In these really difficult times it is such a life saver to just spend time working in my garden.
It is not very tidy but has beautiful flowers at the moment and a vegetable garden, which is full of weeds but also has loads of amazing vegetables from which I can create lovely vegetarian dishes.
The wildlife pond is my favourite area in the garden and I sit on the little jetty and look out for newts and water boatman water beetles amongst the lilies.
My little 🍊 tree and pots of lilies also give me so much pleasure. I am lucky to have a big garden overlooking fields and woods around my little cottage in the country. However if all I had was a small back yard to fill with pots of herbs and exotic flowers, as long as there was room for a comfy old garden chair with cushions where I could sit in the sun and read or dream with a faithful dog leaning against my knees, I think I would be just as happy.
Kim
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Kkimm
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Ĺove your garden!! I loved to tend to my garden when I lived in the States! I don't have one per se where I live now. I do have numerous potted plants, though, and love tending to them!
Tell me, what is everything? Is that a Dahlia on the bottom right?
Are you a sailor by the way? We have a sailing boat in the UK and love sailing. Are you in the UK now you have left the states?
I would really like to garden in a warm climate like the USA to be able to grow exotic plants.
From top left in a clockwise direction the plants are; a climbing pink rose, orange tree and yellow lilies, pink water lily which is on the pond but hard to tell in the photo, yellow and pink water lilies. I do grow dahlias too but particularly like roses and lilies as you can see.
I would love to go there, although we travel alot, or did before the pandemic, Norway is a country I have never been to.
I would love to hear about what you can grow in your garden there and what wildlife you see.
Wonderful to have 4 daughters and at such lovely ages. Beautiful names you have chosen for them.
I have just one daughter who is now 30 and married living in a lovely big house in the downs near Dover with three acres. We just visited for the first time we have seen her since the pandemic lockdown so it was magical. They have such alot of wildlife in their garden. A fox with a litter of cubs they have been able to watch playing in the grass, a badger and lots of different birds and squirrels. Their meadow is chalk land with lots of lovely rare flowers including orchids and a great many butterflies including the marbled white which I was able to photograph while there.
Hi again! I wrote that in a confusing way, sorry. Dahlia, Rose, Laurel and Zinnia are my nieces. I don't have any children.
We can see lots of squirrels, badgers (rarely), deer (in the early morning) and lots of birds. We even saw a jack rabbit recently!
Plants/flowers we see around here are tulips, honey suckles, lilacs, roses, magnolia trees, cherry trees, apple trees and the like. Since it's really cold here 7-8 months out of the year, we have to be careful with our potted plants.
Beautiful garden pictures. I look at gardening as an art form. I love to see gardens and I wonder how people know what to put in each spot to create such beauty.
I don't have that talent at all. Thank you for sharing the photos.
I’m in love 😍 with your garden! It’s amazing! I have a space in front of my home which I just don’t know what to do with ... I have planted a few beautiful Japanese bushes and out of nowhere squash popped up and also a ton of huge weeds and plants even a tree I took out, that I’m not sure what they are. Maybe I’ll work on it today. Any tips?
Thanks so much 🥰. Your kind words mean alot to me.
You said some tips on what to do with your front garden would be helpful. Remind me which state you are in and what climate you have. Must be warm if squash grew on its own. It depends upon what you want to do with it. If you want to sit out there you might want a pretty seat with a structure over it with attractive creepers with flowers growing up with low maintenance permanent attractive foliage bushes surrounding it.
The boys would probably love a wildlife pond and you would be able to put in beautiful water plants such as water lilies and attract all sorts of interesting creatures. They could be busy pond dipping with a net then looking and learning about what they catch. You could even get the little one a microscope so he can look at microscopic pond life and learn to draw and name it.
Ponds are quite alot if work til they are established and generally better in the back garden however for safety reasons.
The boys might like the idea if growing, cooking and eating their own vegetables. They learn the magic of seeds coming through and the responsibility of watering them and pulling out the weeds Squash are easy to grow and come in lots of different colours shapes and sizes.
If you do not have privacy at the front and want low maintenance you could find out what attractive bushes and shrubs with flowers on them grow well in your area and fill it up with these so that you do not have to weed or mow the lawn. Plant the things that will grow taller to the back and shorter ones to the front of where they will be viewed, stating the obvious here. Evergreen with attractive foliage can be good but plant what you like so you can admire it and show the boys the buds when they are about to flower then teach them to draw or paint the flowers when they open. They may be interested in catching the unusual bugs with a net to look at and draw too. Perhaps there will be butterflies they can they can observe, paint and learn the names of.
I have a 10 year old who lives next door and he was very keen on doing worksheets I used to make him of birds to spot and draw. His mum and I took him walks to our local salt marshes and creeks to spot and name the birds or sandy beaches to collect the shells, shark teeth fossils etc. He got a little prize for completing the worksheets which was part of the attraction ofcourse.
