My Garden
Our plans have changed many times in just 5 years and having bought an old french farmhouse with a couple of outbuildings and started gardening purely for my own pleasure, we now have two gites and have moved into what was previously the barn. The result is that I now have gardens around the gites, a garden by the swimming pool and a fairly new private garden behind the barn, plus a communal courtyard with pots to tend to. The result is a lot of garden to be managed by one person (my husband helps with mowing but is rarely tempted by other aspects of gardening)! Really there is too much garden for one person and when you also factor in the fact that my garden is built on clay soil which cannot be worked in the very cold, but short winter, and that the earth cracks badly in the very hot and dry summers we have here, plus the lack of opportunities I have to actually work on the gite gardens once holidaymakers are here, I have to accept that I am never going to have a perfectly manicured garden but go for a more relaxed feel.
This is a (largely photographic) account of progress here
La Glycine garden,
May 2006
May 2008
La Glycine's patio garden
I have recently created a small border just down from the patio of La Glycine. In the summer this will be largely yellow plants such as Rudbeckia and yellow Heleniums.
May 2008
Viburnum opulus (pom pom tree), Kniphofia (red-hot poker) and the blue flowers of Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' dominate in spring. My ajuga is a brilliant ground cover plant. I brought a small piece from a neighbours garden in the Uk and now have it in almost every border growing well in France though I find it is not happy in blazing sun.
Le Grenadier long border
May 2006
May 2006
May 2006
May 2008
Le Grenadier patio garden
May 2006
Border at the side of the house
May 2008
Barn patio garden
We moved into the barn in December 2004 and so I have started gardening this area only recently.
May 2006
and in August 2006
September 2007 - Im looking for a very lush almost jungle feel to the garden surrounding our patio.
Blue border next to the patio
Inspired by a garden with many grasses, lavenders and predominantly blue shades and fed up of mowing this small triangle of grass which cannot be done with the tractor at the same time as adjoining lawn I decided to plant this predominantly blue border.
just started Aug 2006
Border opposite patio
Inspired by a local garden filled with bamboos I spent some days chopping down the brambles covering the bank which we look out on from the barn. At the moment my variagated Arundo donax dominates with Euphorbias filling the front but I have also planted a beautiful variagated bamboo with almost a weeping form and I hope to see this growing much bigger next year.
Sept 2006
May 2008 - the variagated bamboo hiding behind the euphorbias is growing quite big now. It does eventually develop a slightly weeping habit.
Barn border one,
May 2006 - We have just moved into the barn and so I am just starting to change
this field into garden. The structure of this border is provided by
Viburnum opulus, a Liquid amber tree, Cotinus (a purple leaved variety) and a
purple hazel tree. I have also planted lillies, Heuchera, purple fennel some
grasses and an artichoke plant. 'Pink' will be provided by dahlias, cosmos, a
pink buddlia and some pink alliums.
and again in August 2006 . The combination of dahlias and amaranth has
worked really well and further along the border the pink cosmos keep the colour
theme.
and Sept 2006 with the picture taken looking towards the woods. The dahlias are the star of the border at this time of the year.
May 2008 - the border is really beginning to fill out now. The liquid amber tree has grown really quickly and is lovely with a large cotinus growing behind to the left and a puple hazel behind to the right (still quite small).
May 2008. I got these gorgeous aquilegia from a plant swap with a friend and the purple provides a lovely contrast to the bright green 'flowers' of the euphorbia. The white pompoms of the Viburnum opulus and the lovely drooping seedheads of Carex pendula add to the picture.
Barn border two
Sept 2006 - this border was started in April and is already begining to fill out nicely.
May 2008 - the border is beginning to fill our well. Euphorbia, Lupins, Peonies and Weigelia are in flower at the moment with poppies and a Philadelphus close to flowering.
May 2008 - I'm not sure what this plant is, some sort of lilly I think, but it is superb and in a couple of years time is going to be gorgeous against the blue grass which is starting to fill out behind it. Note the honesty (Lunaria annua) behind. This self seeds all over my garden and a couple of weeks ago was a mass of lovely purple flowers. Definitely one to encourage.
May 2008. I love lupins and their early flowering and vertical accent makes them very welcome in the border.
Prairie garden,
May 2006
July 2006;
September 2007. This garden is really beginning to take shape now and is my favourite part of the garden.
And again in September 2007
Pond
May 2006
September 2006
This was supposed to be a project for my husband but he has abandoned this and so the pond is largely left to its own devices.
Potager, April 2006
Abandoned in 2007!!