28.05. Job done!

Yes, the job is done! I have finished the garden next door! Well, finished as in planted the last plant and painted the last panel, but the job is barely started of course, now I need to take care of the garden too :-) But that is a rather different kind of job and a more relaxing job too. At least if we can get an evenly spread out amount of rain the next 3 months. We have had a bit of rain the last week, but it amounts to so little, when it is just a drizzle for a couple of hours.

So here is the garden next door, isn’t it looking great? It will change a lot over the summer; many of the plants will grow quite a bit. And over the next 5 years or so the beds will fill in nicely and cover most of the bark, and the plants on the edge will start to hang over the edge. In 10-15 years time, some of the plants will even have to be removed, as it will be a bit too overcrowded for some of the plants, although some of them don’t mind living close to their neighbour :-) Click on each photo to get a larger version, click your browser back button to get back here.

Oh, would you like to see what I started with? This is what the garden looked like before I started any work! A mix of ivy, brambles and bluebell bulbs. My main reason for doing up this garden was to clear it and keep it tidy to prevent the foxes from coming back here yet another year. Last year they did so much damage to my garden, digging up my flowerbeds and digging a tunnel under the fence from my garden through to this garden. But it was because they had a safe place to sleep in this garden that they stayed on here I think, using this garden as a bedroom and my garden as their living room and playroom! But no more of that, thank you very much, and it has worked! I haven’t seen a fox since late February! 10 points to me, nil to the foxes!! Another reason for taking on all this work was of course that I was fed up looking at this jungle next door, and my garden is 10 years old and quite established; if I want to plant something new, I will have to take something else out. Having a whole new garden, a totally blank canvas to play with has been so fun and exciting. The owner of the house has paid for all the material,  and has also provided help to carry all the heavy stuff into the garden, as there is no access from the back; everything has to be carried through the house.

Some of the plants are in full flower already; this is a pretty rose which I don’t know the name of. I got it as a freebee last year from one of the companies I order plants from online. It was labelled with a name and was supposed to be strongly scented and light pink. Being bright red that was obviously not correct, and consequently the name was not correct either. I have therefore no idea what this rose is called. It is pretty, but has no scent. The aphids like it though…so it has just got the same ‘weapons of pest destruction’ treatment as the roses in my garden.

This is a nice Hydrangea which also is in full flower. At the moment it is about 40 cm tall, but give it 5 years and it will be 1.5 meter tall, the same height as the fence behind it, and the same width. Hydrangea are great plants for shady sides of the garden, and the flowers stay on the plant right into the winter and look great even if they are faded a bit.

And now to my own garden and to one of my new lilies. This is a very dark red one, which my camera doesn’t do fully justice. It is actually darker red than this picture shows. The lilies are called ‘Blackout’, and have a lovely dark red colour, almost like red wine. Unfortunately, this is not a scented lily, it would have been even better if it had a wonderful scent, but I bought this one for the colour mainly. I do have other lilies which are scented too, but not in such a spectacular colour.

Here is one up-close where you can see the details better. I bought 4 of these lilies, and all 4 have come up with 7-8 flowers, so it is quite a spectacular sight right now! And the best bit? They will continue to come up, every year, over and over again, bigger and bigger every year! That’s what most of these wonderful lilies do :-)

Right, that’s it for tonight I am afraid, this week has been so busy, I simply didn’t have any energy to sit down and write in the evening. Hopefully next week will be a bit better, and I hope I might be able to make a film from the garden next door during next week. No promises, but let’s see what I can get done. Until next time, take care.