SMALL GARDEN VIDEO TOUR - W. YORKS, 850FT ABOVE SEA LEVEL

In 2009 I moved to where I live now and my small garden was a blank page, just grass and a couple of neighbours' encroaching shrubs.  I love that, being able to create a garden entirely of my own making with no permanent fixtures. My garden constantly changes over the years and I like that. Unfortunately, plants that I had years ago might not still exist. Today I took a short video of my garden and I will point out below what plants are shown as it progresses with links to posts where applicable.

My Garden 05 May 2026

You can hear the wind, even though it is not strong today, making noise on the video, for which I apologise.  At least we can hear the birds singing too.

At the beginning of the video you can see my 17 year old Ragdoll cat, Alfie, in his favourite hot spot.  Above him is one of four hanging basket planted on an east-facing wall with a Gold Edger hosta which is virtually maintenance free and behind him in a small pot is Acer palmatum 'Orange Dream'.  

On the path are the flowers of the dwarf lilac Syringa 'Red Pixie' which I grow as a multi-stem tree so that the Braun's Holly Fern (Polystichum braunii) below it has room to spread out. I have three ferns in a row, bordering my garden's bottom patio. At the same time you can also see the coral barked Acer palmatum 'Sango-Kaku' (00:09) and alongside that Acer shirasawanum 'Moonrise' (00:13). Slightly behind that, to the right, is a Polystichum setiferum 'Proliferum' fern which meets the bottom of the lawn.

The video then sweeps up my south-facing border to show Acer palmatum 'Katsura', behind it clematis 'Dr Ruppel' and the dwarf 'James Grieve apple tree' which has clusters of tiny apples right now with the promise of full sized apples by late August/September. In front of the apple tree and lining the lawn are a few perennials which I planted this year - Campanula persicifolia 'Takion' in blue and white, Armeria pseudarmeria 'Dreameria - Sweet Dreams', Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue', and Heuchera 'Licorice' which has been growing there for many years, it is so reliable. Right next to the white Takion is Polemonium 'Bressingham Purple' but you can only just see its foliage although it is in full flower right now.  It is hidden in the video by the apple tree and neighbouring plants.

The video then moves down across the small lawn, which is looking pretty perfect right now after overseeding, feeding, and a spell of rain. to a Polystichum polyblepharum fern (00:33) planted at the bottom next to the patio in the north-facing border. Hostas 'Patriot' and 'Reverse Patriot' are grown in pots on the patio in an effort to at least try to keep pests off them. 

The video then heads eastward. At 00:42 you can just spot a pink and a blue geranium being used as ground cover. Then we see Hydrangea paniculata 'White Lady', (00:43) and Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation', over a steel bird-feeding station which I cut down to size and now use as a hanging basket hanger.  It is presently displaying four baskets of trailing Pelargonium 'Temprano - Amethyst' (00:48). Then we can see at ground level a clump of chives in full flower - pollinators love them.  Then there is a metal obelisk stuck in the border in the hope of growing sweet peas up them. I never have a great deal of luck with sweet peas but I do keep trying.  Then there is Acer shirasawanum 'Jordan' with its glorious mop of yellow leaves being grown as a multi-stem tree in the same way I am growing Acer palmatum 'Katsura'. Right behind Jordan you can see a couple of Wildeve rose. This rose is loosely tied to the fence but otherwise pretty much left to do its thing.  Right next to it, unseen in the video, is the rose New Dawn.

At the top centre of the lawn is a small border which is packed with perennials and a Philadelphus 'Snowbelle' (00:53), loaded with white flowers and which has really put on a show this year after the poor performance of the last couple of years. It smells divine.  At the back of the top border is Acer palmatum 'Osakazuki' which got a bit leaf scorched when it first arrived but I am hoping it will settle down.  It's grown in a plastic pot within a larger heavyweight terracotta pot on an eight-wheel plant caddy.  

In front of Osakazuki are three large terracotta pots each holding acidantheras/Abyssian gladioli, and two large terracotta pots holding Iris siberica (Siberian Iris) which are just coming into flower.  You can just see one open. The corms have created beautiful long leaves right now and the flowers will arrive later this summer.  The the left of the image you can see an Agapanthus africanus 'Summer Love' (01:03), an evergreen plant which is not quite hardy, grown in a plastic pot inside a large Long Tom terracotta pot grown against my garden room. In cold months I take this particular type of agapanthus into the garden room for protection.  

In front of 'Summer Love' you can just see the blue flowers of Lithodora diffusa 'Heavenly Blue', such a fantastic little plant which is evergreen and has been known, in my garden at least, to flower in winter! The yellow flowers are Potentilla megalantha. The carnation-like flowers are the RHS AGM awarded Devon Heritage dianthuses or Cottage Pinks: in the middle is Dianthus 'Valda Wyatt', to the right with just one flower showing is the white/pale pink of Dianthus 'Cranmere Pool' and another at the left that is mid-pink and I have mislaid its name, sorry. If I find it, I will add it here. Among those is a Convolvulus cneorum - RHS link which has the RHS AGM but is a big swamped at the moment but it is alive and well and about to flower yet again. The red flower that you can just see is Potentilla atrosanguinea 'Scarlet Starlit'. 

As the camera sweeps left again, just to the left of the Long Tom holding the agapanthus is another agapanthus, this one a deciduous one which is a little more hardy called Twister.  Behind the temporarily redundant bird feeding table is Thalictrum aquilegifolium (01:14), also known as Meadow Rue, and behind that, would you believe, some raspberry canes called either Glen Ample or Glen Doll, and then back to Dr Ruppel. Almost hidden behind the feeding table, in front of Dr Ruppel and in the shade of Katsura is the last addition to my Japanese acer family, Acer palmatum Beni-Maiku (01:20) planted in a plastic pot within a very special Monachou terracotta pot. 

The video sweeps to the right again at at 01:32 you can see the Iris Sibirica flower previously mentioned. At 01:35, right at the top of the image, you can just see a pink flower. That is a young, compact clematis called Mrs N. Thompson.  

Clematis 'Mrs N. Thompson'

Lastly, very much deserving a mention, is Dicentra formosa (01:46)which performs beautifully every spring displaying strong pink flowers that last for ages but it is the foliage which I like the most.  The video swings past the honeysuckle, Loncera periclymenum 'Scentsation' and that is it.  Hope you find this fun and informative.