My Second Living Room

Today I've risen to the challenge set to me by reader and correspondent Donna OShaughnessy from Illinois in the big US of A, (hello Donna.) Please visit her highly informative and entertaining blog about her life as a "Midlife Farmwife" on a Certified Organic dairy, beef and pork ranch called South Pork!

The challenge was for me to stop teasing with pictures of flowers and show the garden as it is. Well, that's a bit difficult because it's in an L shape, so I thought we'd have a walk around instead and took a few pics as I went along. I think you can click on them to enlarge them.

The first pic shows the back of the house - quite narrow; there's a road on the left hand side behind the hedge. A small fish pond with a waterfall is directly in front of you and I am standing under an old cherry tree. It's quite shady here, but the trees are protected under a preservation order, so I can't touch them although the the Local Authority does look kindly on me trimming them but I still have to apply to lop the branches.

So I've reached the far corner of the house and just take half a turn to my right, the start of the L shape.  There's a larger 1000 litre fish pond to the left with a waterfall, raised and surrounded by a wooden clad wall. In the middle is a pergola, covered in clematis Montana and honeysuckle through which we can walk in to the back of the garden. An old bird bath sits lonely in the grass and a green border with ferns, hostas, rhododendron and robina sits nicely to the right giving shade and a playground for the birds.

As we reach the back of the garden near the greenhouse, we can look back toward the house. Behind me is the greenhouse and shed and to the left a hedge of prickly pyracantha (deadly stuff, rips me to shreds) and you can just see the birdbath in the distance. My fountain is in the centre the base of which is filled with bedding plants and although you can't see them (just one peeping round the bottom left hand side), there are six pots of different varieties of lavender on the other side of the fountain base enjoying the sun and is home to visiting bees and butterflies.

You can see the shadow of trees on the lawn and I have a huge lime tree in the right hand corner out of shot and behind me is a large sycamore and two decorative silver birch trees. It's not too difficult to keep on top of, most of the borders in the shade are covered in a protective layers and bark chippings. The shrubs get a shave from the hedge trimmer in late autumn and the lawn gets cut once a week. 

 

Today I planted about ten perennial plants I bought from Brigg yesterday to fill the gaps in the borders and above is an old much loved tub with a lovely lilac osteospermum 'stardust' and two different cupheas which also came from the garden centre to add a bit of colour to the patio. The front garden is a triangular paved drive with a few pots of bits and pieces just to break up the monotony.

I hope you enjoyed the journey in my second living room - the garden.

Tomorrow it's a trip to Scarborough, a seaside town in North Yorkshire and about an hour and a half's drive away with friends to see an Air Show (I've never been to one) which is in the afternoon, so praying for decent weather.

Enjoy your weekend

Ta-ra.