Update

To say I feel like a rusty old bike that has been sitting in a shed for a few years is an understatement, but as a few of you have asked for an update here goes.
So my last post was about putting in a pond, well that was done and it is lovely. Very hard work to achieve of course and anyone who has tried digging a pond in rocky land will understand where I am coming from, but I achieved it after a lot of back breaking days and was very gratified when within 2 days of completion a frog moved in. It was almost like she had been hanging around the garden waiting for me to make her home and then said 'FINALLY' and jumped in. She was soon joined by a boyfriend and lots of frog babies followed. I am very lucky when I read of others pond misfortunes that mine has not given me one second of trouble since I finished it, it is healthy and happy with pretty much no help from me and is the easiest gardening I have ever done in that I don't do anything to keep it looking nice. What they say about bringing wildlife into the garden is so true, and I have been delighted by the frogs and dragonflies and other things I can't name. I am kind of lacking in pond photos though but here is a rather stark one from when I was just finishing it.

Another big change has come in the form of me taking the big decision to lose all the grass in my back garden. It was not a decision taken lightly but in the end I realised that although it looked beautiful for about 2 months of the year, the other 10 it was a muddy, weedy mess and I had to put wellies on just to pop outside to put washing out. So I set to learning how to lay patios. Yet more back breaking work but it was worth it as I can go out in my slippers now, and although I sometimes miss the look of all that green it is more practical and still looks nice. 

Here I found a picture that shows a bit more pond although you have to look carefully.

So other things that have been happening have been big. I converted my garage into a bedroom and so freed up another room to become my music studio. I bought a beautiful grand piano with some money I inherited and the result is that my house is finally finished.

I am very pleased with the results and my teaching practice has really benefitted from it. I also learned a few skills in the process, one was to lay a floor and I have done the above floor through the whole house. I also learned to fit a kitchen and so managed to put in a brand new kitchen for £500. Gosh, learning skills certainly does save you a lot of money.

I am still going off doing some occasional operas, but for the most part I am very content with a more home centred life and am even in a very new relationship (will wonders never cease) so life is good.

My future project is making a secret garden. I am getting on with it slowly but it is not yet totally secret as a few large shrubs have to grow before that happens. But the slope down to the greenhouse is now raised beds and I am making a space under the big berberis tree.

Here is how it looks so far and I want something a bit more comfortable to sit on but next Summer will do for that.

Anyway, I have enjoyed doing this update. Thank you for your kind messages, those that sent them and for those that sent me spurious messages advertising their own blinds business or other crap, then don't bother. I do keep involved and up to date reading others blogs but I think I just ran out or words with my own. I am happy to update but didn't really want the pressure I was feeling to do it so often and so ran away for a bit. I think it could be nice to dip my toe back in but in a more informal and occasional way.

Pond

I've wanted a pond since I was about 6 years old. My mother tells me how at that tender age in 'my' part of their back garden I once dug a small dip, put in a black bin liner and filled it with water then sprinkled some leaves on, you could call this my first pond although I can't imagine it was very successful and only probably lasted 5 days before they discreetly removed it.

So my pond plan has developed a lot over the next 40 odd years - as these things do. I am now going to include a bridge over it, this will allow me to make the pond slightly bigger. I think the view of the little Summer house with a bridge over a pond to it will be rather lovely.
The thought of all that digging is a little daunting, but after all that is just hard work and not exactly requiring great skill. I have, as is my nature, been doing my research and decided that a good quality butyl rubber liner will be the best option for me, both from the point of view of price and versatility, that way I can go to the exact shape that I want.
Today I started the process putting the plan down on paper. The raised bed will come out - it has not been a huge success and as it went in before the summer house, it has always been in a slightly annoying place so I'm not sorry to lose it. So between the pond and the summer house will be a gravel garden making access far better and reducing yet further my lawn area (fine by me, there'll be none left soon at this rate!). Meticulous planning has always been my best way of success in the garden so here is the first draft of the plan (artist I'm not):

These things are always subject to change before the spade hits the soil of course, but I am happy with the look as it stands. The important thing to me is that it looks as natural as possible, I've never been a fan of ponds that don't blend in to the surroundings well, so the planting will be very important and so far I'm no expert on pond plants - far from it.

