Tuesday 1 May 2007

The garden beckons

The sun has been shining for days now so the time has come to venture into the garden and try to do something creative with it. We only have a small garden, typical of a terraced house but I think it could be lovely. Only 3 weeks ago it was a compete tip, all the grass had gone and it was full of broken toys (no pics unfortunately so I can't do the garden makeover before and after shots!)
Then a man came with wheelbarrow loads of topsoil and rolls of turf and transformed it in a day. Okay, we're not quite ready for Chelsea yet but believe me it's a vast improvement....

Now all I need to do is add some plants. I've been and made a few purchases but to be quite honest I'm clueless when it comes to plants. I mean I watch Gardener's World but that's mainly so I can admire Monty's big hands! You can just see some of the perennials I've planted, they're not looking too thrilling at the moment, but I have great hopes. Any tips for great plants would be gratefully received. My problem is that I'm just too impatient and gardening is one of those things that takes time. So I'm trying to train myself into not going out there every five minute to see if anything has grown yet.


More successful have been my meagre selection of pots, here's a peek.........





I think auriculas are one of my favourite flowers. This little one had been ignored all year but when I moved it to it's new spot it suddenly gave me all these gorgeous flowers. I will be nuturing it from now on!



Geraniums are another favourite so I can't wait for these little lovelies to blossom.



Does anybody know what these are? I bought them years ago from a garden centre and they have flowered faithfully year on year but I don't have a clue what they are. (Note the space hopper in the background, sort of spoils the effect!)

Finally I have planted a few pots of various salad leaves. I'm always totally over excited when anything sprouts, I come over all evangelical and drag the children over to see my efforts. Needless to say they're a bit nonplussed about the tiny seedlings, but I love them!


I had a bit of time today whilst Kitty slept to firstly sit in the garden and read my new books, hence I now have minor sunburn - why do I never learn? I also managed to make a new cover for my car boot deckchair so I now have somewhere to laze on those hazy summer afternoons, glass of Pimm's in hand (who am I kidding?).


Don't you just love the feeling that summer is on it's way?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have bee busy, I always think a nice wall is a lovely background to a border, the flowers on your plant look like hellebores but the leaves don't and it's quite late for them so maybe not? I've had to create a garden from scratch twice now and the first year I seemed to spend a small fortune and it still look empty but the next year perrenials are great at all getting so much bigger - very satisfying! I know what you mean about Monty's big hands but I have to say I miss Alan Titchmarsh (not so appealing in the hands department) but I could so imagine wandering around my garden discussing it with Alan - Monty would distract me!

Anonymous said...

Hi Julia

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Have you thought of growing the scented geraniums? The flowers are not as showy, but the scents are gorgeous - rose geranium, apple, cinnamon, mint, chocolate-mint....the list goes on! Take a look at www.Richters.com (Canadian site, but it will give you some inspiration and you can probably find most of them locally). Not only do they smell nice, but you can use the leaves in potpourris and for flavouring preserves.

As for the sunburn, try aloe vera gel and use about a tablespoon of gel - add a few drops of lavender and spread it on the burn...smells great and lavender is healing and helps you sleep. Keep the aloe vera in the fridge and it will also be cooling for the sunburn....I was going to put this tip on my blog, but you get a sneak preview :)

Marie x

Suzie Sews At DOTTY RED said...

The garden looks great, as for that wall! Beautiful. I am all for the geraniums that Marie suggested. They are a great plant, need little attention and pretty much instant impact, you could always buy a few cheap trays of flowering plants to splatter through the bedding for instant impact until your other plants get more established it also helps to keep your interest going in the garden. Have fun, Gardening is such great therapy for the soul! Us Moms need that.
Suzie Sews