Garden in December 2016

I didn't get round taking pictures on the first of the month, but these were taken just before Christmas.

The lawn is looking very green with all the rain it's had.

The grasses at the side are dying down now it's cold.

But there are some signs of life - Clematis 'Wisley cream' is just coming into flower!

The Japanese anenome is covered in fluffy seedheads.

And something else coming into flower! The Daphne is about to flower for the first time.

Winter flowering pansies flowering. In winter.

The Sarcococca  is about to flower too.

Garden at the beginning of August - October 2016

August

I got really behind with my garden at the beginning of the month photos this year. Once LO was mobile it was hard to get outside with a camera and take pics, and then get them transferred onto my computer and edited for a blog post. So, this is a quick round up of some of the pictures I took.

One of LO's Christening presents - beautiful flowers, it's a stock called 'Joy' from RHS Wisley.

Beautiful flowers

The OH watering the garden during a dry spell. With some assistance from LO who liked moving the hosepipe.

September
Beginning to look a little Autumnal, and the colours are fading a little bit.

Apples ripening on the standard tree. We did well for apples this year, although they came out quite small - didn't have enough rain at the right time.

Ripening apples on the espalier tree. This is a different variety which ripens later.

The Japanese anenome in all its glory.

One of the fuchsias

The sedums just coming into flower.

Some of the Pyracantha berries.

October
The Japanese anenome border beginning to look very autumnal!

Garden at the beginning of August 2016

Still getting caught up, but at least it is still August!

Lawn at the beginning of th month, with a baby for scale. LO really enjoys playing in the garden, although it's a bit more difficult now she's crawling as it's hard to get on with anything before she has to be removed from somewhere she's not meant to be!

Apples ripening on the standard tree. There are several on it this year, and they seem to be ripening slightly earlier than usual.

Lots of apples on the espalier tree. This one is further behind the standard, and produced a lot of apples, which I was a bit late thinning so they are all still rather small and green looking. I have hung CDs up already in the hope of protecting the crop from the squirrels this year...

Looking over the raised bed by the Golden rod and Physocarpus. These have grown really tall this year with all the wet weather earlier in the year.

A new plant! This is Salvia 'Joy', which was a Christening present for LO. I had fun deciding where to plant it for her. There was also a cardboard container shaped like a hand grenade which was a "wildflower bom", which we're going to have fun throwing into the border later in the year!

And the first lot of raspberries are ripe. Since then we've had another whole sieve full, as well as all the ones LO ate in the garden.

My patio containers. I'm pleased with them this year, especially as there's little I have really done to maintain them.

I held an open garden event and coffee morning two weeks ago, which was a little stressfull to organise with a baby around, but went really well. It was fun to show off the garden to the thirty people who came, and I raised £170 for charity!

Garden at the beginning of July 2016

OK, so July ended up being rather busy and, despite my best intentions, I didn't get round to blogging at all. Oops. I haven't yet taken the August pictures, but here are the July ones to get it started.

One lawn, with LO playing.

My newly arranged pots on the patio. I am really pleased with how these are looking now.

I cheated and bought ready-planted hanging baskets, having worked out that buying two hanging baskets (as we didn't already own any) plus the plants to go in them would be more expensive and a bit of a hassle with limited time available. The idea is then to re-use the baskets in future years. The water butt is getting a lot of use now the weather has turned warm. We've actually managed to completely empty it once already, even though I got the biggest one we could fit in.

The sedums are beginning to flower, and are really popular with the bees.

 I had to thin the apples on the espaliered tree as so many had grown, as you can see below. Last year we lost all of them to squirrels anyway...

So pretty, we've had this Anthemis tinctoria E.C. Buxton for about five years, and I usually put a plant support in for the flowers, but didn't get round to it this year. It looks so pretty mingled with the sedum below! Think I might do the same thing next year.

The raspberries are growing well, and have now almost got ripe berries on them.

And the rhubarb went completely crazy in the warm weather with all the rain earlier on!

Phew, July done. Now I really must get round to getting the August pictures taken...

Garden at the beginning of June 2016

Bit late this month, but finally I get round to posting pictures. The lawn has the addition of a small baby playing on it this month, as LO has been enjoying the warmer weather and the new lawn.

This is a mixture of plants, including one of my favourite Heucheras, in one of the borders

This is one of the Physocarpus, which has lovely flowers on it this year. I can't remember them being reddish in colour last year, but maybe I've just forgotten what they were like?

The Escallonia 'Apple blossom' which we bought on holiday in Bath three years ago is looking lovely.

And the grasses this side of the garden which I planted five years ago are looking good.

This is the finished view of the new patio and garage. So pleased with the final result - it was worth all the upheaval as we now have a useable garage, plus a lovely patio to use. I cheated and bought the hanging baskets ready-made, as finding time to garden with a baby around is quite difficult.

Garden at the beginning of May 2016

Bit late posting the garden shots this month as LO is now napping less during the day so I don't get much time to get online. Things have moved on a lot with the building work though. The new turf has been laid and has established well - LO and I have been enjoying lying on it in the afternoon when it's in more shade.

Here's the new turf, finished garage building and new patio. All that's left to do now is the driveway, which isn't visible in this picture. The garage has an electronic door, which is already making my life a whole lot easier. LO has enjoyed a few sleeps in her pram on the patio too.

Inside there is now loads of room for the car, and access for loading/unloading people and things. And look at all those lovely shelves!

Not many plant pictures to show this month as I didn't get a chance to take photos in the front garden. But in the back garden we have some apple blossom just showing.

And the raised bed is looking good.

Building site at the beginning of April 2016

 So, the new garage project is still ongoing. This is the current state of the back garden!

They have actually done quite a bit of work on this bit already - dug a metre deep soakaway to take the water from the new garage roof, removed all the turf, dug up diseased tree roots, levelled the ground, so it's nearly ready for the new turf to be laid now.

The new patio has been laid, after much cogitation about paving slabs.  I never want to see another paving slab ever again. Apart from the ones we've had laid obviously. I remember feeling similarly about taps when we had a new bathroom six years ago.

This is looking in the other direction. I seized the opportunity yesterday of some sunshine and a sleeping LO, and parked her on the patio whilst I got some gardening done.

The containers are beginning to look a bit messy. I'm looking forward to the building work being finished so I can get on with sorting them out.

And the Camellia is full of flowers!

Garden at the beginning of March 2016

A bit of a different view for garden at the beginning of the month this time. We're having building work done, so the things that normally live on the patio are currently on the lawn!

This is what the patio and garage look like at the moment. The garage roof is being replaced (it's very leaky and made of asbestos), the garage widened so that we can get LO into the car whilst it's in the garage, and unload shopping etc in there, as the garage was built for a 1950s car and they tend to be wider these days! The patio is being replaced with something that isn't pink concrete.

Amidst all this chaos, things are growing. The rhubarb is sprouting!

Daffodils are appearing in the containers - I'm pleased about this as I planted them 18 months ago and didn't replace them last Autumn as I didn't feel like lugging compost around whilst pregnant.

Hyacinths (also planted last year) are appearing in the other containers.

The Camellia is beginning to flower

And loads more flowers have appeared on the Hellebores! I thought the Daphne was going to flower too, but nothing's happened yet, and it's getting a bit late now?

That's it for this month. The building work is supposed to take 4-5 weeks, so maybe I'll have a nearly completed garage and patio to show off at the beginning of April.