plant photography | Sally Wicks

It is fair to say, the reality of working full time as a gardener means I generally have had my practical weeding,mulching,pruning and plant propagation fill by the time I get in from work. My gardening preference at home is day long (and highly enjoyable) stints in my garden over the weekends.

Eventhough I’m generally not out actively gardening on an evening , it really doesn’t stop me enjoying how the garden is slowly progressing, whilst constantly thinking of new design,planting, propagating and pruning ideas.

Every morning I take a walk around my garden, before I head out. I can then be found with a mug of tea, sitting on our back door step, gathering more “ potential “ ideas when I’m home.

Keeping a photographic diary through my blog has become increasingly important, as it enables me to keep note as to all the new things I see, hear and practically do. So what have I been been up to since my last blog about my garden at number 26 ?

This is the very first flower on my new David Austin Rose -Tottering by Gently. It was planted in the front garden so it can be seen from the lounge window, and when I open our front door.

I found this gorgeous dianthus at the greengrocers on Saturday, at £2.00 it really was a must have.

Over the last few months, all the smothering black weed suppressant membrane has now been removed , the garden really is full of birds foraging for food. Seriously, blackbirds follow behind me searching for worms when I’m planting.

If I am up early enough, there are always starlings on our neighbours bird feeders. This bird bath belonged to Aunty Mary, it is right by our lounge window, I always take time to stop and watch.

Turf has been turned over to make way for new borders. Disturbing the top soil has meant these red poppies have germinated.

I have a daily conversation over the garden fence with our neighbours, our main topic of conversation is generally gardening ! Last week I donated 2 spare tomatoe plants , and a while ago, Robert donated me a fig plant, which was very kind.

The raspberries from the soft fruit bed , which were part of the fixtures and fittings of the garden, are ripening and I’m picking a small amount everyday. They are entirely delicious !

Eight varieties of sunflowers have been pricked out and are being planted out . With my birthday in August, I’m imagining picking myself a huge bunch to celebrate.

What I have not done, is plant out the containerised trees, which came with us from our previous house . There are two reasons for this – I need to properly prepare the ground and secondly, I am spending this year imagining where they would look best. So they sit as a collection , and the blackbirds ( in particular ) like to visit and remove the fruits.

I have let an area of the turf just grow, to see what the seed heads look like, as I do want to incorporate ornamental grasses throughout the borders.

Overtime, the majority of the turf will be turned over to make way for ornamental planting,and my plan is to find ornamental grasses which are similar in form . Fortunately I work in the nursery team at http://www.wildegoose.co.uk and we grow a big range of ornamental grasses. My plan is to take in the seed heads of our existing turf to find similar replacement ornamental grasses.

So, lots of thinking has been going on, and I’m very content with my progress.

And to finish, these images are from last weekends gardening stint.