Aquilegia (that I spread tooooo much from seed) have gone, the fruit tree blossom gone, but the garden is coming to life. The acers that I planted out from pots survived last year's heat and the area that what the 'shed' is starting to fill. Next year should see it settle in.
....but the ground is already cracking. No rain down here for a couple of weeks and another dry week ahead it seems. I think my wife would be happy that I hadn't killed tooooo much of her stuff - although the potted camelias looked poor this spring - I think the one in the photo was in the rain shadow of the garage as it is leeward of the prevailing wind down here, so probably was drier than it should have been. The potted 'yeti' acer is thriving though.
Had an absolute failure with the garden furniture last year - I had hoped to use a 10 year protector, but I put it over water based wood stain - and the stain leeched through the waterproof finish. This year, I've used a coloured wood preserver and a waterproof top finish from the same manufacturer. Hopefully, I won't have to do the furniture again for a few years.
My garden in SW France is showing more colour now than in the previous photos.
The big pink peony was just some reddish shoots in the lawn after I moved here in January '21. It didn't flower. I built a bed around it and fed it. Last year it had 4 flowers. It's now too big for the bed!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
it's that 'multi-layer' stepped shape isn't it? It was in a pot until a couple of years back:
...on the right here (Edited: this shot is 2016). It used to suffer really badly (maybe as I used to forget to water pots when it rained as I used to think they'd get enough rain water - ignoring the foliage keeping the water off). The acers on the left have also been largely planted out. Haven't done hanging baskets since covid though.
@AnniD I fed it last year with organic rose fertiliser when I fed the roses after their first flowering, late June when we returned from the UK. I fed it this year with blood and bone (the French don't sell it with fish) in late December when I mulched the bed before going to the UK for 4 months for OH's hip replacement. I'm a bit limited with times of plant feeding and pruning because of OH living in the UK and the toing and froing. Probably all the wrong times! At least it was fed!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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The big pink peony was just some reddish shoots in the lawn after I moved here in January '21. It didn't flower. I built a bed around it and fed it. Last year it had 4 flowers. It's now too big for the bed!
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