My Mum has always been a huge inspiration to me in the gardening stakes. She has green fingers and always made our childhood garden look beautiful! My sister did a project once called 'My garden' and charted progress through the years of the garden. I was mesmerised to look at the garden over time and how utterly idyllic it was- a tiny sanctuary in a Suburban sprawl!
My Mum recently bought a new home (humph, she's managed it before me!) and over the months she has been there, has turned quite a basic, characterless pair of gardens (front and back) into something splendid! I thought I'd share some pictures from early August.
She's introduced these raised beds at the back. Ignore the horrible shadowy tree of doom from the garden backing onto hers.
Along the left-hand side she has been growing squashes.
Here's a tiny one. I forget which variety this is.
And here was a considerably larger Butternut squash!
Beautiful Echinacea flowers below with a bug hotel above.
Various kinds of mint nestle together.
Here is the bird feeder with some little apples left for them and tomatoes in pots.
Apples galore on this tiny potted tree.
Her Runnerbeans have been EPIC. She decided to grow them up a piece of string to make them easier to pick! How clever!
Courgettes and beans together.
On the wooden decking are these Cactuses. The original Mother of all these (I'm not sure if pictured) was a piece that fell off a Cactus in Lanzarote. Mum felt sorry for it and rescued it, keeping it in water all the week she was there. It had started to sprout roots so she wrapped it in wet paper towel to carry home and planted it in a pot on our window sill.It then sprouted many babies over the years and grew very tall! It is nice to see it is still going strong through its ancestors!
Mum is incredibly happy to be living near a beach. She was a collector of shells but I started her on the seaglass and she has built up an incredible collection. Plus, a lovely selection of Driftwood.
Here is her fairy garden with more shells, sea glass and rainbow windmills.
Here and out the front are sunflowers of great stature!
Finally, here is her bench. She bought it cheaper in a garden centre as the paint work was scratched. She painted it in her favourite blue and then painted beautiful woven leaves and flowers on it.
What a beautiful small, Surburban garden! She has done wonders in the few months and I am excited to see what she does in the future. Perhaps I'll share the front garden another time!
Now, all I need to do is try to make my garden like that when I eventually own a house. Sigh...will it ever happen? I am despairing of our vendors to ever find themselves a new home.
x
Briony
x
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