Armandii's retreat

Thank you, everyone, for your very kind remarks about my little bit of Heaven. I have to confess that Mother Nature has been very kind and co-operative with me. Planting so many different varieties and species of plants, in sandy soil, so tightly is pushing things to an extreme. But dressings of garden and used commercial compost during the Winter to add bulk, humus and water/ food holding qualities to the thin soil seems to have paid off over the years.

Yes, Pete, it is heavily stocked, some bought, some given, some from cuttings, sowings and self seedings. Getting around the garden, even on the paths, does bring you up close and personal with the plants. There's always something tugging at your ankles or legs as you navigate your way through. But the scents and smells that arise around you as you walk through are fantastic.:D

Louise D, you're right it is the right time of year for Cottage Style gardens, except for this year, because the exceptionally warm April brought on plants a lot sooner than normal. So, actually, the garden as you've seen it wasn't at it's best because at lot of the plants had peaked before I took the photo's!!

Barnaby, despite the density of planting and the fact that there are a few thousand plants stuffed shoulder to shoulder, seemingly quite happily, there really isn't a lot of work there.
Dead heading is done on one or two of my ambles through the garden during the day. The most dead heading is done to the Annuals rather than the Perennials, would you believe. Being a mainly herbaceous bordered garden the plants do they own stuff. They appear out of the ground, grow, flower, and in the Autumn and Winter disappear back into the ground. So long as I remember to provide them with good fertile soil to grow in thre's very little work in it for me.

PeterS, you're right there is a nice contrast in heights, but again, I confess, that isn't my own deliberate design but Mother Nature's, helped by the fact that after about 90' feet the garden slopes away gently by about 2' feet.

What you?, jealous?, Catztails?? I can't believe it!!!:D

The hole in the front of the Arbor roof, Rural Gardener? Well, it's this:




It's a hole for the Bird box in the roof. I built the Arbor from mostly scrap wood and things. I had no design plan in my mind. In fact I acquired the tree trunk, which I sawed in half, for a open bench seat. The arbor just happened!! But while building it I got the idea that it would be nice to have a family of birds nesting above my head while I was sitting in the Arbor. We'll see if it works.:D

Another addition to the back rest in the Arbor is this:




A Golden Dragon. Cost me 50p at a Car Boot sale. I'm now searching for two Chinese "Dogs" to sit. facing inwards, at each end of the back rest. Oh, and I added this important facility for while sitting there, No, Ziggy, not a toilet, but this:





A place to put a cup of coffee or tea, glass of beer or wine. If I was to put a cup or glass on the floor I'd been bound to knock it over!

This is another resting place in the garden for me, but as you can see it's already occupied:D





This area, in Spring, is smothered in Snowdrops, Primroses and Bluebells:





There is actually a path there, honestly. The kids love mysterious jungle paths and this leads them to another section of the garden:




And this is the new rose I bought recently, Rosemoor. A nice colour and very strong heavenly scent.





Another resting place. The green ladder I had to build for Jenny [the cat] as she was using a very old one, which I was using to train my Grapevine along. But the old one rotted away
and so she's got her very own Cat Ladder to climb so that she can sit in the wall bower on the left! It's a hard life. By the way, I did Jenny an injustice by putting Sally's name under the picture of the cat sitting the limb of the Compost heap when in fact it was Jenny.
Sorry Kid.





And this is the view you get while sitting at that last resting place:




Again, many thanks, my friends, for the very kind comments about my Little Piece Of Heaven.

 

Absolutely, Scrungee:D Teasels ain't weeds if you've got any on your plot. There's about 15 - 20 of them dotted around the borders. They give beautiful flowers like below and the Bees just love them.

