standing in the garden

(The Weepies - Same Changes)

This blog seems to have had recurrent references to our gardening in recent weeks. Apologies for the picture heavy post, and poor quality pictures at that! I have had a go at some highly technical (for me) before and after montages to try and make up for it. I'm not sure I've succeeded entirely, and feel slightly self-conscious of filling a post with pictures of our garden, but those montages took me ages so I'm going to use them!! I had planned to do this post yesterday, but after running the 5k our new dishwasher then took over four hours to fit, so apologies for the double posting this evening but I was in my dressing gown at 5pm last night, and unashamedly went to my grandad's wearing it (and slippers) for a night of crosswords with my mum while Grandad and Mal watched the rugby.

There are a whole bunch of new plants in here, and I'm hoping the lavender starts to flower soon. The tubs contain some sweet-peas though they got a little battered by hailstones soon after we planted them so we will see how they fare. I'm so pleased with the new path, my brilliant Grandad relaid the paving stones and built us a step up to the shed, and I much prefer it to the crooked sloping version that was there before.

Spot the beagle exploring the new garden. We love that purple acer in the corner by the shed, and Millie loves to lie under it on sunny days. 

Looking at these pictures, the arduous bank holiday weekend was definitely worth it. The flowerbeds are the result of The Husband's particularly productive day of annual leave. Having come home anticipating that he would have mostly been watching films or playing on his console, I was amazed that he had weeded all of the borders and replaced all of the bark (much to Millie's delight). We planted up the new peony by the shed, and I love the pop of colour from the azalea that has flowered now.

The rest of The Husband's handywork (complete with a sneak peek of his forehead in the before shot!), and I can't wait for the roses and peonies to start to bloom. The buds on the peonies looked ready to burst this afternoon, so not long now. In the very corner is where our new raised bed has been given pride of place.

We bought some trellis and decking, and turned it into this creation! The herb pots, and garden tool set are courtesy of Ikea, and I love having the herb scissors out there ready to take cuttings. We are so proud of this little project, it turned out exactly how we had hoped, and has already brought us lots of enjoyment. If we manage to eat even one thing we have grown I will be so very thrilled! We have planted carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, runner beans, mangetout, sweet potato, onion and aubergine (that is definitely the underdog as it is looking fairly bedraggled). We've also planted a blackberry bush behind the trellis which we are hoping will climb. The herb pots contain oregano, rosemary, thyme (struggling), sage, mint, lemon mint, chives, parsley, coriander and basil (though those last two are growing from seed - hopefully). 

We also bought some trays of violas, and I planted some into pots for the back garden, and some into hanging baskets for the front of the house. Since these pictures were taken they have bloomed brilliantly, and I find the colour so cheerful, both looking out of the kitchen window and leaving the house each day. It's the first year the garden has felt completely finished (with the exception of a bit of weeding still to do around the paving stones), and my brilliant step-dad comes to mow the lawn every week or so, and keeps it looking fabulously groomed. Now we just need some weather that's warm enough for us to enjoy sitting outside!