Category: Front Garden

Yesterday afternoone (Sunday) the heavens opened and we had torrential rain here in North East Wales. So much rain that the drainage grids couldn’t cope. The result was a fast flowing stream of water (right to left in the picture) on the road outside our front garden. (Just behind the peonies).  Luckily not IN our garden, as the wall is four to five feet high on the pavement side.

This is the result of living half-way up a small Welsh mountain – the run-off from three mountain roads. The other side of the mountain was probably just as bad.

and my poor peonies were battered and bruised, and hanging their heads.

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So this morning, when I inspected the damage, I had to remove several flower heads to reduce the weight and strain on the plants.

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There is still a bit of life in the cut flowers, so I put them in a bucket of water on my wall with a note to people to help themselves (but not to the bucket) . . .

and someone left this lovely note!

 

Everything in the front border is doing its best to grow big and strong.

There is a huge clump of lemon balm in the back left of this photo which I moved from a sunnier position in this border. It obviously prefers this sheltered spot and is threatening to cover one of last year’s new heucheras – which might prefer a sunnier spot.

There are aquillegias vying with Japenese anemones; alpine strawberries and Solomon’s Seal; and the ever present London Pride edging the border is showing pale pink flowers. Dwarf narcissi are still flowering too. Continue reading “Spring in the Front Border” →

A concerted effort in the front garden on 3rd November. First I dug up the peonies I’d earmarked for removal (by cutting their foliage off a few weeks back). Someone at the Community Garden said they would take them off my hands. Continue reading “The Front Border: Autumn” →

I bought a new toy . . .

. . . tried it out on my neighbour’s tree – and threw the trimmings over his wall!

As you can see below, his ‘hedge’ overhangs the pavement quite a lot.  I’ve reported it to the council.

I might not have been able to reach the top, but I did manage to remove a lot of side branches I’m already getting more light to my garden.

I also went along the boundary with garden shears and cut back everything I could reach, along with a ton of ivy growing on the wall.

It doesn’t look as though I cut much back, but I can only cut back to the edge of the wall (though I went a little further than that).

Ivy seems to be the only thing holding my neighbour’s wall together.

This wall needs serious attention before it collapses.  An excuse to get the neighbour to call round so we can point this out – along with the tree issue.