So now I will think about it for a bit, modify here and there and then off we go. Progress will, of course, be recorded.

Requiem for an Apple Tree.

I've had to cut down a tree today, it is a bit sad because it was one of the first things I did when I moved in here, planted an apple tree. It felt like a real occasion when I did this Being rather inexperienced when I first came here I did think it was odd that the tree only ever had about 20 leaves, never flowered and didn't produce one apple, but I thought that perhaps these things took a while to establish. It was only when my mother was here earlier today that she pointed out that it was riddled with canker. Suddenly it all made sense as to why it was so sick looking and never did anything. I suppose I could have tried to rescue it but honestly I think it has been sick since the day I got it with hindsight.
So I cut my losses and cut the tree down.

Here it is, when it first went in 3 years ago, a milestone.

and now I have a new space opening up.

All gone.

So what to do now?


I'm guessing that putting in another apple in that same spot is probably a mistake, no idea if this is true or not, but rather not take the chance. Might take the opportunity to put a nice apple tree in the front garden now where there is more space.. I want to replace this one with a nice small and compact tree perhaps, Or maybe even no tree at all. I'm thinking of it as a nice opportunity to think creatively again.

On another note, I am thinking of ripping out the raised bed and putting in a pond this Summer, I like the idea of having some water in the garden, which would hopefully attract some wildlife, especially some frogs, who could gorge themselves on slugs and snails! I am having a think.......all that digging, aargh.

Another fabulous day today with the French doors open onto the garden. Hope you all enjoy the good weather as much as me.

April, seedlings and seeds.

Looks like it is going to be a great bit of weather for a few days at last. The last nice spell saw me doing hours of weeding and getting most of the back garden beds ready for the year ahead.
My house windowsills are full to busting. My sweet peas and nasturtiums have come on a treat although I tentatively potted on the nasturtiums today and they have all fallen down so fingers crossed, I know they don't really like their roots disturbed too much. If they fail I still have time to start again though. Tomatoes are coming on ok, I am growing a few different varieties and will probably just keep two of each in the end.

A tangle of sweet peas

nasturtium all lying down.

The other windows are full of trays covered in plastic bags, which I can't wait to see green shoots emerging from.

So this is what I am growing at the moment:

Tomato - Gardener's Delight
Tomato - Moneymaker, both tried and tested before and very succesful plants.
Tomato - Tigrella
Tomato - Marmale
Tomato - Golden Sunrise
Zinnias
Cosmos Purity
Cosmos mixed
Sweet peas.  Alan Titchmarsh, Purple Pimpernell, Chelsea Centenery, Winston Churchill
Nasturtiums, Mixed climbing and Moonlight
Turks Turban Squash
Sunflower Valentine, Vanilla Ice, Claret
Lime Basil
Padron Chilli

And a few more besides. Lots of these were courtesy of a lovely blogger who sent me some left over seeds.

I've planted my lilies in pots as Monty Don said to in Gardener's World last night and I always do what Monty says, put some crocosmia lucifer corms in the ground and now I am going to have a cup of tea.

Nice day and weed free beds (sort of)

My daffodils and narcissus see to be behind everywhere else in the country.

Tulips coming up nicely.

This is a great time of year for lots of exciting things and over the next month or so lots will be happening to report on. Not just in the garden. I am in the middle of getting quotes to convert my garage which is very exciting stuff too.

Happy Easter everyone.

I'm now a writer for something else!!!

