Sunday October 03, 2004

The back garden part one...

It is going to take several blogs to go over the back garden.

First of all to get to it you have to walk over the stream I made. It is about a foot wide and runs along the length of the pergola if you see what I mean. There are three 'waterfalls' where the water cascades over a flat slab of stone into the next section of the stream. At the bottom of the stream is a small pond used as the reservoir where the pump is. A pipe from the pump runs underground along the stream edge up to the top when it pours into the top section. Gravel and stones cover the pond liner that keeps the water where it should be. The edge has stones varying from the size of a pea to a mans fist.

Onto the main rear garden, on the right is a border where I have had marigolds and bizzie lizzies. I also have some patio roses but they have not done very well. This narrow band then opens up into a larger border on the right hand side that goes all the way to the back of the garden. As this section opens out is our acer tree which has lovely red leaves at this time of the year. The acer is quite sensitive; it can loose some leaves in the spring it is caught out by a late frost, in the summer it is not tolerant of drought conditions which again causes early leaf loss.

The large border on the right has a English country garden feel to it. There are many perennials, poppies, aquilegias ( I grow many different types of these) agastache, achillea , hollyhocks, foxgloves and much more. I try and keep the border flowering all year but it is hard to do that. I have shrubs like mahonia in the border as well near the back. The main problem with the garden apart from the soil iso n two edges we have conifer hedges. These monsters soak up any available water and although we have had success in getting them cut back it is an ongoing battle.