Through the garden gate--February

 The garden is starting to wake up, little clumps of bulbs and primroses are flowering in the borders. Crocus, daffodils and cyclamen which I planted last year are looking bright and colourful.

There are some lovely blue pulmonaria flowering now, they are always early and bring some welcome colour to the garden at this time of year. I brought these from my old garden and they have taken well to their new home.

Last year I planted 50 snowdrops in the green and planted them around the garden. But 50 snowdrops doesn't go very far. So this year I ordered 100 and I have planted them all in one place, under a big weigela in the front garden. This should give me a better display. It's a shame that I have to wait until next year to see the result. 

I've started tidying the borders, cutting back the dead flower foliage which I had left over the winter for the wildlife. February is a bit too early to start disturbing the soil as the new plant growth is just starting to come through and I didn't want to damage anything. I'm still trying to remember which plants are in there as it was all newly planted up last year and I don't always label my plants.  As I worked my way around the beds I was doing a bit of planning as some of the plants were planted in the wrong place last year and will need to be moved. That's a job for March when everything has grown a bit more.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Our new garden project 6--sorting out the bottom border

 Since we moved into our new house last year and started working on the garden our problems have been always about the drainage. Here at the top of the town many of the houses around suffer from the same problems as us in their gardens. The water runs down the fields and through our gardens, which are of clay soil. We had a really wet winter and often as I walked around I could see other gardens with the same problems as ours--puddles of water everywhere.

We sorted out one part of the garden with a raised seating area and raised beds, but the bottom borders were still causing a problem. When it rained the water collected down at the bottom. Richard had put drains in, but we still had the water there. We have had a really wet winter and every time it rained we saw the rain was collecting in a big puddle at the bottom of the garden. 

The bottom of the garden last year 

Richard is not one to be defeated and he spent a lot of time making plans for this part of the garden. I had thought I would quite like to have a path around the lawn. This was a good idea as when the lawn was wet it just became a muddy mess, so to have a path to walk on would make things easier. It would stop the lawn getting messed up when tending the borders. Early in the year when walking across the lawn, I slipped on the wet grass and went flat on my back, injuring my ankle. It was not a good idea to walk on the wet grass. 

Richard came up with a plan to raise the level at the bottom of the garden with sleepers and make a path with a gravel base and then topped with slate chippings to match the seating area and also to raise the lawn slightly down at the bottom end.

Making a start, levelling and raising up the front of the border

 I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about his plans to start with. I thought they were--well, big plans and hoped he could cope with the work involved.

The path starting to take shape

Richard doesn't always have a proper plan to work from, he tends to work things out as he goes along and I'm always told 'Don't worry, it will be fine'. As he worked on the project I could gradually see how his plans were working.

First layer of gravel on the path

Slate chippings in place and the lawn re levelled

The turf arrives

Laying the turf

I worked on the planting schemes in the bottom border thinking about the wet soil. So the plants were all those which would be happy growing in damp conditions. There is also a bit of shade from the fence so that was considered too. The border had been planted in the autumn with a rowan tree, a twisted willow, a cornus and a physocarpus. In between these I planted astilbe, ligularia, grasses which liked wet conditions, marsh marigold, hardy geraniums, trollius, iris, candelabra primula, and spring bulbs to name a few. It's quite a long border so there was plenty of space to fill. I had brought some of the plants as cuttings from the bog garden at the allotment. 

All that work was done earlier this year, now it's finished and we are into summer. We are in a hot spell. We haven't had any proper rain for weeks so we can't tell if raising the level of the garden has worked. The border is looking lovely and we often sit admiring it. Plants are coming into flower daily and it is a joy to see.

A bit of TLC

 

Last weekend I decided to give the garden a bit of love and attention. It's been neglected recently in favour of our new allotment.  But I felt I needed to have some time with it, to enjoy it's beauty before plants went over and  also to do some much needed work.

I pulled up weeds, hoed, cut back hardy geraniums, deadheaded. It was very quiet, I got lost in my own thoughts as I worked and the garden seemed to wrap itself around me.

I also noticed things. I looked at the borders where I have been trying to achieve some colour effects. These haven't all gone to plan but they looked good anyway.

This was a new border last year and has filled out really well. The astilbe have put on a good show this year. The colours in this border are pink, blue and purple with splashes of yellow from foliage like the grasses and heuchera.

This border looks a bit of a jumble of plants.  It's known as 'Phyllis's border' and was newly rearranged this year after we had the big conifer cut down. Things seem to be growing better here now, but I may need to tame it a bit.

This is what I call the 'yellow border'-- you may wonder why. Originally I wanted it to have a yellow theme because most of my garden borders have a lot of pink in them. So I planted yellow plants, then I allowed some orange in. I thought it needed a contrasting colour so I planted some blue which does work quite well. At the moment the dominating colour is the red of the crocosmia lucifer. Pink is not allowed in this border. I think I need to work on the yellow/orange theme a bit more.

I enjoyed my time in the garden, giving it the love it deserved.  I think it gave me a lot of love back.