early summer flowers

22 May '04 11:18 pm

Boxted Berry Farm, East Anglia, UK.

Living on a farm does odd things to your relationship with the garden. The family rarely has any surplus green-fingered energy to be creative with it, and due to the flood of pyo visitors in the summer months, privacy to enjoy the garden is always an issue. Also, where does a garden end and a farm begin? Its such a manicured farm that its hard to know the difference Smile

The resulting garden is inevitably low maintenance and low fuss : a lawn with simple shrub & hedge borders, with some flowers dotted around. The borders are used to hide things from garden-view (like the irrigation tank), and hide us from visitor-view. Well, the borders used to be large enough to create some sense of privacy, but the shrubs have recently been given a chainsaw-pruning by a non-gardener, so a public summer is on the agenda Rolling Eyes

Mum is the only person who gives the garden any attention, and I'm never sure when she does it (poss in the same way that Eggy doesn't know when the washing gets done in this household - by the magic washing fairy Wink

). She often diverts the farm-helper in the garden direction for the big jobs - ref above chainsaw massacre.

There are a number of rose bushes dotted around. The 'fried egg' rose (Nevada) is my favourite, probably due to its sheer persistence: it's right outside the patio doors and seems to flower for months. There are a few grass and foliage plants too, filling up the borders. The well-established cherry tree demonstrates the East-Anglian one-directional prevailing winds: the tree's branches have grown in a permanent one-directional bend.

There have been plans (for at least half my lifetime Exclamation

) for a pergola and/or patio. Either would be lovely, but then so would a new farm shop, a shelter at the top of the field, and all the other things on the ever-growing to-do list! Other garden ideas include covering the large red-brick gable with a climbing plant: practical dad says such climbers damage the grouting between bricks; red-brick-disliking mum says that both she and he will be well gone from this world before it causes any significant problem. The debate continues Confused

The day was unusually sunny when I visited this week, armed with camera (yee haa, finally the sun has worked out its supposed to be summer in England now!). Unfortunatley this means the pictures of the foliage plants weren't so good, so here are a few piccies of the flowering plants around the garden instead.