Before and after Garden Pictures

Couldn't resist looking!

Cottingley Fairies: How Sherlock Holmes's creator was fooled by hoax

 

Thank you @Busy-Lizzie, this year I've taken a lot of my large grasses out due to weather damage last year. I have been replanting the gaps with more colourful foliage and flowers, including Heleniums, Echinaceas, Berberis, Heucheras and roses, inspired by your photos! My soil's not really good enough for them but I've enhanced it and been selective, trying what are claimed to be disease resistant varieties. So far so good!

 

That's why many grasses just don't work well here @Plantminded . They just get knackered in early to mid autumn, so you have to take the flowering stems off, and even the main body of them can get quite badly trashed.

 

Until last year they were OK @fairygirl but after all the wind and rain I got fed up with them leaning over and having to prune them. The garden looks bad enough in winter without that .

 

I've taken some photos from the house this morning @Victoria to show you the two levels of my garden and how they connect. There's also a second, main set of steps running alongside the house. (I'm still not sure whether I should have painted those chairs yellow .)

 

Ah ha, now I have more perspective, thank you. Now it looks formal but with lots of privacy, which I insist on. Can you see the neighbours or vice versa? You have done a wonderful job. The chairs look very tropical. I was going to get them, Cape Cod /Adirondack Chairs, but then I had my issues and thought more upright was more suitable for getting up. With second thoughts the rocking chair is silly to launch out of.

 

I can't see any neighbours @Victoria, apart from one corner at the bottom when my elderly neighbour trims his potted plants and occasionally looks over for a chat, which I don't really mind. The Adirondack chairs remind me of my time in Barbados. My brother makes his own from a template he got when he lived there. They are difficult to get up from, but the arms provide a handy place for your rum and coke .

 

@Plantminded That is a lovely yellow. So pretty and calm. It reminds me of the colour of my favourite columbine flowers.

People have been known to use adironack chairs on hill sides because it then puts you in an upright position rather than leant back. A matching block under the rear legs would adjust the amount you need to lift yourself?

 

Thank you @CanadianLori. The chairs do cheer the garden up in winter. That's a good suggestion, thank you. I'm fine with them but some of my visitors can struggle, but I don't encourage many of them .

 

They are a good workout for the abs. Maybe that sitting area should be called the "abdominator pad"

Joking aside, you have lovely gardens and I wish there was a "jealous" rating!

 

Bean Tree

 

Here’s a closer look for you @Banana Man before it got pollarded.

 

I love bean trees, I had 5 but one got too huge so I only have 4 now

I've just started training this one as a standard.



I did this one years ago, it's a bit dark now but you can still see it.



Excuse the dumping ground.

I grew it in a pot but in the ground. Years later I had the idea to remove the pot facade and display the roots. I thought it looked pretty cool



Every year I savage the head, you can just about see it in the beginning of May.



Excuse the temporary dumping ground

 

This is a photo taken by the estate agent back in 2007.



It was fun and games ripping out all of the decking and block paving.

This was after I had it turfed and put in a silly little flower bed. Planting sun-loving phormiums in the shadiest part of my garden was also not a winner.



This was when I decided that creating a shade bed was a better idea.



After accepting that my lawn would take an awful lot of work to keep in any type of decent condition, I decided on an overhaul. This was when I finished it in 2020.



The year after, I realised just having perennials wasn't right and started putting in shrubs. The last full picture I have of the garden is from 2022.


I haven't got any full photos from after that as in 2023, the plum tree at the rear had a massive infestation of aphids which left it looking like a savoy cabbage. It was pretty ugly. I've also been changing the colour scheme to softer colours and it's taking some time to get right. Hopefully I'll be able to get some decent photos later this year, at the moment there's trays of seedlings propped up in various places and it's a mess!

 

Thanks for posting your photos @Banana Man. I feel easier about pollarding mine now .