Front garden planting phase 1 reveal! 💚
Hello friends!
It's a late one this week as I wanted to fit in some Sunday frolics! The front garden is taking shape! I just need suggestions for a multi-stemmed beauty to put right in the middle, which doesn't mind being dumped on by a plane tree every other year...let me know what you think xxx
Monday:
I spruce up the garden, starting where my eyes alight first and doing as much as possible in five minutes. I yank out a couple of naughty bits of bindweed and get busy with my gravel path, which is home to lots of wondrous things, but also (as is most often the case) with interlopers too. I get a rhythm going, sweeping away fallen leaves and debris with a small brush to give me visibility, and pulling out unwanted weeds with my right hand. I manage to cover half of the path (which has been bugging me for MONTHS) in five minutes. Once again, it's about getting out there and beginning, rather than thinking about it.
Tuesday:
I pull out the secateurs and chop out the dead or dying bits of my rose, tying it in as I go. This involves a bit of precarious balancing on a garden chair that has seen better days, adding a certain dose of thrilling jeopardy to the proceedings. I chop up the thorny stems and tie them up ready for collection. I also chop down the last of the verbena bonariensis, which has fallen over onto the grass. If it were still upright I'd definitely leave it alone.
Wednesday:
It's my smallest person's birthday tomorrow and the entire day is taken up with her party - there is cake, and chocolate covered marshmallows, and party bags, and marmite sandwiches, and cocktail sausages, and all of the things. Don't be under any illusions; there is absolutely no way I would manage all of this single-handed...no, I have a brilliant au-pair who mix up Betty Crocker cakes and ice them, and embed smarties all over them, and remind me to buy CANDLES. My main preoccupation revolves around making sure there is enough rose and non-plastic glasses to drink it out of.... PRIORITIES DARLING. Anyway, all this to say that there is a spare five minutes...I have three little cyclamen left over from my bulb and cyclamen cake (recipe here). I find a pot, fill it with compost and plant the cyclamen for my windowsill. Life immediately gets better.
Thursday:
I have less than no time today (see above) which is often the case with Thursdays...they generally become a rush to complete certain tasks before I am shunted into Friday (when I am au-pair-less) and generally floundering. I go out and dead-head erratically. I collect a little saucer of argyranthemum flowers which look so beautiful that I am inclined to post them on instagram, but I run out of time and they go in the compost. The party though (because I know you are all wondering) is a resounding success! I also take delivery of all the plants I have ordered for my new front garden. Excitement levels: HIGH.
Friday:
I go off to the country with my eldest to visit a school. No gardening
Bonus Rememberance Sunday gardening!
My Friday project got moved to Sunday (and hence the lateness of this letter). With the help of the television eleventy billion plastic unicorn birthday presents and some strategically placed lego, I manage to plant up the front (phase one, sans hedge and tree) which I will be blogging about tomorrow, along with the plant list, but here is a PREVIEW for those interested. Naturally I am THRILLED.
BEFORE:
AFTER
That's it for this week!
Hope you have a wonderful week ahead
All the good things, always
xx Laetitia
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