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| Summer Spendour (1) |
As
a writer, I’ve self-published two novels A
Suitable Young Man and Bittersweet Flight
(link below). a collection of short stories Entertaining Angels (www.tinyurl.com/y6w6a5ss) and am currently
editing book three. I should probably be on book six or seven by now except
that I share my love of writing with my other passion - gardening. Which is
what this blog is about.
When
we first moved into this bungalow in Derbyshire some 18 years ago the garden
was, quite honestly, a mess. It’s a large corner plot bordered by a busy main
road and slopes upwards. The previous owners had built an extension some three
years previously and the land to the side of it had been left to a
weed-infested wasteland. What’s more all the unused building materials had been
left at the side of the garage. The path at the back of the house was
horrendous and held three coal bunkers, (this is after all a former mining
area) filled not with coal but accumulated rubbish. My husband’s language when
he discovered that wasn’t fit for anyone’s ears, let alone our neighbour who
was at that moment putting some rubbish in the dustbin!
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| The mess that awaited us at the back of the house! |
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For
the first three years, we concentrated on getting the house as we wanted it
with me just about keeping the garden tidy though mowing the grass – I won’t dignify
it by calling it a lawn – was a tricky procedure the grass being on a slope.
Finally, in 2003 a start was made on the garden and for the next seven years,
my lovely husband laboured in the garden, hard-landscaping and terracing it
and, after a problem arose with a natural spring, prevalent in this area,
installing drainage. I can’t remember how many waste skips we had in that time
but it was a LOT. It’s been worth it though as it’s given us so much joy and
pleasure over the years, not only us, but to passers-by who quite often tell me
over the fence what a lovely garden it is.
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| Just a few of the cyclamen coum |
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This is particularly so when the
cyclamen coum that we planted as five plants in the early days have naturalised
all over the garden. It’s a glorious sight in late February/early Spring.
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| Summer Splendour (2) |
Sadly,
with an ageing body, I can no longer spend as much time in the garden as I used
to. I do what I can when I can and manage to keep up with it, just about.
Originally, we had a greenhouse which I loved pottering in but that’s had to go
as it wasn’t being used as it should. The patio which housed that is now a bare
paved area now and I have plans to make a courtyard garden there with lots of
different sized containers over the next year or two. Fingers crossed I can do
that!
A
short blog this time but lots of photographs.
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| Summer Spendour 3 |
