Gardening Joys

There's something about getting the earth in my fingers, the freshness of plants, their resilience, their wonderful structures and colours and just being outside working with nature, listening to the birdsong that is really comforting. It is also very rewarding.

The garden comes before decorating the house for me, not least because I am a bit of a plant-a-holic. There are certain plants that I get such pleasure from that I'm even tempted to buy them whenever I see them, even though I  can and do dividing and distribute the ones I've got.


I like overgrown plots as I see them as a blank canvas and the pictures are of my present garden.  It's somewhat smaller than my first garden but the soil is quite sandy, free draining and plants love it. Plants that struggled in my old garden go beserk in this one.

As I like the shade in the summer, it was important to include some trees, and although (like quite s few of my plants) the snake-bark maple is a bit big for this garden I couldn't resist. In addition ther is a plum tree (right), and dwarf cherry tree (left, the fruit are excellent for jam) and 2 espalaier apple trees (apples trees have to come in pairs for fertilisation otherwise you get no fruit, and you need to check what varieties with be a match). I have a cox and a stella which are tied to the fence and pruned to keep them flat.

Gardening Websites
www.garden.org/
www.rhs.org.uk/
www.gardenweb.com/
www.organicgardeningguru.com/

Five Useful Gardening Books
Right Plant, Right Place - Nicola Ferguson
Good Plant Guide - RHS
The Gardening Year - Lance Hattatt
Garden Problem Solver - Pippa Greenwood
The Ultimate Garden Designer - Tim Newbury

Some of my favourite plants: Acanthus Spinosus, Geum Rivale, Lavender Hidcote, Ballota, Digitalis (Foxglove), Veronica Gentianoides and Rosa Intrigue, Eryngium Tripartitum, Salvia (Sage) Icterina, Paeonia (Peony) Sarah Bernhardt, Choisya Ternata, Nigella (Love in a Mist) Miss Jekyll, Dicentra Spectabilis 'Alba', Lilium (Lily) Regale, Allium 'Globemaster', Delpinium 'Cassius', Kniphofia 'Little Maid', Itea Ilicifolia, Hosta Francee, Geranium Ballerina, Ajuga Retans 'Burgundy Glow', Thymus 'Silver Queen'.

TIPS FOR GARDEN DESIGN

1. Think in terms of height, contrasting foliage, texture and colour. 
2. Think in terms of what flowers in what season. The easiest way to do this is to see what's in flower every 3 months at a garden centre.
3. If you want to stick with just one colour, it works better with little splashes of something that compliments or contrasts with it so that the main colour really comes into it's own. 
4. To me a good garden centre is one where you can order whatever plant want and one that will give you advice on anything from what soils suit which plant to how to treat disease ridden plants.