I have been asked to write gardening articles based on frugal living for the Frugality Hub website, which is a great website that I heartily recommend. It was lovely to be asked to do this and do please check me out under 'Grow Your Own' and leave me comments over there if you like them as I am still a newbie with no followers commenting. I have just submitted a new article to them which should appear in the next few days as well.

This is the first article that I wrote for them last January so I thought that I would repost it here now that a couple of months have passed. I won't usually repost but wanted to let you know that I am writing over there as well as continuing over here on my blog.

Gardening – the original frugal pastime.

Amongst gardeners there has always been an unspoken rule that it should be cost cutting and it is only in recent years that it has become an expensive hobby. Thanks to the birth of the Garden Centre and TV shows that inform you how to ‘transform your garden in a weekend’ we have somewhat lost the way and want instant results with none of the patience. 

True gardening is, I think, an exercise in patience and that has always been the joy of it for me, instant gardening while giving you impressive results is expensive and a lot less rewarding in the long run.

The first garden centres opened in Britain in the 1950’s and up until the 70’s they were still few and far between. My grandmother had a wonderful cottage garden and never visited a garden centre in her life. Instead she relied on collecting seeds, taking cuttings and swapping all sorts of these with friends and neighbours. I have memories of her porch, always filled with wonderful red pelargoniums with their rich scents. She never bought new plants when she lost one, rather she took cuttings and produced more so she had a constant and free supply. Nowadays it has become the norm to visit the garden centre and buy 4 trays of these lovely plants every year, throwing out last years. Taking a cutting from pelargonuims and many other plants is child’s play and you could easily have more than you could use with just a little time, effort and patience.

Growing from seed is a pure joy.

There are two occasions in the gardening year from which I gain a special happiness. One is in late Autumn when I start thinking about what I want to grow from seed the following year and the next is in Spring when the seeds I have planted begin to show their first small shoots. Instant garden centre planting means you completely miss out on this joy. With the latest advent of online seed shopping and seed swapping it has never been easier to get your hands on relatively inexpensive seeds in varieties you could never buy as plants, however hard you searched. The brilliance of it is that at the end of a season you can collect the seeds and start the whole process again for free the following year. There are also plenty of people online willing to swap seeds (or in fact just give them away) for the price of a stamp. Just a quick search on the internet for ‘seed swapping’ will find you numerous results.

So next time you are thinking of going to a garden centre to spend plenty of money take a moment to think if, with some patience, you could grow the plants from seed or from a cutting instead, the satisfaction is unbeatable. You don’t even need a greenhouse, they can be started off on a window sill or you can get (or make) yourself a small cold frame. You just have to think a little in advance of Summer and start them off around March or April.

In Need of my Spring Fix

The weather seems to have subtly changed here in East Lancashire. It is still cold, but finally all the snow is melted and there have been no frosts for a few days now. When this happens I find my mind turning towards Spring time and all that joy to come. I love seeing the first snowdrops, which are nodding their white heads in my garden now.

My small narcissus are  growing nicely too although my daffodils are yet to appear.

At this point I would usually be reaching for the compost and seed packets, desperate to get growing things, but I am forcing myself to wait this year as I am always too early. I have decided that the first week of March will be my first planting, desperate though I am. For someone who isn't interested in gardening this itching to start planting must seem like a strange desire, but anyone who has grown plants from seeds knows that this is one of the most exciting times of the gardening year.

I have given into my planting fix by buying an azalea which is going to go in a pot. One afternoon I was sitting in my arbour with a cuppa looking at the garden from a different angle and I realised I was misssing a trick. At one end of my deck is a lovely azalea that has rich purple flowers when they come and on the other side of the deck was nothing. I thought a pair would look nice at opposite ends. I am not usually one for symmetry but this appealed to my gardening eye. The other factor was that it is in a very pretty pot that I got for free from freecycle and I had another one exactly the same with nothing in it currently so they really will be symmetrical. Just to mix it up I got one with pink flowers though instead. It is currently residing in my greenhouse awaiting potting up - this afternoons job so photos will follow.


