The Magic Moments Border aiming to spark a love for gardening

* I was invited to the press preview of Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to visit the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

I’m not sure how we’re already mostly through August and how this is the first in my regular series of showing the gardens from this year’s Gardeners’ World Live show since my highlights post. It’s the same every year, though this year does feel slightly busier, perhaps because both of us are no longer working and while our days have some structure, they are much less structured than when we were working full time (obviously). And there’s so much still that we want to do, and go and see and of course everyday life still needs to happen, I just need to get myself more organised to make room for as much as possible in every aspect of our lives, while making sure we don’t wear ourselves out in the process!

Anyway, back to the gardens - this one is one of the showcase gardens, where the show’s blurb promises that we will ‘discover creative and clever design ideas’ which can be adapted for our own home garden.

I think this one caught my eye, not just because of the teddy bear’s picnic, but because at the show I was intent on looking at greenhouses and small sheds in all their guises, and this one has both of those, so it’s an ideal place to start.

The garden designed by Stef Haydon tells ‘the story of many generations, where simple magic moments in backyards and parks have sparked a love for gardening’ - and isn’t that true. I imagine each of us have a happy memory from childhood which when we’re gardening we’re reminded of, for me it could be the trailing lobelia plants tumbling out of small brick wall, or looking in awe at dad’s greenhouse - from the outside of course!

The plants in this garden tell stories of cherished memories, hunting for frog-spawn, making rose perfume (yeap, I think I probably tried that one!) and tasting sun-ripened tomatoes - and doesn’t it just look wonderful?

For my own garden I was keen to explore greenhouses and a small storage ‘thing’ (a thing as I was open to ideas - it’s purpose is to store/hide opened, and not yet opened bags of compost keeping them out of sight, but still secure. And in true goldilocks fashion, the ones in this garden are probably a bit too small for what I had in mind, though I do like the compactness of the greenhouse, but I’m after one I can get into and continue gardening if/when it rains. You’ll hear more on my search for the perfect sized greenhouse and storage I’m sure in future posts!

And one of the best bits about this garden - alongside the calming pebble pond, and the memories I’m sure it has evoked - is that it will be relocated to a Women’s Aid domestic abuse refuge after the show, so it can continue to give and inspire future gardeners.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was just as good as I expected! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to the show - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Post Comment Love 16 - 18 August

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

This week we’ve had a couple of visits from a new friend, who it has to be said isn’t shy. No he’s not shy at all!

MOH discovered the ginger cat on his first visit and to say he was shocked was an understatement. Luckily though he was a friendly cat and was quite amenable to, and quite vocal about, being evicted. Well perhaps not so amenable as his first move was to try and head back in, so I needed to quite literally shut the door in his face. We smiled and joked about the boldness of cats, thinking nothing more of it, cats hey?

He came back though a few nights later, on one of those warm balmy evenings we had at the start of the week - and he had so much fun, what with all of the doors and bifold doors open. We had much less fun trying to make sure he wasn’t in the house - he made it upstairs to my craft room and then had us quite literally playing cat and mouse with the open doors!

We’ve not seen him since, so perhaps we haven’t quite been chosen by the cat distribution system, but who knows?!

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My garden in July

The roses from last month, continued to flower and I’ve spent a good morning or two deadheading this abundant rosebush in between showers - but it was so, so worth it as the rose bush has continued to flower throughout the month. The potted roses have also repeat flowered so if you’ve not been convinced before about deadheading, definitely do it!

This month the oxeye daisies have also been one of the stars - I just have a single pot of them, but look how well they’ve done. Last year I had three flowers, but this year so many more. I’m looking forward to getting them into the ground at some point so that they can really maximise their potential. My garden plans are starting to form more in my mind, but my challenge is to get those down on paper.

Our previous garden was best in the early spring, but here it’s definitely a late spring/early summer peaking garden, or rather the side border is. I’m loving the flowers on all of the hebes.

What has really stolen my heart though are the european smokebushes - we have this green leafed variety, and the darker burgundy leafed version; they are both delightful and well, just, frothy!

The buddleia is full of flowers, and full of butterflies. Despite being cut down much earlier in the spring, it’s regrown and then grown some more. I’ve discovered that the main stem has a label so it was definitely planted on purpose, and not the self-seeded plant I first thought.

The flowers on the Lady’s Mantle are a beautiful yellowy-green, and also frothy. They have tumbled over the edge onto the gravel.

The two surviving sunflowers are thriving next to the wall, where they are as I hoped enjoying the warmth from the sun and the wall. It’s been great to measure their progress as they grow brick by brick, edging ever closer to the top of the wall.

Elsewhere in the border there is more colour - the orange berries on the rowan tree, and the pink fuchsia flowers whose stems are also a beautiful pinky-red.

Ah yes, the burgundy european smokebush - isn’t it a beauty?

The sunflowers aren’t the only plant that is hugging the brick wall on the boundary - the foxglove flowers are hanging on, and I’m sure there’ll be more to enjoy next year.

Edging towards the top of the wall…

The outside border has grown and got a bit wild, so I’ve spent some time out there pruning and squishing as much as I can each fortnight into our garden bin, priding myself at my ingenuity at packing quite so much in. Instead of a usual robin companion, I’ve been enjoying the company of the butterflies which are regulars at the buddelia.

I found an unwanted and leafy tall shrub, which after some googling I classed as a weed. I cut its leafy branches off, then as it looked to have enough space around it I decided to get the root out.

Mission accomplished. But quite a mission it was.

What better to end this post on though, with the raindrops on the leaves of the lady’s mantle.