There’s more than a hint of nostalgia in my choice of photos here. With the turn of the year and the first hints of spring, I am thinking about gardening; and more especially, of gardens left behind and the things I used to grow there.
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The new home garden, though small, has potential as they say, but much like the house, every part of it needs attention. We’ve had the hedges cut into shape and the apple trees pruned. The greenhouse is all but mended, and the slab for Graham’s shed is laid and ready for his latest creation. But the biggest challenge is reining in the overall infestations of ground elder, ivy, Spanish bluebells and a devilish creeping shrub with red tubular flowers that seems intent on taking over the place.
Basically, when it comes to fresh planting, we’re pretty much at ground zero, with an awful lot of ground to shift. And while it is feasible, with serial determination, to clear areas of the invaders, it will likely take a few seasons to do so. All of which means holding back on plans for any permanent planting, at least on the herbaceous and shrub front. I am resisting using weed killer.
The invaders’ persistence is not such an issue when it comes to making vegetable plots. They can be cleared and weeded every year at the end of the growing season, and again in spring. In fact it has crossed my mind to grow this year’s potatoes in the front garden where we’ve lifted a load of unsightly paving. I’ve also thought of using that space for a mixture of annual flowers, beans and greens, i.e. cottage garden style. I probably will do that. After all, you can grow climbing beans up sunflowers. They like to cohabit. And it seemed to work at the Broseley rental house where I made a quick-fix garden last year.
In the meantime, I’m thinking of starting some perennials off in pots. I know we will miss the allotment raspberries, so I’m trying a small bush variety called Yummy . It will apparently grow well in containers, at least in the short term. I’ve also rescued a few of the previous occupants’ plants from the infested beds, and ‘quarantined’ them in pots too, thus capturing any remnant ground elder which can be carefully unpicked during re-potting or planting out.
But then I’m truly missing our Evereste crab apple tree from the Sheinton Street garden. It’s a very slow grower, so if I do give in to buying a replacement, it might well manage in a big pot for a while.
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So: onwards and upwards. I’ve come to the conclusion it is my lot in life, much like generations of my Hampshire gardener ancestors, to wield a spade, endlessly making new gardens wherever I end up living. You may expect some of the results to crop up here. For now, some very pleasing ‘borrowed landscape’ from back in the autumn – the rowan tree over the hedge by the greenhouse. A wonderful birds’ pantry.
Lens-Artists: warm colours This week Egidio wants to see warm colours in our photos. Please see his blog post for some wonderful warmth and inspiration.
Tish Farrell 
Although I only know you through your blog, I’m confident that even this year, your garden will bring you sensory pleasure as well as good things to eat. Your photos are lovely.
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Margaret. Hugely appreciated 🙂
Tish, I admire your determination to create a lovely garden. I don’t have that gene! I can kill cactus. I’d like to see some pictures of your progress!
Kill cactus, indeed. You are one tough lady, Anne. And thanks for making me smile 🙂
Not tough, I just neglect them. They need water too!
For some odd reason the notion of you cactus wrangling popped into my head.
My neighbor is an amazing gardener and it took her a few years to get used to the fact that my yard will look neat and orderly. I do have a small rose garden that I deadhead and take care of.
There you are then. You are a gardener. I don’t get on very well with roses.
😊
Your photos are grand and yes Spring does bring all kinds of dreaming for our gardens. No doubt you will be successful even if it take a season or two. We gardeners must dig and get dirty to be at least half minded if not whole. I look forward to seeing your new adventure take hold.
Many thanks, Beverly.
Tish, what a beautiful post and text you shared. The opening photo alone is breathtaking. The colors throughout the post bring such warmth, and your photos are beautiful. Good luck with your flower and planting project. I look forward to seeing the results throughout the year. Thanks for joining in the challenge.
Thank you for all those kind words and for such an inspiring challenge, Egidio.
Tish, your words about the challenge are heartwarming. It’s good to see users liked the challenge. Thank you.
Good luck with the gardening and think I should plant a rowan tree. Wonderful berries for birds and to look at.
Yes, I’d forgotten how wonderful they were until we moved in next to this one. And if the birds spare some berries they make a nice jelly preserve.
Oh I feel your pain Tish – and yet you’ve developed some plans that will get you along while the larger planting waits. Your image of the flowers is absolutely beautiful. I would definitely frame that one!
That’s a good thought to keep in mind, Tina. To be happy with short-term plan. The rest will follow 🙂 Thank you.
Great to read of your plans for your new garden Tish. It is going to be beautiful!
Thank you for that, Agnes.
I’m sure it will all fall into place beautifully
Many thanks, Beth. Lovely to have that thought.
G’day Tish, so pleased to catch up with you again. Are you now in a forever home? Love all the beautiful photos. My word you have a real challenge ahead and already you are tackling it with gusto. I look forward to seeing before and after photos as they happen.
Hello, Pauline. Well I’m hoping we’re not going to move anywhere else! And thanks so much for your ongoing interest in our gardening pursuits. And it’s not only the garden. The roof is due to come off in March, plus the rear conservatory to be demolished to make way for a new kitchen-diner. You can imagine the upcoming chaos! I’m thinking I might altogether prefer joining your splendid NZ cruise. Happy travels to you and Jack.