Has anyone else given in to the planting temptation?

Any ideas anyone?

I have a gardening dilemma.
I have a planter with trellis attached that I have had for 2 years. It is a cheap and nasty thing but if I could get something to climb up it then it could look really nice over Summer.
Here is a photo of it:

The problem with it is that it only fits a window box planter in so I can't use it to grow anything that needs lots of space for deep roots, so I am looking for annual climbers that don't need lots of root space. So far over the last two years I have had zero success with it - first year I planted sweet peas and because they grow deep they did absolutely nothing, second year I planted morning glory and black eyed susan and these were both also a complete non starter.

So it is time to ask the people who follow my blog if they have any good ideas, I do want to grow annuals in it and am planning growing from seed.
Here are some ideas I got off the internet:

Spanish Flag
Cup and Saucer Plant
Twining snap dragon
Purple bell vine.
Nasturtiam

I have never grown any off these before so rather than make a mistake for a third year running and end up with nothing has anyone any experience of growing these or any other annuals in fairly shallow planters?

All ideas welcome.

Gardening Books

I absolutely adore books and have literally hundreds. But I have a large bookshelf devoted entirely to gardening books. I can't get enough of them. People sometimes say to me 'but why do you have so many? most of them must tell you the same thing' and in some cases this is true, but lots of them contain wisdom that you find nowhere else.
I know that nothing really beats hands on experience in the garden but on a cold winter's evening, browsing through a lovely book, reading about all the things that are possibilities come spring, looking at some photos of a beautiful border or flower and, well, it brings a little bit of Spring or Summer into my house.
However, I think that only a very small handful of 3 or 4 books were actually bought new, the joy of gardening books is that other people seem to throw them out! Most of mine have come from charity shops and I have yet to go into a charity shop that hasn't got a single book on the subject. Mostly they are priced around £1.50 to £2 and this is really a bargain when you consider the a gardening magazine will set you back about £4 and won't contain nearly as much information or photographs as most of these books.

These are my two latest acquisitions:

The price of each was £1.50 and at over 200 pages each that's a lot of book for your money.

So you know what I'll be doing this evening!

Snowed in again here. SO pretty but SO annoying.

The resilience of plants

Earlier this month I cleaned out my greenhouse because I had found some fungus growing on old tomato plants, I cleared everything up and then I let off a sulpher bomb (which gets right up your nose if you don't leave the greenhouse quickly enough after letting it off) which effectively smoked everything in there and should have killed off all that fungus.

It was only as I was putting everything back in and sorting it all out that I discovered, hidden under a bench 4 pots of three hyacinths each. A year ago I forced these and they gave me a beautiful (and beautifully scented) display for a few weeks over winter. When they were finished I put them in the greenhouse under a bench and promptly forgot about them completely. So it came as a complete surprise to me to find that they were growing again considering that I had not given them a drop of water for a whole year (yes I am very ashamed) and they had been fumigated by sulpher.

I promptly gave them a bit of a drink and brought them inside. Two in one of the pots did succumb but all the others are still growing and one is, dare I say it, really thriving!

I have no doubt that the majority of the bulbs will actually flower as three of the pots are nearly as far along as this pot!

It just goes to show that a plant can thrive when all the odds are stacked against it and I can't help but be slightly proud of them.

January 2015

Thank you to all of you who sent me get well messages. As you can tell, 2014 didn't exactly end well for me but now it is the New Year and I'm ready for the Spring to come and the gardening to start. My face is just about healed too now except a small scar.

I have already started buying some seeds - I'm going for less varieties this year as last year I was a bit overwhelmed by just how much I grew. Also I am not not not going to make the mistake of starting my seedlings too early, so tempting when the winter is seemingly endless and you are impatient for Spring.

I have been snowed in for a couple of days here but the garden always looks so pretty. The woods are covered in ice and snow and no photograph (especially one taken by me) can do it justice.

