Your garden is looking lovely @D0rdogne_Damsel You seem to have such a lot of beds and lawn. How much land do you actually have there? My flower seeds are slow - or perhaps I am impatient! Sowed some Lobelia some time ago and no show so far. I have some Snapdragons that have just surfaced - even the Indian Marigolds are taking their time (although the wild ones in the garden are up). Windy and sunny down here, quite hot but waiting for the Arctic Blast to do some more digging. I loved the Easter fare that you made (on another thread). No wonder you are having such success! The bonnets are just lovely. Keep sending those great photos!
Thank you @tuikowhai34. Lockdown/unemployment has certainly been beneficial to the garden. We have about an acre in total, at one point mostly flowerbeds. I have spent the last year 'taming' it and have reverted some of those beds to 'lawn'. The workload was just too much so I decided I would rather have fewer flowerbeds that I could maintain well and enjoy rather than fighting (and mostly losing) the battle to keep them all looking ok.
I now have just my new 'Hot Bed', a White (ish) Patch, a Rose Garden, a couple of shady shrubberies and a couple of simple borders around the swimming pool. There is a little gravel garden around the back where we eat, I have just bought a giant Hosta for that, Empress Wu, but again I am just trying to keep it simple. When restaurants are finally allowed to be open again I pretty much work 7 days a week in summer so I have to be practical.
The pictures below are an overhead view of the garden, the first one from last spring and the second from just this morning. Although the 2nd looks a bit sparse yet, this crescent shaped hot bed has a long way to go, I think you can see it looks under more control, lighter and more spacious. It has been a long battle with bramble, ivy and stinging nettles.
There are a lot of trees and shrubs and the other flowerbeds are weaved in amongst them, it does make for an interesting walk around the garden and lots of different view points. I have lots of little seating areas too, just benches or two seats dotted about, not that I sit around much, but nice to have different spots for a coffee break, or even the occasional apero at the end of the working day.
Spring 2020
Spring 2021 (work in progress).
“Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” —Betsy Cañas Garmon
The garden looks lovely DD , I've had a read through the entire thread. Your bed coming along now I see . I have lupin Towering Inferno I did want Terracotta but couldn't find it anywhere so went with TInferno , annoyingly I keep seeing terracotta now but I am very pleased with TInferno .
I personally wouldn't dedicate areas for tulips and daffs the time in the garden is so fleeting by the time you know it you'll be chopping them up when your planting out dahlias think they is a space for them . I just intermingle them around perennials that will cover them like geraniums .
I do have a little hot border myself it not as easy as you think at this time of year to fill it with colour . I have some Tulips and Crown imperial fritillaria and daffodils in mine at the moment but not many I don't have room. I have fall into the trap of planting out of my colour palate ( my colour palate - yellow -orange - red - magenta - purple - dark foliage ) I've flood the bed with allium globemaster I know not far off purple but it leans to cottage garden more than hot border .
Plant in 3's+ especially with heleniums / echinacea they look a bit lost on their billy todd. Heleniums are one of the summer plants I really look forward to but they do look a bit naked lower down when they are near the front of the border, if possible I'd more it a bit more back. I'd say the same for rudbeckia as well echinacea aren't to bad.
Thank you @Busy-Lizzie and @Perki for the encouragement. It's hard sometimes when you know what you want it to look like but if ts a long time coming. The new plants are so tiny at the moment it's easy to panic and think there's not enough in it.
I have got 3s or 5s of most plants @Perki and I've added a edging border of campanula and geranium on one side and lavender on the other, hopefully that'll cover any nakedness. 😱
Maybe next year (a gardener's mantra I'm sure) the Euphorbias will be big enough to add some early interest. I've recently split the Geum Totally Tangerine so it's quite small, but still about to flower, allegedly an early one ( bought at @Busy-Lizzie Open Garden event about 4 years ago). Maybe next year that'll be bigger by now too.
I've looked and added to my wishlist on the Farmer Gracy site, some early and late flowering bulbs, I'll try to spread the season/effect. As always though, once bulbs die back it's tricky to know what to do to hide the leaves dying back. I might lift the tulips, I have seen some containers you put them in under ground, easy to lift/find.
Definitely need/want some foxgloves next year too, always looking for height.
