The spring garden ...
September and October have been incredibly busy and productive months. We have tackled a large number of major projects including learning how to fence, engaging with the local fire brigade to light the beacons of Minas Tirith and thus rid our lower paddock of some unsightly burn piles, becoming familiar with the foibles of the 'ladies who munch' (our 6 Wiltshire Horn ewes), building a greenhouse and constructing our veggie patch. I have tried to report on most of these major projects (apart from the veggie patch which will come in due course), so now is an ideal time to step back take a breath and enjoy the progress we have made in the garden.
When we look out over the front garden now it is hard to believe that in August 2020 we took possession of an overgrazed paddock with deep ruts caused by soil erosion. There were times when we lamented that we would never have even a half decent lawn. Fast forward three years and we simply cannot keep up with the pace at which the grass grows in spring. It takes an entire day with both of us working flat out to get the grass under control in all the areas that require cutting or slashing. But it is not just the lawn that has developed nicely. As the following photos show, the garden is also coming along with the trees starting to give structure while also providing protection for the borders.
Looking up towards the shed - October 2020
Looking up towards the shed - October 2023
Looking back towards the cottage - October 2023
You may well ask why Knut features in the second photo and not Pepper. Well, at the best of times Pepper is fairly elusive and rarely still enough to capture in a photo but right at the moment we have 5 gorgeous fluffy chicks that hatched two weeks ago and Pepper is obsessed. She spends hours with them, either running around their crate or just crouching and fixing the `collie eye' on them.
One of things we have learnt along the way with the garden is to load up on plants that just seem to thrive in our micro climate. For some reason viburnums seem to love it at Cracroft Farm. You are probably familiar with the viburnum opulus (snowball tree) and we started with this well known cultivar. However, after visiting a gorgeous garden near us (Crawleighwood garden) we discovered the delights of vibunum plicatum and we now have about 5 of them scattered around. They produce masses of beautiful floating white flowers in spring and provide spectacular autumn colour as well.
Roses also seem to favour our clay soil and so we have a selection of them scattered all over. We are particularly fond of David Austin roses with their incredibly evocative names - Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the Lady of Shallott, Bathsheba, Winchester Cathedral and Roald Dahl to name but few - but we also have a couple of beautiful climbing roses - notably Pierre de Ronsard and Cecile Brunner.
Roald Dahl in full bloom
The climber Cecile Brunner
The Lady of Shallott with Tess of the d'Urbervilles in the background
This has been the first spring when some of our 'treasures' have really started to show. The most exciting of these was the appearance of the first flowers on a herbaceous peony that we rescued from Cath's mum's garden. It was one of the first plants that we planted on arrival but it steadfastly sulked for two years before rewarding us this spring with a vibrant display of pink.
The first peony flower
A selection of other 'treasures' follows.
The golden elm over a sea of gladioli
A little fuscia starting to make its presence felt
It is impossible to do justice to the garden with a few random photos, but we feel that this spring - for the first time- it is starting to develop its character. A lot of work is still required to ensure that we have interest all year round and not just in spring and autumn but we feel the beauty of the garden this spring has provided ample encouragement to do the hard yards ...
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