I have taken the decision to use my raised bed for flowers this year rather than veg, I am going to keep veg growing to pots and anything large I will squash into a flowerbed somewhere in true cottage garden style. As you know I like that messy style of planting (for want of a better word) and find it very attractive. 

Seeds bought so far:

Sweet peas - Alan Titchmarsh

Cosmos - mixed

Zinnias - purple prince - my first attempt at growing these

Panicum - frosted explosion - my first grass

Snap dragons mixed

Also I have some Dahlia White Onesta and Berger's Rekord tubors which I thought would look nice coming up amongst the grass, which is lovely clouds of white.

This is an exciting time of year for planning in the garden. I have cleaned my greenhouse thoroughly and let off a sulpher candle in there as I think I had some fungus growing so the sulpher should sort that out. I have mended my cold frames as a cat had jumped on to one of them from the fence and gone through (luckily for the cat it was perspex and not glass!) He made a right mess but I hope he learnt a lesson.

Thank you all again for your messages.

Dan

Steps part 2

I took advantage of the very sunny Sunday weather to do the next stage of my garden steps project.

I am very pleased with the result - it may not be pretty, nor as expert as a professional's would be, but the concrete (my first ever attempt at making it) has hardened well and I have been able to walk on it succesfully.

The path along the side of the greenhouse at the bottom of the steps is not finished yet as I ran out of concrete materials (it doesn't go nearly as far as I had hoped) but I have put the gravel base in, next just a fairly thin layer of concrete to stabilise it all and then I am done.

So here is how it looks.

No more scrambling, slipping and sliding down to the greenhouse. My plan at the moment is to plant a small lavender hedge along the side of the steps to soften the edges and then to put a trellis along the side of the decking and grow some small plants up there. I'm very pleased all in all.

I reckon the whole project has cost me £150 which is quite a lot, but I really couldn't have done it cheaper I don't think, the materials, quite simply, were expensive! Still I am sure a builder would have charged me at least £500 considering the amount of hours it has all taken, so I am very pleased to have only spent that much. I am quite keen to lay a path from the house to the top of the steps now and have plans brewing in my mind.

Autumn and Garden Steps

Hello all,
It is well and truly Autumn now but here in North England it is unbelievably warm so I am taking the opportunity to do some hard graft outside. I have been up on the roof and cleared the gutters and now I am getting on with the big job I started months ago - the garden steps and path down to the greenhouse. For those of you familiar with my garden layout you will know that I have a treacherous slope down to where my greenhouse is sitting and it makes trips to the greenhouse in Winter months or in the rain virtually impossible unless you are willing to risk a fall - I'm not.
So I have been slowly getting my act together to build some steps. At first this seems like an impossible feat for an amateur like me, but like everything else, having approached it logically and theoretically, and bit by bit, I am slowly getting there and I think I am getting it right.

First I excavated the site, then I built wooden things (I have no idea what the technical terms are but they will all eventually screw together and be filled with an amount of concrete - so far not screwed.

Here is how it is looking.

This will form the path alongside the greenhouse.

And the framework for the steps themselves - the posts will be concreted in and I will use a couple of small sleepers to form the three steps. Then fill with some concrete and maybe put some gravel on the top surface - not decided yet.

and this is the view down to the path - it all looks very wonky because the wood is just balanced here in this photo, I will screw it all together when everything is ready, sleepers etc. but it gives you the idea.

I am then going to put some stepping stones into the lawn from the house to the top of the steps so hopefully I will be able to get all the way to the greenhouse without having to put wellies on every time, even in the pouring rain.

Everything else is going well, I now have 16 students plus five whom I teach at a 6th form College and I am so enjoying teaching. Meanwhile I popped to London last month to do a performance of Don Giovanni, so I am keeping my hand in as it were. I am singing in a concert in Ely at the end of November too if any of you find yourselves in the area :-)
So considering this time last year I didn't have any students, I was totally unsure which direction to go in etc I am very pleased as to how all of it has turned out.

