- Lavender and sweetpeas: fragrance down the path
Our lilac tree coming into full bloom
More treats from the abandoned back garden – this time it’s a lilac that’s bursting into bloom and filling the garden with colour. It nestles between the willow tree and a large and yet unidentified bush, throwing up great plumes of petals into the sky and out above the lawn. It looks in surprisingly good nick, every bough smothered with buds unfurling into flower. And out the front there’s some purple action too …
The final bit of grass in the front garden has now all been dug out and in its place is a new bed of lavender and sweetpeas, just waiting to release summer fragrance as you walk down the path. It looks a bit bare now, but as the sweetpeas climb up and over their hoops they should add height: great muddles of colour all summer and hopefully some scent too. Half the sweetpeas came from the garden centre – purple, cream, pink and crimson – and half from my colleague Janette and her garden in Surrey; in the cold frame outside some new seedlings are just springing up, ready to be added to the garden as they become ready.
The lavender bushes are Lavandula angustifolia ‘Melissa Lilac’, chosen because they shouldn’t get too big – and also for their larger than average flowers in the summer. I’m hoping that bees will swarm to them. I was tempted by French lavenders (I love their big heads topped off with a pair of petals), but our soil tends towards the heavy, and drainage looked like being a problem. The gravel to one side of the bed, since topped up to a better level, should help a little with that – but it’s primary function is to allow access in and out of the car. Without it plants would get knocked every time the passenger door was opened, and my clod-feet would have trampled all over the bed. It’s not wildly pretty, and breaks with my hopes of beds that spilled out onto paving, but sometimes practicality wins through.