Sounds like a lot of work ahead of you. 😳
Just looking at those pumpkins warms me up. And since your plans are afoot, I guess we’ll be seeing some results in a few months. That last photo is also wonderful
Many thanks, I.J. Those pumpkins were a real treat. Must definitely add them to the ‘to grow’ (actual bucket) list.
Great photos, Tish
Cheers, Mak. A resilient New Year to you.
Lovely images Tish, especially the header photo. I’m sure you will do very well with your edibles and planting potatoes in the front garden is not a daft idea. I remember my father doing exactly that when we moved into a new house when I was 10. He said it helped to break down the soil ready for planting.
Good on your father, Jude. That’s rather what I was thinking. And it will lure out any lurking really pesky weeds. For one thing I’m rather horrified to find that Spanish blue bells reproduce by seed as well as bulb. I’m already finding tiny little seedlings wherever I dig. Curses!
I have that problem with the three cornered leek or wild onion. They spread everywhere and almost impossible to pull out from between the cracks in the walls.
Oh yes, those cracks in walls and paving!
Beautiful photos! I think you have inspired yourself to get back to the soil once again.
That’s a happy notion, Jennie – inspiring oneself 🙂
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Your photos are beautifully warm but I can feel your nostalgia for these gardens in what you write. However I have a feeling that once you get properly going with the planting for your new garden, even if it has to be mainly in pots for now, you will warm to the task and grow to love this one too 🙂
Ha! ‘Warm to the task’ – thanks for that, Sarah. I shall stir myself 🙂
Nothing if not resourceful, Tish. Loving these colours.
Thanks for the encouragement, Jo.
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Ah yes, a women I understand with a passion I also love. Your “lot in life” like generations before you. For some of us it is ingrained. You definitely have your work cut out for you. Always something to do in the garden! I think I am going to check on the Yummy raspberries. And…..nice photos of warmth in your garden, and your soul.
Lovely comment, Donna, thank you. And a happy reminder that gardening has very much to do with the soul 🙂
How I understand you, Tish. It would pain me to leave my garden behind if I ever moved from here. I’d probably take it with me. It’s a labour of love and always worth it. I love your rowan photo and your opener, but they all have their own vibrancy and beauty.
Ah, Sofia, a woman after my own heart. I did bring a few pieces of the old garden with us, but had to curtail inclinations due to moving into a rental property before we could begin finding a house to buy. And then I told myself it would be exciting to start with a blank sheet. Which it will. Many thanks, as ever, for your nice comment.
Warm images and warm memories, Tish! I am certain that your new garden will be as lovely as it can be. My grandmother would also have planted potatoes to make the soil the very best… I do remember your crab apples and hopefully you can have them in your new place too. I sometimes think of how it will be to leave my garden, when we no longer can manage it. But hopefully we have some more years left with it.
That’s a very pleasing image of your grandmother planting potatoes to break up the soil, A-C. I’m pretty much decided on planting at least one row of quick growing salad spuds out front. I’ve also found a dwarf crab apple that won’t mind a pot of a while, though I’m not sure we’ll ever solve the ground elder invasion. I gather it’s good for gout, if ever we are so afflicted 🙂
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hadn’t thought about that. With the English love of gardens, one must actually be “sorrier” to leave a garden than a house…
Made me think of our garden in Nairobi. designed by the English owner of the house. Who’d trained the Luo gardener, Lipoy, to perfection. Only once in a while did my mother beg for minor arrangements. Via the cook, Lipoy did not speak English… (Saw him again a dozen years later when I went back to Kenya. We were both very moved…)
Spring will come.
I do miss our Nairobi garden, though I didn’t alter its basic structure. Like yours, it had been laid out by some colonial tyoe. It’s not there now of course. Nor the house. The plot’s been developed into a select small row of town houses.
But yes, one can end up missing the garden more than the house. I’d just about got the Sheinton Street planting the way I wanted it before we left. Ah well. On with the next.
Many of our old houses are gone. Ours in Nairobi was still there when I went back a dozen years later. I recently “Google streeted” the area, could recognise a thing…
Now, since you have developed a plan for Sheinton St, maybe you will design the new garden faster? Who knows?
best of luck any way.
Asante sana!
gorgeous collection!
love the 🌶️ click. I guess they are chillies along with corn
Many thanks. The 🌶️🌶️🌶️are borlotti beans. I love the colours of their pods. Tasty beans too 🙂
Thank you for this information. Never knew this variety of beans.
They come in climbing and non-climbing formats.
Is it so? Interesting!
It’s very hard to leave a garden behind. I can imagine a crab apple tree like that one is easy to miss. There’s one in a church yard near my sweetheart’s house that makes tasty fruit, like very small apples. We tried to graft a cutting but it didn’t take.
Hello, Susan. Thanks for those commiserations. Grafting a cutting sounds v. adventurous. Is it worth another go?
I think there might be more chance of rooting a cutting.
oh no, ground elder. I know from first hand experience what a nightmare it is. Good luck with the digging out. I have often wondered about borrow a pig or a goat to get rid of it all.
Hello Becky. Borrowing a pig or goat, now there’s a thought. In the meantime, I’m talking myself into a Zen approach – digging out the main ‘tussocks’ now, and waiting for the missed bits to make their presence felt over the next few weeks.
Lovely to hear from you. Tx
Ah like the Zen approach – Robert did that in one area of garden and it does work!
Thanks for telling me that, Becky. I’m just off to the garden to have another go.