Bye for now.

June is busting out all over.

I have been so enjoying the weather. We have been very lucky over the last few weeks with weather here in East Lancashire, glorious day after glorious day with just enough occasional rain soakings to keep the garden very happy. My house is full of sweet peas which fill every room with their glorious scent and, as is the way with sweet peas, as soon as one batch is finished there is another huge crop ready to pick, they really are a wonderful Summer treat.

As you can see, the garden is at it's absolute best at the moment, with flowers galore, all spilling out on top of each other, with something to look at in each direction.

The hebe turned out to be a good choice to replace the blighted box, I just have to try and stop it from getting leggy as time goes on.

Finally I can safely say that the tomatoes are the best year ever. This is great news after 2 very poor years. I have 9 plants, all of which are doing well. Keeping them in the greenhouse for their whole life has definitely been the answer and the growbags have really come up trumps. I should have masses and masses before long.

Couldn't quite get a good enough angle on the photo to get them all in, but you get the idea.

I have been dieting and am only 4lbs off my target of 13 stone, (if you'd asked me last week I was 2lbs off target but something went wrong this week). Meals are so easy to plan at this time of year I find and it is also pretty easy to eat healthy food (as long as you like salad that is haha)

So life is ticking along well, my budgeting is going like a breeze right now, not much spare money but enough to be happy and certainly that is what counts :-)

I had a job interview....

and I got it!

I am now the piano teacher at a 6th form college in the area. It is only one afternoon a week starting in September but that, combined with my private teaching will make all the difference financially (and I wouldn't want much more hours there than that anyhow. Things are going well and there are no regrets and a lot less worries now. I am embracing my new life and really enjoying it all.

The garden continues to thrive and being here to enjoy it and work in it makes all the difference to its progress. I haven't got any further with my steps and path project yet, but thank you all those who gave me advice, I have a lot of good ideas now.

Now I am thinking of putting a pond in too, in the future.................


And thinking of converting my garage into a music studio..................


Dreams are great.

New project started

Hello all,
Well it's been a fantastic bout of weather here in the UK with glorious hot days. That spell seems to have passed for now and it is grey and significantly colder, but I'm really enjoying the Summer (especially as I am not working away from home for the first Summer in 18 years).

So I have begun a new project which for me is the most head-scratchingly difficult I have attempted thus far so anyone who has any knowledge and tips will be welcome to give advice.

The slope that leads down from my garden proper to my greenhouse is annoying and unmanagable in bad weather and so I have started the groundwork to create steps down and a path along the side of the greenhouse, this should make trips down there in winter or when it is wet much better.

I have started by doing the initial groundwork of cutting out the turf where the path will be

and then I started to cut out where the steps down will be

Finally leaving me with the complete area cut out.

Now that the site is cleared I need to move onto stage 2 as there is no going back now.
My plan at the moment is to put in wooden sides and posts along the path and then to fashion the steps using wooden sides and posts also, three steps down to the path should do it. When that is all in place I will put down hardcore, sand and then concrete and hope that the whole thing works and is stable. It's at times like this that I wish I had a friend with knowledge :-)

I will continue to mark my progress but the next stage will certainly be careful measuring and wood purchase.

Take a tour of my garden.

This Midsummer's day I thought I would do a short video tour of my garden as it is looking so lovely.
Stephen Spielberg I aint, so I'm sorry about the shaky camera work but you get the idea.

Tatton Park

I went to Tatton Park at the weekend and what a lovely trip it was, the gardens are magnificent as the azalea and rhododendron were in their full glory and what a lot of them they have. The house itself is very interesting and being a National Trust property I got in free as I have membership until the end of July. But it was the gardens that I loved so much. There was a walled veg and fruit garden that could have fed an army.

 The view across the lake

 and another.

