Through to the Front Garden

It is time to go through the small gate into the front garden.

And look back at the little gate! The Amelanchia which was what I meant to take can't be seen!!

Although this was never a farm house, the garden is similar in its layout. If you come out of the front door, you look down what was once a short drive, but is now more of a path. To either side there is a lawn, and a wall (listed 2*) goes all the way round.


We have come through to the right-hand lawn. In front is my latest piece of work. There was a huge Ribes, which the year before last I took the clippers/saw to and reduced it to a sensible size. Before, the birds always ate the flower buds, but this year, it had proper flowers on it! Don't know what that should tell me! Behind it are a tree or two, a Prunus mainly and rather boring Viburnums. I have planted all sorts of things in front but at the moment they are making a slow start. I find that shrubs and trees that I plant sulk for a year or two before they start to really grow!

To the right is a hidden path down the middle of the things in the pic. It leads to an arty farty little well, with no hole or water!!. Actually, a water diviner found that there is water about 20ft down! The tree(s) is a Beech which seeded itself many years ago. It was an absolute menace - the branches came almost to the ground and nothing would grow under it. There was a third one which shaded the place where we were adding a Conservatory. The beastly Council people would not let us remove the whole thing, even though if it fell it would demolish the end of the listed house!. They said that walkers coming down the right of way would miss it! At the same time permission was being given to 3 turbines which would blot the view for same walkers going the other way!! Any way, we removed one of the stems and pruned the rest of the tree hard back. It looked like a bottle brush, but now that it has done some growing it looks quite nice again and the shading effect has been partially dealt with. As you can see, things do now grow!

At the far end of that bed is this Seneccio greyii (now called something else). You can just see the top of the 'well' behind it. The Seneccio is all one plant. It is the biggest I have ever seen. I prune out all flowered wood in the late summer and cut it back round the lawn edge and anything that goes up too high. You will be subjected to another picture of this when the shrub behind comes into bloom.


Well, that's it for today. We'll carry on another day. The broom will be over, but I'll put in a picture of it, so that you don't miss it. Bye for now.