Spring Garden

I love the garden in spring, all the new fresh growth, the blossom on the fruit trees and the promise of things to come.  Some parts of the garden are established, the box hedges are about twenty years old and provide a formal structure for the garden, however, like all gardens, it is a work in progress. The garden is compact and heavily planted, there is always something to do. Behind the hedges, a goodly number of fruit trees and an everchanging planting of perennials, herbs and vegetables. Unfortunately, we had to remove some old and established espaliered apple trees, a large apricot tree and a pittosporum hedge so the garden is in a state of redevelopment/refurbishment.  This is a little tour of the garden.

The apricot tree, oh how I hope that all those flowers become apricots and a glimpse of the wisteria through the apricot tree.

The wisteria, just starting to bloom. In a week or two it will be in full flower.

One of the four plum trees. This one is a triple graft, the others are a little slower to flower.

The quince is starting to get leaves and soon it too will be in flower. It is my favourite, the blossom is spectacular.

The humble and hardworking daisies, in between the newly planted citrus, providing colour where the the apples used to be.

Throughout the garden, little clumps of bluebell, penstemons, parsley, violets and any other plant that gets pushed in.

Arum lillies and later on masses of calla lillies.

A clump of violets that have poked their way through the hedge. Valerian, self seeding amongst the daisies and helleborus everywhere

Fox gloves and aquiligias will come into flower as the helleborus finish.

And a view from the patio that shows the box hedging. The oval parterre has six compartments that have mixed flower, herb and vegetable plantings. The new timber fence at the back is screening the water tank, there used to be a big pittosporum hedge there, eventually it will be covered with a virginia/boston creeper which will turn a lovely red in autumn. The right side is was where the espaliered apples were and is now a citrus grove. The patio has lots of potted plants, herbs and a dwarf meyer lemon and soon a potted cherry tomato. The spring garden is all pinks, blues and white, this will give way to more vibrant palette in summer. I am so lucky, the kitchen looks out onto the garden and things are very closeby and easy to pick.