Some welcome shade at the allotment

Having overhanging trees on the allotment is not what everyone wants and I have often complained about it, wishing we could have them cut down. But during this spell of hot weather the shade they provide has been quite welcome.

It has been too hot to work in the garden, so one day we escaped to the allotment to do some work under the big sycamore tree. We call this area the woodland garden. We can't grow anything here because of the tree, the slope and all the roots in the soil. When the grandchildren were younger it was their den. We now have a sitting area and a bug hotel there and use some of the space for storage. There are also a couple of little flower beds where I grow woodland and shade loving plants.

It was all very dry looking, a lot of the elder and privet needed cutting back and the weeds were beginning to take over.

It was a little cooler working under the tree and by the time we had cut every thing back we could actually see the sky.

I'd  thought I would get some wood chippings to cover the ground when we'd finished, but lucky for us we didn't need to buy any as someone dumped a big pile of them for the allotment holders to help themselves to. It looks much better now. I left our grandson's old den there, I couldn't get in there myself but I rather like it.

   

Through the garden gate

This week I am joining with Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly garden slot--'Through the Garden Gate'. In this slot you are invited through the gate into my garden.

This is the gate which leads out of my garden, but I thought I would show it to you as I rather like this view. Of course the photo  was taken in the summer, but it's good to remind myself in the dreary winter months when there's not much colour in the garden that things do get better.

As we move through February and into March I am now looking forward to new growth in the garden. I am also thinking about new projects and plans I have for this year.

It's taken me a few weeks but I have finally finished clearing the borders of all the dead plant material in both the front and back gardens. The work never ends though, I'm sure in a week or two I will be starting again with the weeding. As I worked in the borders I noticed areas which needed re planning, some of them I have been thinking about for a while and am not sure what to do about them.  They keep getting put off each year.

In the front garden there is a bed where at the end of last year we removed a couple of very old and tired looking hydrangeas and lots of crocosmias. Crocosmias are really difficult to get rid off so I know they will keep reappearing . But I now have a big space in this bed and I'm wondering what to plant there.

At the moment I am enjoying the spots of colour coming from the tete a tete daffodils, but as I look around I can see other flowers just starting to open up. There's pulmonaria, anemone blanda and vinca-- lots of blue. Also there's a euphorbia with yellow bracts providing a bit of brightness in the shady areas. The back garden has a lot of shade and I have to work with that and just see what will grow. Spring  is usually a good time for these areas, before the trees get into full leaf.

cyclamen and snowdrops in a shady spot

Here's another gate in my garden. it leads into what we call the woodland garden.  There's only one tree, a lime tree but it's big and so the area gets very shady in the summer.  I've got three white foxgloves  to plant which a gardening friend grew from seed.  I think they will look lovely in the woodland garden later in the year.  In the meantime the daffodils and crocus are looking good.

Secret garden

I often talk about our woodland garden. It sounds a bit grand to have a woodland garden, but mine is nothing like that. It's just an attempt at a little woodland space.  There's only one tree in it, a massive lime, but there are other trees around in neighbours' gardens which all help to create the shade.

The woodland garden was created a few years ago when my husband had the idea of doing something with a small, unused and very rough area at the top end of the garden.  The area is elevated looking down onto the drive and garage. There had been a compost bin beyond the tree, a very rickety fence and a sloping boggy path leading to the compost bin, all a bit treacherous at times.We decided to move the compost bin and have a new composting area in another part of the garden. This provided us with lots of lovely compost to use to improve the soil in the woodland area. Richard made a new fence, and because it is a sloping site, a stepped wooden boardwalk type of path running alongside it.

I loved planting up the border, which was surprisingly quite large. I planted shade loving plants taken from cuttings in other parts of the garden and I  looked around the garden centres for woodland plants. The area gets some sunshine for part of the day. Early in the year spring bulbs do very well, snowdrops, crocus, daffodils followed by primroses and bluebells. Later on dicentras, hardy geraniums, Solomon's seal and aquilegia bring in some colour. From about July onwards, when the trees are in full leaf the woodland garden becomes less colourful and more shady and the ferns take over the show.

