Thursday 19 April 2007

Why Wait for Summer?

Why wait for Summer when we can enjoy the memories now. This was part of my Summer garden in 2004. I decided soon after this to simplify my garden by digging out all the perennial flowers. The reason for this was because my husband Alan had suffered some health problems. It began when he suffered a trapped nerve in his spine and then developed a hernia. Having had surgery for his hernia and appearing to make a good recovery, he then had a return of the hernia and had to have a further repair. It's not that Alan was the gardener but I found that I was having to do so many other tasks while he was incapacitated that I knew I could not keep up this level of gardening. So the answer seemed to be to replace the flowers with shrubs which I have been doing over the last couple of years. Obviously I kept my rose beds and we will be seeing a lot of them this coming Summer.

The quality of these photographs is not perfect as I have scanned them from a photo album and they were originally printed on my old printer.












These lillies were grown from seed that I brought back from the States originally. Collected from the plants in a friends garden. I did have a whole bed of them in many different colours but eventually dug them out to plant another rose bed. It takes about 4 years for the lillies to flower from seed. Obviously the bulbs have to develop first.

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my English garden.

9 comments:

Tracy said...

How beautiful! I love the carnations. I had some when living in PA, and really enjoyed them. I have the same color hollyhocks as you do!

Unknown said...

I certainly did enjoy my visit. You have such a lovely garden. I recognized many of the flowers. Some we cannot grow in Florida as we are too far into the tropics, and have very dry and very hot summers. I can grow poinsettias outside in my garden though, which most areas cannot. That is always fun.

Tina said...

Hello, I came from Nonnie's blog and I sure enjoyed your blog. Your pictures are so lovely and your garden absolutely gorgeous.
Will come visit again.
x

Anonymous said...

Your garden was soo very beautiful, I'm sure it is just as lovely with the shrubs.

Susan said...

What a lovely garden you had. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Linda said...

I love your garden-very spectacular. I've always dreamed of having an English garden of my own but the weather in Provence is too hot for that so I keep looking for things that do well in really hot summers and cold winters.

Anonymous said...

I just don't have a green thumb or the patience to be a gardener. I really enjoy everyone elses though. Both my parents and my husband's parents love gardening. Neither can compete with you!

Anonymous said...

hello, i'm reading your blog from italy (prato, a town near florence)but i'm born in england,your garden is beautiful it's like the one we see in fairytales books ,that's what i miss of england lovely houses and gardens.
ps. i hope my english is ok.
marigio.xx

a woman who is said...

Barbara, I have finally had a chance to browse through your garden pictures from last summer. Oh my, we do enjoy the same plants. I was drooling over some very fluffy light pink roses? I hope this year you will give us some of their names. Not that I could ever grow things as lush as you do across the pond. I loved the 2004 photos before you started replacing the perennials, just my style. Wise decision I am sure as time moves on to replace with more shrubs. They look very stately and I love the ones you have potted up around the patio. I just read on your profile that you are 69? I was shocked. Your pictures certainly have you looking younger. Can't wait to see more photo's this year of your garden. Yours is one of those delightfully English Gardens, which I only dream of. We just have too much heat and not enough moisture to get the kind of lush growth you have in your beautiful country. I live actually in a semi arid desert. Which is crazy for me to try to grow an English looking garden in? The roses actually do okay because of the dry heat, I don’t have to spray for diseases. They just get a little crispy in our 100 degree weather in August. Okay, I am rambling….bye :]