More Garden Wanderings...

The evening sun spotlighting some areas across the road. Can you see the height of those Leylandii? At the other side of that are some beautiful trees which we can only see the very tops of. Leylandii should be eradicated. Thats my belief for what its worth.

Our two new posh pots at the front door. Containing Canna Lilies and gold coloured creeping Jenny. These are the two pots Mike bought with our vouchers from lovely friends. They are actually made of plastic, so, as it says 'on the tin', they won't split in the frosts of winter. A good third of their contents is parts of the demolished coal bunker to keep them where they are in the strong winds we have. But still light enough to be brought into shelter, as the main plants are Canna Lilies, which I know to my cost do not survive the North East Winter.

Remember this Berberis in amongst the Ilex hedge?

At the other side of this hedge you can see how imposing the hedge is.

Giving us this 'view' from our kitchen.

Not good. We cannot see the garden, and apart from early morning when the sun streams in, yet again we have a darkened room. It has to go. As I write this it is 5.45p.m. and the large lawn we have is flooded with sunlight, now coming in from the West, but we cannot see this, because of the hedge. I hate cutting down healthy plants. But I do like open spaces and to view same.

As we walked up and down, on both sides of the hedge we noticed other beautiful plants struggling to survive. A Mock Orange, which has buds and will have a heavenly scent once opened, the Azalea I mentioned yesterday, other pretty little shrubs, all swamped by this dark evergreen jungle that has been allowed to take over and swamp everything and darken our view. So, weather permitting, tomorrow it has to go.

My troughful of Solomons Seal has finally made it into the garden here. Its a tough old bird so should survive being planted near to the lilac tree which has roots spreading in all directions to ensure its offspring keep on coming....I love lilacs, but all things beautiful can soon become overbearing and then become a pain....

I did a bit of pruning of one of the ornamental holly trees that is at the side of the summerhouse, and yes I did read the book first. Apparently evergreens can be attacked at any time of the year to improve their shape. So thats what I was doing when.....

I love Lucy and her partner descended this afternoon. Sandy fixed the fence he had damaged when he moved out our old oil tank, and pruned one of our ornamental cherry trees. I was most impressed by this. It was like watching Edward Scissorhands. Snip, snip, snip with the shears and we had this perfectly shaped tree before I had breath enough to ask "Do you know what you are doing?" Well, he did.

I have a sneaking love of chopping stuff to be honest. At least you can see what you have done! And, of course, give other plants the chance to thrive.

I can't tell you much I am beginning to enjoy gardening again.

Years ago, when our kids were small, Mike and I used to have our evenings, when they were all in bed, walking round the 'estate', where we would inspect the garden, what was growing, what wasnt, and now we are enjoying doing the same, wandering round the garden.