Now that the corner border has been planted and is slowly establishing, I’m taking my foot off the gas pedal and in a sense, having a brief “Summer nap” (in contrast to the “Winter hibernation”). I’m taking a break from 5:00am starts, 15 hour days and weekends spent constantly gardening. I’ve changed pace and have recently settled for pottering around, weeding, deadheading and other small jobs. I’ve nothing large planned for the immediate future, I’ll just let the garden get on with whatever it wants to do. I think it’s a good time to have a bit of a sit down.
The view from the patio fills me with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment; it’s a good place to be and for the first time in two years, walking around the garden is relaxing, therapeutic and restorative, just as it was in our previous garden, perhaps even more so now in this one. There is still a vast amount of work to be done but we’ve restored enough borders, grown enough plants and have enough flowers that there is enough to call “a garden” and I now get a sense of excitement when I think about the next part to work on.
The three large, now complete, borders complement each other very well. Each has its own conditions, characteristics, plants and season. The middle border (Magnolia Hill) is primarily Spring flowering and by now is an interesting mass of contrasting foliage of all colours, shapes, textures and sizes. The Corner border is more exotic with Ginger Lily, palms and dahlias, it will flower in late summer and early autumn. Fruit Avenue is currently of interest in the developing raspberries, flowering clematis climbing the young fruit trees, ripening gooseberries and blueberries and at the corner of it all, in a large sparkling mass are the Leucanthemum, or Shasta Daisies, raised from seed and planted temporarily to suppress weeds, they are a spectacle in their own right.
On the odd occasions when it has been dry in the evenings, I’ve sat on the bench on the patio and looked far over the borders and my eye is always drawn to this tall mass of flowers wrapped around the rose tower (currently hosting a wineberry). As I plan the next steps for the garden and ideas run through my head, the scent of Evening Primrose wafts on the breeze, the birds call in the trees and the bright white of these daisies shine out as the daylight fades, glittering like stars into the night as the rest of the garden fades into dark.
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