come to Mum’s little patio. We have got gorgeous tulips out (and more to come in another trough).

Separating her patio from the upper garden is a grassy bank. There are quite a few primroses growing in this, and after they have finished flowering, my hubby is going to move some more down from by the garage, and maybe split some of the plants that are already there. Eventually it will be a whole primrose bank. There are also some ferns and other little plants growing amongst the grass, and along the top we’ve got a few lavender plants, which we hope will eventually become a lavender hedge.

Beatrice basking in the sun on top of the outhouse.

At the top of the steps. between the top of the rock garden and the garage, is a flatter bit with a bay tree (on the left in the photo - severely cut back – I was worried I’d have no leaves for my cooking this year but it’s sprouting again, and will be a nice rounded shape instead of the vast great tree it was!) and quite a lot of primroses. You don’t see these if you aren’t actually up there, so we are going to transplant some of these to the primrose bank. You can see the outhouse roof below.

A little bit further on, beyond the bay tree, we’ve got some rhubarb growing. This will be its second year and we hope for a good crop this year. The compost heaps are beyond. Phoebe likes sleeping in the compost heap!!

Looking down on Beatrice on the outhouse roof.

At the top of the steps. alongside the lawn, is a hedge of Photinia Red Robin, a gorgeous shrub whose new leaves are a glorious red colour.

On the other side of the path, against the garage wall, my hubby has put some recycled trellis that he got for nothing, and in the troughs underneath he’s planted some sweet peas. They are not tall enough yet to reach the trellis and he’s put in some little sticks for them to climb up, as a bridge so they can reach the trellis. They are still quite small, but starting to grow. You can see the apple tree on the left. We had a huge crop last year and they were delicious. In the corner beyond, we’ve got late raspberry canes, and again we had a good crop last year.

The apple tree has started to sprout! Soon it will be covered with apple blossom.

Here is Phoebe sunning herself and rolling around on the concrete path between the two patios – her favourite place on a sunny day!

Finally, a view of the fence to the right of the rock garden, showing the flowering shrubs in our garden and next door. We are quite pleased that that neighbour doesn’t clip his shrubs back because we get the benefit of them!

Later on, when I’ve finished painting the little flower boxes, I’ll take some more photos, to include the summer house and the other side of the garden.

You can see that we have a very pretty garden, and in the next few years as the new plants mature and grow, it is going to get better and better.

I am reminded of the beautiful little verse from the poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney:

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God’s heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.