Reflections on 2023: A year in the garden

It’s been some time since I’ve posted on the blog so I’m going to use this entry to provide an overview of 2023. I think the main gardening highlight of last year was editing and improving what we already have. As we get to know the plants better we’ve moved some into different parts of the garden where they’ll be

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April 2021: Spring blossom and half a greenhouse

As you might expect, April has seen lots of new growth in the garden and we’ve also had the landscaping team back who built us our new greenhouse base and wall. The greenhouse and coldframe is being installed towards the end of May so I’ll be sure to include it in next months video.

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May 2020: Nesting birds and spring flowers

The bird box we erected in November 2018 was used for the first time this spring by a pair of tree sparrows; here is a clip of them in action feeding their brood: Many of the plants in the garden have stared to bloom this month including this Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Ingwersen’s Variety’, which is mat-forming and semi-evergreen. I think this

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November 2019: Planting bare root crab apple trees

In November our order of crab apple trees ‘Evereste‘ arrived. They came bare root via the post so we had to soak them prior to planting. We ordered 12 so we could plant 3 around each quarter of the wall – the picture below gives you an impression. We chose this variety since they are disease resistant and the blossom

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September & October 2019: Late summer flowers and planting for spring 2020

In September I began studying a RHS horticultural qualification at Merrist Wood college – here’s a link to my programme. We visited Wisley and particularly enjoyed the tropical garden; I really liked the contrasting foliage textures and colour combinations. I was particularly pleased with Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen‘  which we planted into the back of the mixed border in spring- the

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May 2019: Digging out the paths

  May must be one of my favourite months in the garden. I’m sad before it’s even over knowing I have to wait another year to see the garden adopt its fresh green foliage. As I discussed in last months post, we finally finished the dry stone wall and in May we launched in to digging the paths and  central

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