Martin and Judy’s garden( part 5 )

There has been an eight week gap since my last visit. These three images were from the 8th April 2023.

On my journey over I thought about the physical changes I might see. Would the top soil have thrown up some more seedlings, would pernicious weeds be filling the borders, would anything be flowering ? Putting these practicalities aside, my main thought (really) was, how would the garden make me feel ?

In short, the answer to the above is, I cannot believe that within eight months we have created such a beautiful , healthy and floriferous garden from what was previously an empty space.

I was stopped in my tracks by this white campion ( which definitely wasn’t apparent in April) . The combination of the campion and pale pink linaria, had provided the garden with an effortless sense of grace and beauty. The linaria had been emptied out from a container into the ground in late summer 2022 , and the white campion would have been in the seed bank of the imported top soil. I will definitely take some of these seed heads home in the next month or so, and cast them in my garden, as I really would like to see these plants growing in my garden.

I have chosen to leave as many of the wild flower seedlings as is possible ( rather than remove them) . One of the benefits of this , is that we are creating ground cover, which is a perfect way to help the soil retain as much moisture as possible.

It also seemed like a perfectly sensible idea, to not put spent tulip stems in the green bin, and they were cut up, and applied as a mulch. Even though I have never had the opportunity to try this out before, it also seemed a good idea to bury the seed pods of the species tulip turkestanica . I have read that they will naturalise and spread quite easily – just imagine a whole garden full of this bulb – now that would be stunning.

One of the many things that I truly enjoy about working and helping Martin and Judy is that when I have a gardening idea, that might just work, they always say ” give it a go “. From now on in, I will no longer fill the green bin with garden waste, and we will use as much of the garden waste as a mulch (as long as it is not pernicious )

There are many elements that I find captivating about this garden. Foliage, seed and flower shadow shapes is definitely one.

The roses, which came with us from Martin and Judy’s previous home, are growing away incredibly well in the raised beds. I really like the combination of the poppies and cow parsley , which again was in the seed bank of the top soil that was used to fill the raised beds.

On my previous visit , the sun spurge was looking so vibrant, and I decided that this wildflower had a definite place in this garden, so I am just going to leave it to hopefully self seed around. It will be really interesting to see where and when it germinates, and how long it takes to reach its mature fluorescent yellow bracts.

I have always intended to grown Cerinthe major purpurascens , but have never quite got round to sowing the seed. Luck was on our side, and its starting to self seed in several places in the garden . Yes, you have guessed it right, the seed must have been in the top soil !

I have always been really interested in checking out wild flowers , but I could never correctly recall when their flowering period was . And this is another reason why I find this garden fascinating, as it is full of wild flowers. By looking at them monthly , photographing and writing about them, it really is teaching me about their flowering periods, and I find this a really effective and enjoyable way to learn. . For example on my last visit the red dead nettle was flowering profusely, this time, it was not , and was forming seeds. Speedwell with its bright blue flowers, was really quite prolific in April, and is now forming seed heads.

I will be back to check out the garden again in about a months time. I wonder what will be in flower then ?

If you are interested in reading the previous chapters to this garden story, they can all be found on Martin and Judy’s new garden.

And heres a couple more images from Saturday.