Tuesday 19 April 2016

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.

01 Rock Garden from Kitchen Window

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

03 Beatrice in 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.

04 Aubretia in Rock Garden

More of the new plants in the rock garden.

05 Flowers in 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.

06 Up the Garden 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).

07 Flowers in Mum's Patio

08 Tulips in Mum's Patio

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.

09 Primrose Bank

Beatrice basking in the sun on top of the outhouse.

10 Beatrice on Outhouse Roof

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.

11 Bay Tree and Primroses Above Outhouse

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!!

12 Rhubarb

Looking down on Beatrice on the outhouse roof.

13 Beatrice on 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.

14 Photinia Red Robin Hedge

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.

15 Garage Wall with Sweet Peas

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

16 Apple Tree Sprouting

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

17 Phoebe Sunning Herself

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!

18 Flowering Shrubs Above Rock Garden

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.

5 comments:

  1. Nothing like gardening to show lovely rewards for the effort.Congrats to hubby for his work.That yellow bush is one we have in front of our front door(our door is on the side of the house).It is a native broom bush.Gorgeous in Spring!!I'll send you a pic of it when I fin it! Very cheery garden.Love Beatrice finding the warmest spot!@

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  2. Gorgeous! I love the rock garden. I love everything. We have 2 apple blossom trees. They have already budded and are so pretty this year. I love apple blossoms. I love Beatrice & Phoebe. They are so pretty. I can tell they are very loved and spoiled. I have a big fat Siamese cat who is in love with my yard. My cats can not go outside until I secure our yard better since we are near the street. I would be devastated if I lost them. Thank you for sharing your garden. I love garden photos. Your husband did such a beautiful job. I keep looking at the pictures. Thank you for yesterday's post again about Narrow Boat Painting. I found the book on Ebay for a great price. I was so happy because I live in the USA so I thought it was going to be very expensive. I bought the book last night after I read your post. I can't wait to get it.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your lovely comment, Aiyana. I am so glad you enjoyed your virtual visit to our garden! Beatrice and Phoebe are now getting on in years a bit (15 and 12 respectively) and both have health problems but you are right - they are loved and spoiled!! Our babies! Both had sisters that were killed on the road outside our old house - it was devastating. We do our best to keep ours in the garden.

      I am so thrilled that my post about the narrow boat painting sparked you into buying a book on it!! This is so encouraging and lovely. I am sure you will do some beautiful work. I did some practising today (I've just uploaded the blog post about it) and it wasn't that brilliant but I will get it right in the end! I need to experiment and practise some more before I paint on the boxes.

      I see you have a blog profile but I can't access the blog itself. I hope there is a way I can visit and comment, and see what you get up to!!

      Shoshi

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  3. Spring has definitely sprung in my part of the country too! The kitties have found all the sunny places! My hubby is the gardener in my family as well. I can do simple things like water the flowers, but I'm not very good at the real stuff. I'd rather have paint on my hands than dirt. Lovely photos of your little heaven on earth Shoshi and a matching poem!

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  4. I love how private your garden is . . . your own secret garden. It is easy to see why your cat loves being out there . . . that's where I would be, too :)
    Have a lovely week.
    Connie :)

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