Parks & Gardens in London, the UK & abroad
It has been a chilly, damp, grey day in London, one of those days when you don’t really want to do anything but know you ought to take some exercice. So I took myself to Greenwich Park to compare progress with the London Garden.
Continue reading ➞ Looking for inspiration in Greenwich Park
I have spent a week digging, thinning, potting, moving, and replanting and I hope everything in the garden is happy and ready to grow.
The garden in Suffolk should really be called ‘The Fortnight Garden’ because that is what I am trying to do – make an interesting garden on a few day’s attention once a fortnight. Crazy! I returned from wonderful weeks in South Africa to find the garden in Suffolk hadn’t missed me at all; instead it was getting on with the New Year. I have squeezed in a few days but it really needs my undivided attention for at least a week and I don’t have a week until early April. So what is keeping me busy? I am digging in London, still posting on my travels in South Africa (with gardening posts to come from South Africa!), thinking about what is needed in Suffolk, and starting to work on a little photography exhibition in early 2018 together with a friend! Quite a long list of ‘things to do’ but first I am going to enjoy the spring in the Suffolk garden.
The magnolias are mainly over for the year – glorious, sculptural, waxy, enticing – just beautiful.
I have been digging, clearing and dividing in Suffolk and need a moment to enjoy the colours in the garden. I hope all the bare patches will soon become green and colourful!
It was a mild day in Suffolk, and not raining so I had a chance to tidy up in the garden – a task I had not anticipated doing until March!
I cleared Japanese Anemones off the paving and cut down the sedums – both are on the compost heap now. And although it is winter there are lots of colourful treats if you look carefully.
And in the front garden I pruned the roses, cut the Verbena Bonariensis to the ground, and cut down the clematis – all were growing. Was this wise? Well, the deed is done and they have to make the best of it! And early treats are close to the ground.
No snow, but spring flowers
Over there the snow has finally stopped and spring has arrived.
Here it is early summer.
The weekend weather was mild and so I tackled the garden. The side fence and wall were cleared of clematis and ivy, and rampant rose branches were cut out. A local man is going to build a store for the wood, using pallets left from a neighbouring building.
The Japanese Anenomes, starting to scatter seed everywhere, were cut down.
And I planted the bed which was cleared, I hope, of ground elder in the autumn. There are now five small plants of Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’, Tellima Grandiflora, Bergenia ‘Abendglut’, and Geranium Macrorrhizum ‘Spessart’.
Elsewhere there are signs of new life together with winter colour.
Here the fruits are starting to swell.
There the crabapple has just come into full bloom.