And so the list goes on......😅
“Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?” —Betsy Cañas Garmon
One reason I opened my garden @D0rdogne_Damsel was for encouragement. I'd been gardening on my own for years, the local French weren't interested in flower gardens, only vegetables. English people came to visit it.
Now I've sold that house and am making a new garden.
Well done, keeping Totally Tangerine alive. Mine died, think I was away too much and it didn't get enough water. It was a difficult garden, on rock, not enough topsoil. The soil is much deeper at my new house.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Are you planting that lot outside DD? I've got 3 Gauras and 3 helianthemums sitting in my porch getting a bit potbound but I'm hesitating because of the weather conditions here. They've been in and out like a yo-yo!
Posts
Your garden is looking lovely @D0rdogne_Damsel You seem to have such a lot of beds and lawn. How much land do you actually have there?
My flower seeds are slow - or perhaps I am impatient! Sowed some Lobelia some time ago and no show so far. I have some Snapdragons that have just surfaced - even the Indian Marigolds are taking their time (although the wild ones in the garden are up).
Windy and sunny down here, quite hot but waiting for the Arctic Blast to do some more digging.
I loved the Easter fare that you made (on another thread). No wonder you are having such success! The bonnets are just lovely.
Keep sending those great photos!
I now have just my new 'Hot Bed', a White (ish) Patch, a Rose Garden, a couple of shady shrubberies and a couple of simple borders around the swimming pool. There is a little gravel garden around the back where we eat, I have just bought a giant Hosta for that, Empress Wu, but again I am just trying to keep it simple. When restaurants are finally allowed to be open again I pretty much work 7 days a week in summer so I have to be practical.
The pictures below are an overhead view of the garden, the first one from last spring and the second from just this morning. Although the 2nd looks a bit sparse yet, this crescent shaped hot bed has a long way to go, I think you can see it looks under more control, lighter and more spacious. It has been a long battle with bramble, ivy and stinging nettles.
There are a lot of trees and shrubs and the other flowerbeds are weaved in amongst them, it does make for an interesting walk around the garden and lots of different view points. I have lots of little seating areas too, just benches or two seats dotted about, not that I sit around much, but nice to have different spots for a coffee break, or even the occasional apero at the end of the working day.
Spring 2020
Spring 2021 (work in progress).
I personally wouldn't dedicate areas for tulips and daffs the time in the garden is so fleeting by the time you know it you'll be chopping them up when your planting out dahlias think they is a space for them . I just intermingle them around perennials that will cover them like geraniums .
I do have a little hot border myself it not as easy as you think at this time of year to fill it with colour . I have some Tulips and Crown imperial fritillaria and daffodils in mine at the moment but not many I don't have room. I have fall into the trap of planting out of my colour palate ( my colour palate - yellow -orange - red - magenta - purple - dark foliage ) I've flood the bed with allium globemaster I know not far off purple but it leans to cottage garden more than hot border .
Plant in 3's+ especially with heleniums / echinacea they look a bit lost on their billy todd. Heleniums are one of the summer plants I really look forward to but they do look a bit naked lower down when they are near the front of the border, if possible I'd more it a bit more back. I'd say the same for rudbeckia as well echinacea aren't to bad.
I have got 3s or 5s of most plants @Perki and I've added a edging border of campanula and geranium on one side and lavender on the other, hopefully that'll cover any nakedness. 😱
Maybe next year (a gardener's mantra I'm sure) the Euphorbias will be big enough to add some early interest. I've recently split the Geum Totally Tangerine so it's quite small, but still about to flower, allegedly an early one ( bought at @Busy-Lizzie Open Garden event about 4 years ago). Maybe next year that'll be bigger by now too.
I've looked and added to my wishlist on the Farmer Gracy site, some early and late flowering bulbs, I'll try to spread the season/effect. As always though, once bulbs die back it's tricky to know what to do to hide the leaves dying back. I might lift the tulips, I have seen some containers you put them in under ground, easy to lift/find.
Definitely need/want some foxgloves next year too, always looking for height.
And so the list goes on......😅
Now I've sold that house and am making a new garden.
Well done, keeping Totally Tangerine alive. Mine died, think I was away too much and it didn't get enough water. It was a difficult garden, on rock, not enough topsoil. The soil is much deeper at my new house.