Revived: the front garden
There are jobs still to do, of course, and the plants need to do some super-sized growing – although a few weeks of sun and plenty of watering and they should be on their way. But at last the front of the house is beginning to resemble more of a garden and less of a prickly, thorny, horror. Once the jasmine and clematis have scrambled busily up the obelisks, the hollyhocks and delphiniums are up and screening the meters, and the rose has wriggled its way across the trellis, things should be starting to take shape. The back bed will be packed with height from lupins, foxgloves, echinacea and phlox; the chickenwire fence obscured by honeysuckle – two new plants just beginning to entangle themselves in it, and a third old, woody plant near to the house, which has only just revealed its identity. The fragrance should be astonishing (or possibly even overwhelming. If that’s possible).
Just one area needs immediate attention: the right-hand corner, beyond the marguerite and the sage and out of shot (for that reason) here. It’s a decent-sized patch of bed, although part-shaded thanks to a large rose and big old evergreen bush that overhang it. I’m hoping that hardy fuschias might thrive in its dappled shade, and in the coldframe Swan River Daisies just hatching from their seeds and also destined for this patch.
Certainly I’m not going to be short of plants to fill in any gaps. This morning brought a trip to Anthony’s old school, which has a working farm – with lambs, tiny squealing piglets chasing their mum round an orchard, chickens and cattle. And of course nurseries. We’ve come away with an array of fuschias, scented geraniums, verbena, trays of petunias and surfinas to stick in pots on the patio, young tomato plants (ditto) fennel, and a couple of unidentified little perrenials that will snuggle in nicely in the front bed along with an incredibly fragranced dianthus. But I’ll need to get digging out new beds for the rest: soon I’ll have to start tackling the back garden.