As the garden has developed it has become not just a woodland garden but a secret garden.  It's hidden away at the top of the main garden, accessed through a little gate. We put the gate there to stop the grandchildren from getting in when they were younger as we were worried they would try to climb over the fence onto the garage roof. They can now open the gate themselves and there's no stopping them, they love going down into that secret place.

I often visit other gardens and if there is a woodland area I like to get ideas for planting.  But I've noticed that 'proper' woodland gardens are very shady and are often left to nature.  Mine is very full of shade loving garden plants. I wonder if I have gone overboard with the planting.  One day I might redo the border, if I ever have the time. But for now I quite like it as it is.

Spring garden

We have a little tiny border at the side of our drive which at this time of year starts to burst into life. I call it the spring garden because it looks its best in the spring. There is a laburnum tree in the centre of it. It's on a bank and it's difficult to grow very much there. It's a shady spot, I tend to let whatever will grow just enjoy being there. A few years ago in an effort to improve the border I planted cyclamen, tete a tete daffodils, snowdrops, muscari, primroses. For later on I planted bluebells and aquilegia.  I've tried growing other plants for later on in the year but nothing seems to grow.  Once the laburnum comes into full leaf and flower the whole bed becomes shady and not much else will grow there.  So I enjoy it while I can, in the spring.  It's a place to stop and stare and take in those lovely spring colours as we pass by for a moment.

Phyllis's garden

I've been working on a problem bit of the garden recently. This little area of the garden was for years regarded by our cat Phyllis as her spot. That was one problem, the other was the dry shade. The dryness was caused by a massive conifer taking the moisture from the soil.. The result was that there were a few plants which struggled to grow there and for most of the time the border looked dull and lifeless with a lot of gaps where nothing would grow. Whenever I tried to plant any new plants Phyllis would look most offended and either lie on them or poo around them.

Well sadly, Phyllis is no longer with us and I shed many tears at the time but I decided that I needed to brighten up this little spot in the garden. The first step was to get rid of the conifer and we did this earlier this year.

I thought long and hard about planting schemes, poured over gardening books and magazines, visited garden centres and nurseries and still remained undecided about what to plant. The area has sun for the early part of the day and the plants which seem to do best are those which flower in the spring and early summer. After that time it becomes a fairly dark looking area. I wanted some plants which would look good during the summer as well as the spring, even if they were foliage rather than flowers.

At first I was going to dig everything up and start again, but some of the plants were doing quite well and I always like to leave  plants which are happy to grow as long as they don't take over. Some plants I've just moved around to better positions, others I have been able to split up and spread around more.

At the back of the border are Solomon's Seal and Centaurea (perennial cornflower). In the middle are some Marguerite daisies and a  blue hardy Geranium. There is also some yellow Lysimachia punctata which seems fairly happy. Aquilegia self seeds itself around as does Honesty. These were all in the original border and were growing quite well. In the spring are Snowdrops, Tete a Tete daffodils and Grape Hyacinth.

When we were having the conifer cut down I dug up some Brunnera and Heuchera which would have got trampled on by the tree man.  I managed to split them into several plants and I've now replanted these at the front of the border. There are 2 varieties of Brunnera, a plain leaved one and  'Jack Frost' which has silvery leaves. The Heuchera is a purple leaved variety. Further back I have planted Tellima and pink Astrantia and a Polemonium (Jacob's ladder). Two new recently acquired plants are a lovely purpley blue Lathyrus and a yellow leaved grass, called Millum Effusum Aureum. I managed to split the grass into 3 plants when I took it out of the pot. The label says it likes shade so I have high hopes for it.  At the base of the stump of the conifer is Gallium Ordoratum (sweet woodruff) which has white flowers and looks lovely when it is in flower but is inclined to take over so needs to be kept in check.

The finished result doesn't look too bad.  And I'm pleased that most of the plants I've put in this new border are from cuttings taken from my own garden.

I'm now looking forward to the plants filling out and hoping that it will be a much more interesting and colourful border. Phyllis may not be around now to give us her opinion of the border but we still think of it as her garden.