There's something I find particularly wonderful about the first year of living in a new home and that is discovering the garden. Of course, if you move to or buy a house which has no garden or that has been paved over, has only lawn or worse, fake grass, this won't happen. However, if you are fortunate enough to inherit the garden of gardeners, that first year is voyage of discovery.
I remember the joy of my first year in the bungalow that we rented before buying our own house- in its 100+ feet of garden, there were so many shrubs and plants, that there was always a new joyful discovery of a new plant that would interesting shaped leaves and then flower subsequently.
We knew, when buying this house, that the lady who lived here (with her family) loved gardening- she had grown a passion fruit vine (which CBC accidentally massacred...grrr). The garden was one of the key things that made us fall in love with this house- it was so beautiful the first time we saw it, last July.
Now we've been here a few months, in addition to putting our own plants and touches into the garden (including CBC removing a tree and me, a couple of shrubs), we've started to see plants growing at different stages and we spot something new!
In the raised bed which we can see from our Living Room, there is an abundance of Lavender growing. These spears have suddenly shot up in the past few weeks- they are dense and beautiful and will look glorious when they blossom.
These spiky, funky looking beauties have the darling name, Love in a Mist, Fennel flowers or Nigella Damascena. There's only one so far. I have no idea where these have suddenly appeared from!
Likewise, these tiny pinky, purple flowers have suddenly blossomed abundantly but I am unsure what they are called.
These strident leaves have such a pleasing shape.
I have an amusing story about the next plant. When my Mum came over in February, she saw the rose bush in our garden that was growing in all directions. She completely decimated it, cutting it to about 15cm tall. CBC was really worried about it saying that she'd cut it too much (he, the Passion fruit murderer). I reassured him that roses like rough treatment.
Fast forward to the first May bank holiday and it was already this tall.
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| May Bank holiday |
Now, it has shot up a further foot or so. I can't wait to see it bloom!
The ultimate stunner in the garden is this plant which, before flowering, seemed to be some sort of flowering currant but now, it looks like a Little Lime Hydrangea. Do you know what it is?
Mum and I tied up this flowering tree which had lots of branches. Mum tried to dig it up to move it back a bit but it was too tough to move so we tied it up a bit as it was flopping forward onto the lawn. My neighbours have a beautiful huge blue beauty version if it! I hope we haven't damaged it, trying to move it!
This is, I suspect, the next beauty to bloom! What will it be?
These little pink flowers are not very prolific, but very welcome.
There was only one golden flower, a month ago.
These giant chive flowers are very pretty but there are a lot less than there would have been because I cut most of their heads off because my friend told me it puts the goodness back into the soil/plant if you do that. I couldn't resist leaving a few though!
CBC and I bought a new, larger pot for my Mint plant and it has repaid the attention by growing rampantly for the last 2 weeks!
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| Rehomed Mint |
Today, I planted out my germinated Climbing bean plants and tomatoes and Cavalo Nero which were germinated by my Mum. I've surrounded them in egg shells and Slug pellets so here's hoping they survive!
I look forward to what else will happen in our lovely garden in year 1!
Anything lovely and surprising growing in your garden? Did you discover this delight of the first year when you moved?
xx
