Spring
The Spring borders in the garden had started to fill out and looked wonderful with a lovely selection of hellebores, daffodils, pulmonaria and primroses. The paths through the borders were looking good too, little did I realise how many hours I would be spending on my hands and knees weeding them over the coming years.
On balance though an informal path is the best solution in this area and I do quite like weeding. We put down more woodchip as and when we have any. Other years the paths are just beaten earth.
On the other side of the garden the vegetable patch had proved far too small. Two of the smaller raised beds had been commandeered by our younger two children, some veg were sown in them along with some flowers and they enjoyed getting muddy re-arranging everything on a regular basis. However we needed more space to grow vegetables for a family of six so we decided to dig up more turf and almost double the area. More chestnut fencing and wire had to be put up to keep out rabbits and our young Springer Spaniel. I still needed more space to grow flowers so we also dug a couple of flower beds at the entrance to the area.
We had begun to realise that the garden was very windswept with open fields surrounding us and lying in the valley of the River Severn so decided to plant an inner hedge of yew which would ultimately shelter any other planting in the garden. A trench was duly dug and the first small plants put in.
As spring progressed the vegetable garden started to fill out, particularly on the children’s plots. Bricks and flowerpot men were the order of the day with just a few salad leaves in between. All good fun though!
.
Summer
Throughout the early part of the summer we spent a long time in the vegetable garden trying to grow as many crops as possible, not always successfully but learning all the time. The flowerbeds we had created the previous year were starting to fill out and look really colourful with a mixture of annuals and perennials.
We also tried to relax and enjoy the garden but sitting and looking always ends up with another idea and then major work. So it was that we decided that an elderly lilac bush that was overhanging the flowerbed by the gate was actually not a thing of great beauty and hadn’t had enough blooms in the spring to make us love it. Decision made – it came out without further ado and made a huge mess all over the lawn. It looked a lot bigger in pieces than it had growing! Many hands made light work though and we soon had it chopped and stacked out of the way ready to burn on the woodburner.
Autumn
Autumn is my favourite time of year and it is really important that there is plenty of colour to enjoy at this time, from flowers, trees and shrubs. We have planted many trees over the years, both decorative and productive and try to ensure that the varieties we choose are of particular interest at this time of year. Acers being favourites along with Cercidiphyllum japonicum (or as we refer to it the “candyfloss tree” due to the smell of burnt sugar from its leaves in autumn), Liquidamber and Parrotia.
There is however one major task that we have to do in early autumn and that is mowing the half acre orchard. During the year the orchard gets completely mown once in the spring and then we just mow the area around the fruit trees and paths through the rest, leaving the remaining grass to grow. This creates a lovely habitat for a wide range of butterfly and insect species throughout summer. However there comes a point when it all has to be cut down, luckily our tractor copes with the cutting but we generally end up having to rake the cut grass and collect it up in a trailer.
Tales from a Country Garden 