ONCE UPON A TIME GARDEN

Once upon a time in days long ago I had a much bigger garden.  Not vast, but certainly much bigger than the one I have now.  When I moved into the house, the garden was a jungle.  The weeds were so high they hid the fact that felled small trees were in there; as well as a smashed up greenhouse with broken panes of glass; and cans, garbage, and garden waste kindly donated by neighbouring houses.  The weeds hid the fact that buried alongside the privet hedge was a bathroom suite.  I discovered that one day when I was cutting the hedge with a 24" blade electric hedgecutter and found that I was bouncing.  Yes, bouncing.  I turned off the blade and investigated.  I'd been standing on rusting heavy gauge wire mesh laid over the top of a buried bath filled with water.  The weeds and grass had woven across the mesh, concealing the bath and the water.  It took weeks to clear the weeds, the rubbish, and the glass.  It took 2 years for the garden to be anything like I wanted:



Corner of garden before pond and after.  I built and excavated the 8ft x 6ft pond and laid the surround myself.  The sandstone paving was brought in from a local quarry and I left spaces so I could grow little plants there.   If you click on the photos you will get a close look.  Press Esc to go back to the website. 



 

 

 

 

Things that climb and hang on walls and pergolas.  The white climber is Clematis montana albans.  The bottom two photographs show fuchsias in baskets hanging from a pergola.

  



 

 

Roses (always roses).  Shrub roses, climbers and ramblers.

 



 

 

 

Albertine

 

Herbaceous and annuals too:

 

 

 

And not forgetting trees and shrubs: