Well since that post I've been out in the garden every day that I'm at home, for 3-4 hours. So I've got a lot done.
I haven't posted about it, as you've spotted by now. I'm very anxious about my tendency to give up and wander off after a few months, and I feel self-concsious about making any kind of assertion about the garden.
I've been thinking about this a lot. Part of the problem, as well as my being basically a lazy sack of the proverbial, is that the garden just isn't planted or planned to major on summer, or indeed on flowers and colour in general. So even if I work very hard at it, as things stand now, there's never very much to show for it other than a relative absence of weeds and mess. When we first began the garden this wasn't so. I've been looking back at old photos. The snag is that the maturity and seclusion of each of the separate areas that I so much wanted, has come about through shrubs and small trees getting far bigger, and they've shaded out and no doubt gobbled the ground's goodness from the borders in front of them.
Clearly this needs to be addressed. It's all very well saying that I don't garden to please others etc etc but I do want to be able to say, "Would you like to see the garden?" and know that there's something or other in it that will blow their socks off, ideally without recourse to flower-pouches and ornamental wishing-wells. In March the front garden does that - an 8 foot high camellia on one side, a clematis alpina that nearly strangles you as you try to reach the front door, and loads of hellebores, pulmonaria, miniature daffodils -and the whole thing isn't more than 8 feet from pavement to house. It does go a bit quiet the rest of the year, apart from the climbing roses, but I think that's OK.
So I'm going to be doing some pretty savage pruning this year, and beefing up the compost and grit in the clayier of the beds, and we'll see what I can manage. I'm fed up with working my bottom off to look after a tasteful and refined shrubbery.
Bring on the gladioli!
There's so much work that goes on in the garden and always lots to do. I have a tendency to let things go till the last minute. I haven't always been that way but the older I get... Have a good day.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I look over older pics of my garden, and it certainly seemed more spectacular. But then, I had a lot more spare time when the kids were little and I didn't have to work for a living...
ReplyDeleteMy shrubs are much bigger too. I should have a hack back also.
Well I for one would love to see some pics of your garden. The one in this post is lovely; what I can see of it. That rose is very pretty and the house looks intriguing. I think gardening for ourselves is most important, if other people like it, that's a bonus.
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