Wet and Windy Saturday

Today is a wet and windy day I had wanted to get out in the garden and do some more clearance. After losing my ancient apple last year on the day we were about to leave on our annual holiday to Brittany, my garden died along with the tree.

My garden was my pride and joy and was always much admired by visitors to our house. Small as it was and not necessarily always kept immaculately; nevertheless it was a haven for wildlife and had pretty flowers for much of the year.

The season starts with the bluebells, which I pull up every year but which come up in spite of my efforts to eradicate them. Forget-me-nots follow again in spite of all efforts to remove them, roes including a short flowering season of a Rosa Mundi with glorious scent and stripy flowers; given to me by my cousin on a unique visit, who I remember as a result of the flowers which appear every year, for however short the period. The rose given to us by my parents-in-law, Pink Peace, also flowers annually even though the plant is a martyr to chocolate spot. The great cabbage like blooms in the deepest pink are always stunning and appear just outside my kitchen door so that I can admire them in the morning.

On the sunny side there are Penstemons, firecracker? a deep magenta and a pale pink variety the name of which I can't recall. The black grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') and Stipa appear on this side too. Along with lilies and phlox all now lost in the jungle or some other mysterious reason. The clematis I have planted are all gone. I have tried and tried with so little success over the years. they flower for a season and disappear, even when they reappear, as one did this year, I managed to pull it up in my zeal on clearing the weeds, which had taken over the flower bed completely.
All the pots filled and overflowing with annual bedding; each year with a different colour theme. My best year was when I planted love lies bleeding which sent out its striking red tassels in profusion in each of the four pots stationed by the steps leading up to the grass patch from the patio. My fig tree given to me for my 50th birthday in the huge blue ceramic pot also a gift for the same birthday always bears fruit but has never given me a single edible fig in spite of all of my efforts, I feed and water it assiduously and still no success. My aunt gave me a peach one year, also in a pot tended carefully too. This has fruited once in all the years I have had it; yielding four magnificent white peaches of a deliciousness never before experienced and, regrettably never since experienced.


There are all sorts of shrubs I have planted too, too many to mention most of which are gone, but I have a Myrtle which is currently in flower; I can't ever remember it flowering before, and my geraniums (pelargoniums) seem to flower all year long. I have kept them for at least four years without transplanting them or overwintering indoors.

However these successes are far outweighed by my failures. My next project is to remodel the garden completely; to get rid of the grass, as this just grows and hardly ever gets mowed. The loss of the tree may prove to be a blessing in disguise but not for this year. It may be that the apple overpowered them all and that this is the time to celebrate new opportunities to develop a completely new planting.

My garden is truly a disaster area. But I still have memories of it when it wasn't.