I know you do loads of fun things with your boys and are into nature so forgive me if I am saying the obvious.
Hope you are feeling better, it is hard to do things when you are down but I always find gardening or walking and wildlife spotting a great tonic, not to mention the fun of getting your boys into wildlife.
Hi sweet Kim! Thanks for taking the time to write to me.
Humid sub-tropical in Virginia. I have some amazing bushes I planted recently, two types of Japanese plants, can’t recall their names... but the problem is that even though we dug up and turned the dirt before planting them, the area all around the bushes filled up with weeds. I’ll just have to get in there and give it my best shot again at getting rid of them for good, maybe put down some wood chips...
I love your ideas thank you for sharing.
Marshes and beaches sounds like heaven ! Where do you live? Can I come visit 😉
Thanks for such a nice reply. How great to live in a subtropical climate. You will be able to grow some amazing plants.
Your Japanese trees sound lovely. I wonder if they are Japanese maples.
Yes you could try bark chippings to keep the weeds down or some sort of ground covering plants.
I live in the south east of England on a peninsular with the salt marshes and mud flats within walking distance from my village home on one side and about 3 miles from the sea with sandy beaches and seaside resorts with promenades etc on the other. They get very busy in summer so I escape to walk swim and bird watch to the other side most of the time.
Yes, be great if you could come😄🥰😀
Read that you are not feeling too good at present, I so hope you are feeling a bit better today.
Thanks Kim 🙏 yeah I think I’ll try wood chips no wait what about rocks? That was my initial plan we bought some large stones... injustice need to buy more. There are some vegetation I may keep like the mint and lemon balm that came up and the huge squash plant.
Hi there I think you have a great garden bases on your pictures it's good that you've got a hobby in your garden I wish you good luck with your garden take care david!
You sound like a kindred spirit. I read your post to my partner who is my garden buddy as well, and we just put a pond in this last year. We live in the country on part of the old family farm, and have the brother’s cows in the back field so we get to enjoy the new babies jumping around every year, we have two so far. I got to actually watch one being birthed last week and it was amazing. We have lots of veggies, and our flowers are going nuts. We still have lots of dahlias and begonias coming up still, and hoping to get nice tomatoes, potatoes, and squash, and beans soon. Salads and onions, fresh garlic and Broccoflower right now on the menu, and lots of red currents and some strawberry's. We have an herb garden exploding with lemon balm, sage, oregano, thyme, and marjoram, with the rosemary, peppermint, and pineapple sage, and orange mint in pots. The wind knocked off most of our baby apples and pears on our miniature fruit trees, but we'll have a few anyways in October. We’re working on planting them this next year and getting a couple of hens and ducks. We have all their names picked out already.
What wonderful vegetables, herbs and fruit you grow in your garden.
We are harvesting broad beans, lettuce, new potatoes and artichokes at present. Runner beans and courgettes are on their way.
The chest freezer is filling up with black currants and yellow raspberries and there are plenty of apples and pears developing in my little orchard. One of my favourite fruit is damsons and I have a small crop this year developing, along with a small crop of plums.
Plum trees do not like my soil conditions, the ground is a bit boggy in winter, but I persist as we love plums do much.
Where abouts are you in America?
How great to be on the family farm and to see the young calves.
I loved your entry. I agree with you. Even though I work in the horticultural field my own garden is my refuge from the craziness. The natural world continues its cycle regardless of covid. I love to watch the butterflies in my garden. I’m not even really mad at the young deer who munched on my chard and ate the tops off two of my tomato plants. I never saw it but found the tiny hoof prints the next morning. Such lovely delicate creatures. The tomato plants and chard will recover and I ringed the garden with repellant. Right now it’s very hot and dry here and I have to water a lot. Water bills will be awful but I don’t care.
What lovely wildlife you have visiting your garden. Do you know what type of butterflies you are seeing?
I am interested to hear whether you are in the UK or if not what country you are in and what region/ State.
The tiny deer foot prints make me think of muncjac deer which we have in our area. I see tiny footprints on the field footpath leading down to our garden but almost never see the deer themselves. I remember once seeing them at dusk as shadowy shapes melting away over a ploughed field.
Just saw your reply. Sometimes I get notified of a reply sometimes not. Have no idea why😉. I live in Michigan in the states. Today I saw a new Red Admiral hanging around my hydrangeas. Also have seen yellow swallowtails and black swallowtails and a fleeting glance at what might have been a yellow sulfur. Normally we have a lot more but we had a bad cold snap this spring which I think affected them. Also I see a lot of cabbage whites. I always forget them because they are so common here. Next time I see someone I’ll take pictures for you. 😁
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