Six on Saturday 11/7/2020

I’m continuing last week’s Six on Saturday with a set of shots to introduce my garden to the others who are already part of this group, hosted by https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/

Last Saturday, I showed photographs of what we call “The Back Garden” though it is mainly to the side of the house. Today I will begin in the front garden – two small lawns – and continue to the other side and then to the back and hope it will give you a good overall impression of the garden.

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  Front Garden – two lawns

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  Round Lawn

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  Square Lawn

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  Square Lawn

Above is the front garden, the original garden which went with the house, as most else was added about twenty years ago. This area was started in 1987, originally one lawn but broken up to give interest later. It is a general mix of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials and, I suppose, what strikes me most looking at the photographs is how much those trees and shrubs have grown over the years and how they change conditions in the garden, adding shade and drying out areas very considerably. There is a small path beside the arbour in the lower photograph which leads to an area under the trees, very good for spring interest, and then out into the lane – next photograph.

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  The Lane

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  The Ash Trees Bed

The lane is 50/60 metres long and came about in an unusual way. Our neighbours lived in this house before us. They farm the land around us. When we bought the house from them, they held on to the lane to give access to the fields behind the house. Over the years, farm machinery became bigger and bigger and could no longer turn in from the road into the lane so when we purchased extra ground for the garden from them about twenty years ago, the lane was included and became part of the garden. We kept the layout and planted the right hand side. It is an area I like very much especially in spring when there is a ribbon of snowdrops running top to bottom on both sides. The Lane continues to become The Ash Trees Bed – simply because there is a line of ash trees on the boundary ditch. The vegetable patch is to the right.

The Vegetable Patch (The Ash Trees Bed is off to the right with the lane running off down from it)

This has been a particularly good year for the vegetable patch. I think we have simply given it more attention and have enjoyed the vegetables from it all the more. At the moment, we are taking lettuce, scallions, mange-tout and sugar-snap peas most days. We had a brilliant supply of asparagus earlier and a glut of strawberries at present. We have started using potatoes – British Queens – and runner and French beans are in flower. Good spinach and courgettes as well at present. Loganberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, plums and pears to follow later.

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This is the view at the moment from where I am sitting as I write. There is a retaining wall a few metres back from the rear of the house, a small flight of steps and a pond surrounded by dieramas. Above is an open area of grass, yew hedges and a Gingko biloba at the top of the garden.

Off to the right, from this grass area, is the White Garden, Shade Garden etc as shown last week. I hope you have enjoyed the “tour” of the garden.