Time for a break

We've both been out in the garden so much recently which normally would have been the best thing int he world but I feel we've both gone a little stir crazy, holed up here just digging and getting stones out of the ground. However, I walked around the garden today and realised how much we've done in just over a year. Yes, we've thrown quite a lot of money at it but we've also worked very hard. The ground is heavy with stones and pebbles, the clay soil needs sand digging into it and not every plant is responding to the love I've lavished on it but for the most part it's repaying me tenfold. The buds of the roses are fat and promising, the alliums are bursting forth with a firework-like globe of tiny heads and an early foxglove is nodding it's delight at being out in the sunshine.

For now we'll be taking a short break and will let the garden do the talking.

Wedded to the garden!

We had to sit down and watch the wedding of course (didn't she look regal?). Between the ceremony and the balcony appearance we popped out for a coffee and were amazed how many other people were out. The sales assistant told us it had only just got so busy and that all the staff watched the wedding in the rest room as the entire place was empty.
Once the wedding was over we did what we always seem to do - dig the garden! I've planted up some lavender in front of the greenhouse and finished digging over the back section behind the chicken run whilst Luke carried on sieving his vegetable plot (he now has three huge bags of pebbles that he's extracted from the bottom section alone). It may not have been sunny in London but it was boiling down with us in Wales. Plenty of cups of tea came to our aid - how very British!

Typing in the sun.

How nice to be able to sit outdoors and write about the garden whilst actually in it.

A happy compromise.

So, having spent over sixty pounds (it is still painful to write that!) I can't justify paying more money for a bird bath. I planted up the new purchases with enough room for them to grow in the coming months and then I put the old chimney pot in the centre. It's not perfect but it's okay for now and when I've got over the shock of spending so much in one go I'll order that more delicate bird bath.

Although it's recommended that you plant three or five of the same types that would have been too expensive. So, this is what I've planted up:
1 Emewrus Cleopatra (apricot-cream)
2 Delphiniums Magic Fountains - Sky Blue (which is blue and lemon)
1 Veronica Ulster Blue Dwarf (purple-blue)
2 Delphininium Galahad (white)
1 Centaurea Amethyst in Snow (purple and white)
1 Arenaria Montana - (white)
1 Heuchera - Strawberry Candy (pink)
1 Meconopsis beronicifolia - Himilayan blue poppy
1 Veronica Gentianodes - Tissington White
3 alliums (purple)
Seeds of Larkspur & Nigella Perisan Jewels (both theseare in pastel pink, blue and white)

In the monochrome border I planted some Bunny Tails ( a small grass which looks like, well, bunny tails!)
and Aconitum Spark's variety (it's a deep purple colour to contrast with the Album Aconitum).


I also added an Artemisia Powys Castle in one of the other borders.

It's been a nice if expensive day. I always indulge the hens too and I expect them to dig up all the seeds I've just planted.

This has got to stop!

Right, confession time we have been to the garden centre and I have thrown caution to the wind. Sixty quid spent in an hour - it takes days to earn that amount and there I go blowing it in less time than it takes to think, "let's just check how much money there is in the bank and then think about spending". Yikes!
Anyway, the damage is done and I'm not too unhappy about it (although I still haven't plucked up the courage to see if my wages have covered this latest indulgence.
I've also found a pretty lead birdbath for the focal point but that will have to wait - I can't spend any more this week!
Here I am, surrounded by my pots.

I've decided to dot a couple of them around as of course I have bought more with my eyes than with any thought to the space they are to go into. I'm going for a pink, blue and white front which will hopefully blend into blue, lemon and white before the clashing colours of the original top corner of the border which is purple and orange. I know, I can hear the shrieks from here but I'm hoping it will work if I smudge the lines between each colour change and blend them in to one another. We'll have to wait till the summer before knowing if it's worked or is a disaster. The great thing about disasters in the garden though are that they can quite easily be corrected by digging and repositioning.

A new space.

This is one of the reasons why I go to work. When I have time on my hands I like to be doing something and as the weather is showing no signs of breaking I've decided to “make hay whilst the sun shines” and dig up another part of the border.I started expanding the plot but Luke will be hands on with this project from now on.

As I can't do anything else in the newly expanded vegetable plot (it's Luke patch) I decided to make a more interesting shape in the long border. The garden isn't really big enough to divide into two gardens without losing the feeling of space and as I've only ever had tiny squares or narrow strips of gardens before it's still a luxury to be able to move the hammock and chairs to different points in the garden but I would like to create a slightly hidden area that can't be seen from every angle. Chancing upon a 'secret garden' is the stuff of fairy tales and I'm craving a circular sunken garden, maybe with a carpet of moss on which to lie and read a book in peace, unseen by neighbours.. I'm not going to be digging up a great circle of earth so as a compromise I have merely dug out around the base of the Acer, halfway up the long border. This will only obscure the top corner of the garden from sight when in the conservatory but as you move over to the left it will reveal itself. So, it's nowhere near a hidden garden, just a little hide and seek moment really but for now it will give me something to do.

Having used some rope to see what shape looks best from all angles.

I felt really mean whilst digging it up as every so often I'd hit a root from the Acer. To allow me to plant freely in that area I've taken some roots up but the tree is established enough I hope to allow these few casualties. Of course, three little chickens were behind me as I turned over the soil, scratching for the worms I'd dug back in. Because of the tree the soil is very depleted of nutrients and was literally just baked clay and tiny threads of root matter so I've added Luke's mix of sharp (not building) sand and soil improver although the verbascums I toyed with planting there to create an overblown riot of flowers prefer poor soil. I know that when I get to the garden centre though I'll be seduced by something else all together although for now a sweep of the same flowers, swaying in the breeze is what I am wanting. I've got to remember that the climbing rose around the Acer needs some room too so if I do put tall verbascums there this year I may dig them up and replant later in the season.

So, this is the last time the hens will be able to sit here.

I also need some sort of decorative feature just off centre of the new area too. Something with a bit of height so as not to get dwarfed by the tree yet nothing too showy. I'd like a pewter Victorian bird bath with a shallow bowl and a slender stand but I think this is going to be too pricey. I'll look on the Internet to see if there is anything similar.

So, now the ground work is done it's the fun bit of filling in the empty space – like a form of colouring in. More money spent but hopefully it will pay for itself in enjoyment throughout the summer months. That's the plan anyway.