Summer

Our Cottage Garden

Summer

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Cheeky landscaping!.

The willow tunnel is now making an impact. However it needed to be longer and we extended it in 2008. At first moment the door was too prominent and I wanted you to come upon it rather than it be so in your face. It has since been painted black and looks much better. I have added plastic mirrors behind the holes in the door which we found in a local reclamation yard and believe was at one time a pantry door. The under gardener has treated the wood and then painted it before attaching it to the fence. We have allowed the hedge to grow around to "bury it" a little more and I have planted some evergreen ivy which you cannot see in this picture but in time will also hang across the door. My favourite book as a child was "the secret garden." This trick with the door I did at our last home, most successfully and in time I think this will work well here too. The tunnel was put here to encourage people to walk at the back of these long borders towards the "long walk" and this it has done.

The hand rail was added for the NGS day.

We are both very pleased with this hand rail. It was quite a challenge to get the posts into the ground because as you might imagine we kept hitting tree roots and so the posts kept twisting. I have not been so cold as I was the day we spent putting this up. What we thought would be quite simple took about three hours. Coach bolts saved the day when the hand rail was attached but because of the differing thickness of the down posts we had to keep running to the shops for bigger and bigger bolts. The right side of the rail is the "Fern Bank" which we have planted. It is in it's infancy here but now coming along very nicely.

An old friend pays a visit.

This wonderful car paid us a visit summer, 2007. It was brought here by a very good friend, who owns it. The under gardener and I used this car many years ago on our wedding day. The car has not changed a bit!

A late afternoon of rare sunshine, June 2007

The woodland garden on a perfect English summers day.

Yes that is a chimney pot you can see sticking out of the ground just before the bench. There is another one a little further on too. They were given to me by my sister when she was having the roof of her home replaced and the chimneys needed to be replaced too. A talking point I think, and if you were worried, yes she does know I have taken them!

This is a Dobie's favourite part of the garden for bunny hunting!

Just to the right of where the Dobie is standing we have built a hedgehog house out of logs and placed turfs on top as a "thatched" roof. This little house is of great interest to a Doberman as Bunny's live here too. In 2010 Cupid has taken up residence, he is a reindeer but not a real one you understand!

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Wednesday the 18th of June 2007. A rare relatively dry day after overnight and early morning rain. The light is excellent and an opportunity to add pictures that really look like summer. Little did we know of the rain to come. The lupins seen here would be dashed to the ground within 24 hours and it just broke my heart. However they have come up again just like everything else. Looking at this picture now I cannot believe how much this border has grown!

The very first "summer page" picture early June.

I call this the long walk. This year the view from here will be very different now that we have lost the tree but though very sad I look upon this as an opportunity to do a little re-designing of this part of the garden.

The new tree.

This is me doing my Vita impression.

Here we are planting up the new tree. Snow Queen will make a fine replacement to a much loved and now lost tree. We had the stump removed from the previous tree however it was still a lengthy process to get the new tree into position. We are looking forward to many years with this lovely tree.

The next generation of gardeners?

My sister's twins on a sunny day in early August. If they take to gardening they will be the fourth generation for whom this is a very special thing to do. I have bought them gardening tools and the greenhouse is one of their favourite haunts. All I need to do now is to stop the over watering of plants that goes on when let loose with watering cans!

The new, small bed at the west end of the cottage, July 2007

This was the first year of this planting of this bed and we were quite pleased with the result. There has been a tree here long ago and after it was removed a large dip appeared in the ground which no one ever got to grips with. Rather than build it up I thought that putting the bed in was a better idea and this little bit of lawn was not making any kind of statement. Also when viewed from the drive this bed adds to the enhancement of the series of terraces on which the garden is built.

For the third year running we entereded "The best garden in Shropshire" competition. We felt that getting through to the final was a very good achievement, however there are many aspects of the garden that are not "finished" and this held us back. In 2008, we achieved 3rd place and plans are in hand to "polish" aspects of the garden and try again, however the competition has now been suspended indefinitely but that will not stop us from trying to improve the garden.