My garden
By melchisedec
21 comments
My garden is a rectangle, roughly 64′ × 35′, surrounded by red brick walls. The bottom wall collapsed many years ago and was replaced by a concrete panel fence. It is now covered with ivy. Over the wall at the bottom is a school site, shared by two primary schools. There is a large playing field with a fair-sized wood which is managed as a wildlife area. The school site is ringed by a strip of self-seeded birch and willow. We are very lucky to have such a lovely outlook, and a vibrant wildlife habitat neighbouring our garden. There is a large variety of birds, including a pair of pheasants. I once had a peacock in the garden – apparently an escapee from a local park. The garden faces south east, and is very sheltered. The soil is sandy and when we moved in, 40 years ago, there was hardly anything growing. The house had been empty for 6 months, so there was a knee-deep “lawn” and three very narrow beds around the edges. I “gave” the garden to my wonderful gardening grandmother who was living in a flat nearby, bereft without one of her own, and she did wonders, improving the soil and slowly but surely finding what would grow. After she died, I mowed the lawn… Then 15 years ago, I gave up full-time work, discovered gardening on my own account and have been hooked ever since. Now I’ve been retired for a few years and can nip outside whenever I want. I often “pop out” for a quick inspection, to return an hour later having found something far more interesting to do than housework. My husband is very understanding, though he’s not a gardener himself! I love the garden for many reasons, but partly because it is all mine and I can do what I want with it!
This is the view over the back wall across the school site.
And this is the wild area, which is the bottom third of the garden.
This is the view down the garden from the patio, which is very sunny, and a great place to sit.
Here is another great place to sit. The camellia is one my grandmother brought with her in a pot from Surrey in 1968!
When I started gardening, the task of reshaping and reclaiming the garden was quite daunting. I used lots of containers, which allowed me to plant lots of things immediately. I gained a lot of confidence that way.
The pots are mostly empty at the moment, but I shall be filling them later in the month.
4 May, 2012
12 likes
Next post: Bedding plants
Comments
You have a lovely garden! Always something for the eye to take in, that's the kind of garden I like and hopefully in a year or two our garden will be 'busy'
4 May, 2012
Welcome to Goy, you have a lovely garden and a great backdrop to enhance it, I like your attitude towards it as my garden is also mine, for the same reason as well, its good isn`t it, lol.
I look forward to seeing more of it as we progress through the summer (forever hopeful)...
4 May, 2012
Welcome I do love your garden it's very pretty and mature. I can imagine the wild area is a great place to go and relax. Looking forward to seeing what you do next.
4 May, 2012
What a VERY pretty garden, its delightful, what a lovely place to spend time in.
Welcome to GoY
4 May, 2012
Beautiful garden. Your very lucky :-)
4 May, 2012
You've got a lovely garden. Thanks for showing it.
5 May, 2012
Thank you all for your comments and for the welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog entry, and I am really chuffed I managed to upload the pics!! But oh dear - I can see this is going to become totally addictive - I'm just off to take some more photos!
5 May, 2012
:-) so pleased you like it too melchisedec!!! its a lovely blog!!!
i feel quite cheated if i dont get to take a few photos every day!!!
5 May, 2012
I have found out that taking the photos and writing the blog give me a totally new perspective on my garden. My grandmother kept gardening diaries in exercise books (I have them and love dipping into them) She illustrated them with little sketches and paintings. She always bemoaned the fact that they were so far below the standard of the published garden diaries that were so popular (Edwardian Lady etc) but I think they are wonderful and so personal. So I guess the blog is an extension of that. I bet Granny would have been on this site every evening!
5 May, 2012
oh that is really lovely melchi! [hope you dont mind the abbreviation but if you do let me know!]
you wouldnt be able to put a photo of a page or two of her notebook on here would you?? im sure lots of us would love to see it.
5 May, 2012
I don't mind the abbreviation at all - Melchisedec is quite a handful (to be honest, I don't really know why I was inspired to use it!) I'll have a look through Granny's diaries with a view to uploading a couple of pages.
5 May, 2012
oooh yes please, thank you!!
wasnt melchisidec a wise king from babylon???
5 May, 2012
He was the first priest not to offer live (dead!) sacrifices, I think. Makes me wonder even more why I chose it!!! Actually, thinking about it, the name has always fascinated me, and I think I first came across it in "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sarah Crewe named her pet rat Melchisedec. Oh dear - I'm not doing myself any favours, am I? Lololol!! By the way, I have been rereading Granny's Diary, and I am going to write a blog entry about it. Thanks for the suggestion, I've had a lovely nostalgic read :-)))
5 May, 2012
I shall really look forward to your blog!!!!
5 May, 2012
Welcome to goy and what a pretty garden you have.And that view, wow, fancy having that at the bottom of your garden.
7 May, 2012
Thanks Rose! Yes - it's a real privilege, and we gain so much from the wildlife.
7 May, 2012
A beautiful place for resting. Nice place for summer afternoons :)
13 May, 2012
Thank you, Katarina, it is. I'm not going to say anything about the weather!!
13 May, 2012
:))) Just tell me, if it is better :). Please. I hope it is.
13 May, 2012
Actually, Katarina, I cannot complain too much about our weather here! We have not had the torrential rain that parts of the country have had. Yesterday was beautiful and we were sitting out today although it wasn't as warm as it might have been. It's breezy and grey right now.
13 May, 2012
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A wonderful garden ...
... do you have any special gardening plans for this year ?
What will you plant in the pots ?
4 May, 2012