 The view of the azaleas was spectacular.

 The photos just don't do the blaze of colour justice.

 The flag iris were only just beginning but by now they are probably a wonderful sight.

 View to the Japanese gardens.

 I liked this old bridge.

 The entrance to the maze.

And this is what I found in the middle of the maze.

It was a lovely trip, topped off with a jacket potato for lunch in the not too overpriced cafe. Most of the food in the cafe is grown in the walled garden when possible.

Today is beautiful so I am off to cut the lawns.

Update

Hello all,
I keep on apologising for lack of posting but I'm going to stop that. I am posting what I can when I can but things have been a bit hectic of late, which is probably a good thing.
I am finally breaking even financially which shows that slowly but surely my new career path is beginning to work. No spare cash but now my savings are not really being touched which is good news except for the untoward. I have 9 students now when they all come which is good, taken 5 months but it is slowly starting to happen and word is getting about that I exist at least. The best bit is that I am really really enjoying it, especially when I think that in my old life I would now be battling up to London weekly  and misssing all the joys of my garden at home. No regrets and completely my own boss.
I have had a productive weekend and have opened new bank accounts, changed my gas and elctricity provider to Ovo and am exploring changing my internet service provider to Sky, all in a bid to make monthly cash stretch a bit further.
So I continue to shop carefully, and am becoming a dab hand at stretching a single chicken out to 4 or 5 meals making it super good value even for a greedy man like me.

Enough about all that.

Meanwhile every day brings fresh joy in the garden. My pride at the moment is for my lupins and my alliums.

There are 17 healthy looking flower heads accross just 3 plants, which, for me, makes a lupin record. These majestic flowers are among my very favourites.

And 30 alliums in the big bed make a very happy view. I had hoped the astilbe would be out by now and that the alliums would be surrounded by clouds of pink frothy flowers, but the best laid plans and all that.

Also my gladioli and dahlias are all growing away happily, as are the delphiniums.

Dahlia patch wants weeding I think. 3 varieties, Bishop of Landalff and ....er.....two more.

A usual my veg plot is poor at the moment (one day I will get good at veg), although the tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing very well this year, far better than the precious two years.

The veg bed is looking a higgledy piggledy mess and that is because after a poor beginning I have planted crops in no particular order as my original ones all died (my green fingers turned very grey on that day). I've decided to call it a cottage garden bed and to pretend that it was supposed to be random by design. I have 2 courgettes, some runner beans, French beans, peas, broad beans and a cucumber. I think I will plant some complementary flowers to make it look better. Given time it might look ok, here's hoping there will be some crop at least.

Finally a photo of lovely iris hidden away in the whale bed.

 Blue is never captured very well on my camera, but they look lovely in the flesh.

It finally flowered

It has been 2 years since I planted my deciduous azalea (red kosas)

Here's when it went in 2 years ago, gosh it all looks so bare.

Well it imeediately begain to suffer from mildew and I thought it was a gonner but I nursed it through.

Last year the Spring was so cold so late that it just didn't flower at all, but luckily no sign of mildew so I was relieved about that.

So it was with great excitement that I have been waiting for it to show itself off in all it's glory and my long wait was finally over this week.

It is not quite all open but it is quite a spectacle, such a rich colour and it draws the eye everywhere you are in the garden.

Not sure a photo can possibly do it justice but I just wanted to share it with you.

Other things I have done today are to plant my gladioli bulbs which were already sending out roots in their paper bag. I have actually moved my small camellia from the back garden to the front, I realised that I had planted it in the wrong place as it would become overcrowded once it grew and now I have the large new bed in the front thought it was better to move it now before it starts to grow over the summer. So the gladioli have gone in where that was. I have no memory at all what sort I got, but I think there are two sorts, a red and a white. Time will tell.
That's all for today.
Thanks for all the hedge suggestions, it is on the back burner while I mull it over and decide exactly what I will do with the whole front garden.