Instant Garden

The overgrown area behind our utility room was driving me crazy.
Old blackberry vines poked out of the soil everywhere and while long abandoned and cut rose bushes kept them company among the assorted other weeds.Weather permitted a day of pulling weeds and pruning back vines and some digging in the still soft and winter-wet soil.


Once the tiny area had been cleared, I transplanted a hydrangea bush that had been struggling to survive in the meager soil left in its original pot.
Next I added some already flowering daffodil plants I purchased at Ellenden Farm Market.
Some forget-me-not flowers had sprouted between the pavers on the patio, so they, too, were uprooted and added to the flower bed.

With all of the digging, I had uprooted some grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) and so some of them were returned to the patch, too.The purple primrose flowers that were crunched in together were then relocated and some yellow ones added, too. In fact, the only 'new' plants I added were the daffodils and the yellow primrose - all the rest I already had in the garden.

But the piece de resistance, as far as I was concerned, was the discovery and addition of wee wild violets. In fact these tiny plants were the inspiration for the instnat garden in the first place.
I have missed these tiny harbingers of spring since my move here to the UK.
Originally, I found them growing wild in my front garden's lawn when I purchased my previous home in the US. I carefully removed them, over the years, and transplanted them along the edges of trees and basement windows.You will not believe how big they grow when placed in the proper conditions!
The spread out and multiply to become proper hedgerows of large, bright green leaves and sprightly purple flowers each year.

I discovered three very tiny plants trying to find a bit of sunlight under some shrubs along the perimeter of the garden. My plan to use them as a border and add to them whenever I could find more, was set.

Then to my wonderment and surprise, I found more of them right next to the area I was digging up - and nowhere near where the originals were found!

See the little violets growing in among all of the grasses and weeds and flowers?

So they were dug up and added, too.
You will see some more photos of them as they begin to grow and become the border I know they can develop into!

In the meantime, the instant garden in a huge success with a small spot waiting for a visit to the rose garden center for a climbing fragrant gorgeous rose bush!


Happy gardening!
xxx
Maggie

A Day Out in the Cotswolds

Yesterday, we returned to feed Emily Lamb and then took a drive through Evesham, towards the Cotswolds.
We didn't have a plan, and our friends, Dave and Ann, suggested we go to Bourton-on-the-Water.
I love it there.
The charm of the village with a river (we would call it a creek in America) running through the center of town. Footpaths to cross it and walkways either side of it; the yellow-gold colour of the stone buildings, and the charm of the shops, and beauty of the buildings and gardens.

Flowers are peeking up and beginning to show a bit of colour on their buds.

At Christmastime, a tree is decorated and placed in the middle of the river. So very special and so pretty!We had lunch in a Fish and Chips shop and then took a drive towards home via an area called, 'The Slaughters'.
There is Upper and Lower Slaughters.
In Lower Slaughters, we approached the wee village by car, on roads just barely wide enough for the car, looking more like footpaths, than roads.
The water running along side the road had a ford in it.

This is where the ford is, and the chimney stack in the back left is where the museum is.

For those folks reading who aren't from England, fords are areas where one can cross the river, creek, or stream, without use of a bridge!
We drove around the perimeter if the village and found a lovely museum and gift shop hidden beyond the river by the ford.

Outside the door of the museum and gift shop is a traditional
English post box guarded by a gargoyle.

Ann and Dave bought some wee garden things which included a gargoyle and a little stone thing that looked like a mushroom, but I just cannot recall its name!
It reminded me of the mushrooms that fairies sit on in the garden.

We watched as some horses approached and walked down to the ford and crossed the creek.
All-in-all, it was a lovely day out in the country.