My Hiatus

Greetings! Since that last post in October, I have been through The Affordable Art Fair


http://www.affordableartfair.com/


Of which I am the Financial Controller, and then shortly after that finished, I flew to visit my family in the Midwest of the USA.


So without further ado, I am going to introduce you to the "English Garden" I created for my parents a couple of years ago.


Now, I didn't do a whole lot of research, like Zones in the US, when I started planting this little garden - I believe the Midwest is Zone 5 (do correct me if I'm wrong!). All I knew was the kind of feel I wanted to create, in this space next to the house as deliniated below.






Beyond the path, is a wonderful long lawn, a lovely suburban back yard (where we had many a game of badminton when I was growing up). My brief was the space you see above.



It turned out quite nicely, as you can see. There are several good garden centres around (although sadly one of them has closed now) and we found some choice stuff - what I would always include in an "English Garden" would be Lavender, Lady's Mantle (alchemilla mollis), Clematis, Jasmine (that sadly didn't make it past the first season), Stachys Byzantium (Lamb's Ears, again sadly didn't survive), a Hellebore (wow I'm jealous!), a type of Cranesbill Geranium ... well, I can't remember everything I planted several October's ago, but on the whole, I'm pleased with the progress and I had a chance to get a really good look at things, rather than my visits at Christmas time when you might as well forget any kind of gardening at all.

The site seems to love most of what I planted, even if it has changed over the years. These are early shots the following Spring, after my first planting exercise.

What really took, to my amazement and extreme jealousy (why can't I have one like this in my garden?) is the Clematis.

And then there's the Hosta, in the middle. Crikey.

This of course is as it's dying back, in the autumn time - my parents love it, though, and never cut it down. It just comes back year, after year. My goodness, I find it huge. I don't get Hostas this big!

It was wonderful to see it in temperate times again - and I was most fortunate as amazingly, the weather in early November was mostly in the 70's! Not quite record breaking, apparently, but pretty close. I put some bulbs down, as well.

Not only did I get to spend Halloween in America (it's been a long time!) but I also, fantastically, got to celebrate my wonderful father's birthday with him, and the family.

All in all, a fabulous trip!