Getting On

I've been away on and off since Easter, and it's taken a while to get back into the groove. It's funny how home centred this blog is. But it's the garden that has focussed me as usual, and what changes I've both made and planned! The warm weather has caused the weeds to flourish, and it's been back-breaking work trying to subdue them. Val has returned, and true to her name she valiantly attacked one bed with the fork, refusing to give up until she made it to the end. In her absence I've done the rest, and I'm really beginning to feel my age. I've still managed to keep it up all day, but I sit down more than I used to. Mowing the lawn after a day's hoeing was a killer in the hot sun, especially struggling up the slope when the box was full of grass cuttings. This morning Ruth and I went off to see a chap who grows fields of perennials and sells them for £1.50 each. Beautiful specimens they are too, so I loaded the car with delphiniums, lupins and phlox, plus two of something I can't identify. The trouble is that Adrian is dyslexic and so doesn't write anything on the pots. A few years ago he showed me how to identify colours by the leaves, but I'm not that good at it and he wasn't there. His mum is lovely, but she doesn't know either. So it's all a bit pot luck, no pun intended. With the beds cleared they can all go in at last, and so my garden will continue to take shape. I have 15 dahlias to plant when the risk of frost has gone, and seeds to sow when I've created a seed bed. I want it all to happen now, but really there's no rush.

Monty Don pot with layered tulips, irises and daffodils

My new project is to be a pond, and maybe a rill! The pond will be quite large, and planted to encourage wildlife. The rill idea is a way of breaking up the huge expanse of lawn. It would start in a small pool outside the French windows, and meander down to the bottom. Wide and shallow, it would be lined with big stones, and a pump would feed the water around. I think it would need to be in three stages so that the water wouldn't just empty out. I'm having a few quotes done, but I know it will cost a fortune. So maybe just a pond, we'll see.

Mowing the lawn makes such a difference

The blue and white perennial bed, waiting to be planted

Another view

Front garden

Front weeded and levelled at last

Who'd a thought this was on such a steep hill?

This evening I settled down in the summerhouse with a beer while the sun poured in, unhampered now the hedge is so much lower. With the lawn mown, the beds clear and the birds singing their heads off all around me, it was surprisingly lovely despite the lack of flowers. I just imagine how pretty it will in a few months, and my heart sings with the birds.