Saturday 30 April 2016

My Garden :: April

Hello Lovelies,
recently I've been spending a lot of time in the garden. Well not so much this past week. Gosh it's been chilly!
I had a week off with my boys earlier in the month and these days they are not too keen to go out with me. So I spent a lot of time in the garden, where they did all join me on different occasions.

I've taken quiet a few photos of the work and things that have made me smile while I was out there this month.
So now I've gathered them together as a review of April in our garden. Would you like a tour? 
This is the plot. Not tiny...well it's the biggest garden I've ever owned.......

 You can see our pond in the bottom left hand corner. I've done some work getting rid of pond weed and thinning out the more invasive plants.

Now the marsh marigolds are flowering in the water......

I love these giant buttercups. Such happy, sunny flowers

and the frogs are sitting in the rocks enjoying the sun, when it shines..........
 

A little further along the left hand side I've been busy pruning roses and digging out a huge overgrown clump of Japanese anemone. I do like it but it had got too big and I wanted to try something different. So now it has other herbaceous perennials that I've dug up, divided and replanted.....


A little further along Eldest helped me to make a new flower bed. Stripping the turf was hard going and I was very grateful for his assistance. It's all part of our "sort of" plan to make this more of a flower garden and less of a football pitch now the boys are older...........



It was lovely to go and buy a tree together and plant it in our freshly dug bed.......


It's the king of cooking apples, I do love apple crumble :0)........


I don't know a great deal about growing apples and I'm hoping the fact that our next door but one neighbour has apple trees will mean it gets pollinated ok.

Moving along, In the top left hand corner of the garden we have a "Rockery" ...well that's what it was. Lots of gravel and stones and tiny plants.
 Mr BM is dismayed that some bigger plants are taking over. I'm not. I feel like it needs some height here to hide the mass of fence.
It does look rather weedy at the moment but I have removed the weeds and left all the  self seeded Aquilegia ........

And also planted some more "big" plants...shhhh :0)

There have been changes in the top right hand corner of the garden. We were all so taken with the grey/green eldest painted on the bench he made me, that it was decided the shed should get a makeover too. Hubby added some new cladding to the side where it was warped and leaking first. We inherited this shed from my mum and I worked out it must be 25 years old. With regular TLC it's doing great....

At the side of the shed we have removed the old raised veg patch, which wasn't getting used. And hubby built a simple patio with old slabs we already had. it's all about recycling and making do here.

The little beds in front of the deck have been lovely this spring. The narsissi we planted in the Autumn have flowered for ages and had a wonderful scent. The new growth on the rose I had for my birthday last year looked particularly lovely with added raindrops........



In the other bed I have a little acer tree with has the most amazing coloured  leaves opening up.......



The right hand ( west facing) bed doesn't look too different to previous years but I am trying to add more colour. Once again I've done loads of weeding and transplanted plants. I like the lower fence here as it gives us chance to chat with our lovely neighbour..........


Even if our neighbour is not out tending her immaculate plot I never feel alone. There are always birds around . We have quiet a brave Robin who perches close to me sometimes. Other times he sits high in this tree and sings beautifully......


There he is ........


This is a little further along the right hand bed. You can see my bird feeders hanging in the tree,  which I'm still regularly filling with sunflower seeds..........


The dunnocks , amongst others, love them. And I am pretty sure they are nesting in the conifer hedge close by..........


Ha, here's a corner I don't think I have  shared on my blog before. It's behind the garage and our other shed, and is very much a working area.. There are some scruffy primroses and carnations  in the raised bed here. I've planted some more foxgloves to go with the self seeded one which is looking pretty huge already..........


The final part of our garden is a patio near the house. It's north facing and was cluttered with all sorts of stuff. I've had a good tidy up and in the corner I've made a start on some container gardening with plants that will tolerate shade.
 The large square container is the old water tank out of our loft! It was removed last year when we had a new fangled boiler, and I rescued it from the rubbish pile. I put lots of broken bricks and bits of concrete in the bottom, followed by some gravel. It has a drainage hole where the pipe used to go in near the bottom. Very handy........