 

Thanks Spruce, I'll just let the others in:happydance:

I'm thinking of starting another thread that shows how I constructed the Arbor out of scrap wood and bits and pieces to see if that will encourage others to build one themselves. Good idea or not:D

 

Just as a matter of interest, Spruce, these are the Day Lilies I've got in my garden, including those growing at the bottom of my Compost Heap:D

Day Lily "Spring Air"




And Day Lily "Scarlet Oak"

 

Hi Barnaby, well there are a number of ways, I believe, to, hopefully, extend the colour available in the garden, but they're not guaranteed:D

Paeonies are among my most favorite plants, but the flowering period is so short, and if the rain comes it's even shorter! I've got Paeonies "Sarah Berhardt, Karl Rosenfield, Bowl of Beauty, Shirley Temple, and four other unnamed Paeonies, and they just slightly extend their flowering season by flowering at slightly different times. But I feed all of them from early Spring onwards, as well as my roses, with a soluble feed like Miracle Grow, and then when they're budding up I feed a high potash fertiliser like Tomato Feed to them. It gives me more buds, more buds that develop not all at the same time and thereby giving me a longer flowering period. I treat Oriental Poppies, of which I've got 9 varieties, the same, although they do differ in flowering times and lengths of flowering.

Fox Gloves?, Barnaby. Well, I only grow the biennial type, to extend the flower season of those I grow as many varieties as I can, plus the self sown ones in the ground tend to flower differently depending on the light they're getting. So for me the answer is as many varieties as possible plus give them different light conditions.

Lupins, again as many varieties as I can sow. Plus I make early sowing, middle sowings, and late sowings. That does help to extend the flowering season.

I "dead head" on my ambles through the garden every day, and that helps keep the plants flowering longer as they're denied from making seedheads. Plus those plants I know will keep on flowering if "dead headed" I keep feeding. So "dead heading" and feeding does, I think, extend the flowering season. But also, like you,l I jam and pack plants in so that they're standing shoulder to shoulder, but not only that I pack in as many varieties as I can get, and that large number of varieties all have different flowering times thus extending the flowering again.

There is no magical way of extending the flowering season, Barnaby. I try to get colour in the garden through the 12 months of the year in some manner or other, and the only way of doing that is any many different species and varieties you can pack in, and afford.

All gardeners want more out of their garden than they can get, and I'm no different. Every year differs and a lot of it is up to the weather and Mother Nature:D

Good luck with your garden and enjoy every minute of it.:happydance:

 

Oscar said he would love ot come and visit your garden and your attractive owners . He said they seem to have you as well trained as he has managed with us. :yess:

 

Thank you, SteveR, for your very kind comments about my Little Piece of Heaven. In truth, I spent quite a few hours contemplating as to whether or not I should do the post. As you know a lot of people's opinions and dislikes, especially about gardens, and what, and how to cultivate them can get quite emotive and strong, so I wasn't too sure that my madcap, chaotic, pack 'em all in, use every inch of soil, would go down so well. But I am relieved to see that I've had nothing but positive comments about the garden. I have been paid back countless times for the time, effort and risk of getting all the plants in so close and in such rambling way by the colour, the scents, the insect life, and that inner peace that seeps into your soul when walking or sitting amongst it all.

When I built the Arbor, I honestly hadn't originally set out to build it. The tree trunk I acquired was meant for a natural look bench. So when I realised that I had a lot of "scrap" wood in my garage left over from other projects I thought "what about an arbour, facing West to watch the sun go down". So I checked, found long pieces of 2" x 4" timber, 2" x 2" timber, some 1/2" marine plywood, some Willow Trellis meant for an entrance to the pond area which I hadn't done for some reason, and various other bits and pieces I decided on the Arbor. But the tree trunk still remained the method of seating in my mind!!

I know it looks bumpy and uncomfortable but it's not. Having said that, you're right, of course, Steve, I do need a cushion to make it more comfortable, so I'm on the look out for one with the green and gold colours of the back rest.:D I do have a Plan B though and that is to provide a conventional flat seat. I already have a suitable piece of 2" x 8" timber for the seat and it's easy enough to fit higher brackets needed to raise the flat seat to the height it is now.

So thanks again, Steve, for the kind comments and advice on the thing I really, really need to get to finish off the Arbor.