The idea is to have a bit of fun creating a Fairy garden in it. There's lots of wonderful examples on Pinterest . Take a look at the board I have created HERE

Mine has a long way to go but I've made a start. I love the way my broken pot garden turned out. I was lucky enough to have a pot which had already broken in just the right way :0)


I hope you enjoyed the tour lovelies, even tough there is not much in the way of flowers just yet...(note to self, plant tulips in the autumn.)
 Would you like to pop around again at the end of may to see what's new?
I do hope so.
Jacquie x

19 comments:

  1. This was such a lovely post and I really enjoyed my tour of your wonderful garden Jacquie....look forward to your May post for sure ☺☺

    ReplyDelete
  2. I very much enjoyed the tour of your garden Jacquie. It looks so neat and tidy and the sectioned off areas for certain things gives it a very organized look. Thank you for sharing with us.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also enjoyed your garden tour.. I can only imagine all the flowers that will be sprouting up over the next month. I am going to go out and photograph my garden tomorrow.. the Rhododendrons are all in magnificent bloom! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I enjoyed the visit of your garden but the best part is your fairy garden .
    And its the type i prefer in a broken pot .Îm looking forwad to see more photos of it .y.s

    ReplyDelete
  5. You have been working hard, it's looking lovely. Good to see all the wildlife in the pond and fantastic that you've planted a new apple tree, I hope it does well. You can never have too many Bramleys. The shed's looking great, I'm a big fan of repairing and re-using as well, lovely to see it done so well. As you say, let's hope for some warmer weather soon so we can all go outside and enjoy the garden. CJ xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your garden is looking lovely you have been working very hard. I'd love to see how it progresses
    Jackie x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Loved the tour of your garden Jacquie! The shed looks lovely in it's matching coat of paint. Good luck with the apple tree. Love the fairy pot, I have one similar in the works. I too have a Pinterest board for fairy gardening. When my girls were small I did lots of fairy items in the garden for them to find, such fun. I hope to do one in the girls old rusty wagon this year. Lots of gardening work happening here as well. We finally finished the green house and I applied rock in and around it (on Flickr). Happy gardening! x

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is really lovely. We have a patch at the bottom of the garden that is under a very large tree belonging to next door. Nothing grows and it's quite dark. I'm going to do a fairy garden and string up some lights. Thanks for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jacquie, your garden is lovely and you have certainly put in a lot of hard work which I am sure will be rewarded as all the flowers come to life. xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very inspiring, thank you!! I wish we had the head start on spring here in Canada that you do there. We are coming along slowly and your pics are a fabulous motivator for planning ahead. Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy May Day to you, Jacquie, and thanks for the tour of your garden. I know that you will enjoy watching it come into full bloom!

    That little dunnock was so charming, I actually took out my sketchbook and did a quick drawing of his silhouette. Hoping that is all right with you? xo

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our garden just flooded after a lot of snow (yes, really) and a very sudden thaw. Fortunately it drained away quite quickly but I'm just hoping no real damage has been done.
    I love looking around other people's plots. And I'm quite taken with that old water tank!
    Your mentioning carnations reminds e - I went to the garden centre on Saturday and they had pinks growing. The scent was absolutely divine, but I suspect we'd have to grow them in pots here as the ground's quite heavy.
    S x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your garden is lovely! It is a great size and your new border will be a lovely addition as will the fairy garden - great save on the water tank! I like your broken pot pot too, very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  14. jackie i adore your posts and have been following you for a while now. love this one on the garden its inspired me to go and do some in my own. also i love when u post about where you have been as its given us a good idea of the places and area . we live in norfolk which isnt too far from some of the places to visit. cannot wait to go and see some of themxxxx good luck with your garden this year it already looks fabxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. we are off to Belton house at the weekend. i know the daffs will be gone but it still looks pretty stunningxxxxxgreat for us with national trust cards a way of exploring aroundxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope you enjoy it Pippa. Thanks for your lovely comments xx

      Delete
  16. Hi there.Your blanket is STUNNING,love the colours.If you peek at my blog you will see my latest wip baby blanket,I too have nearly thrown it lol,but am determined to finish it for my friends lil boy.LOVE your garden,I adore frogs too.You have been very busy.Thanks for sharing as always your FAB photos.Huggles xx

    ReplyDelete
  17. It looks like a great place to relax. I like the presence of water in the small pond. It's nice to have a place like this to just sit and enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hello my dear, I'm just catching up on all your lovely posts...I've been so busy later to read much! Your garden is about the same size as mine, and you are in a similar stage, where we can start to reclaim what was the children's play area! My potting area is in full view so I'm looking to make it as attractive but as practical as possible, I've some ideas in mind. Have a lovely week :) xxx

    ReplyDelete

I always love to hear from you , thank you for taking the time to leave a message.