Monday, 28 May 2012

April 2012


April was a roller coaster ride. We had a drought declared and a hosepipe ban introduced and then almost immediately we had the wettest April for over one hundred years! The garden and paths were flooded and the knock-on effect for me was the limitation in the work that I could do.

You can’t stand still as a gardener so I began clearing away all of the nettles at the top of the garden to try and encourage more grass to grow. I managed to cut the lawns (in between the rain) and also spread some ‘weed and feed’ once the growing season had begun. The fruit trees are budding nicely so more apples on the way.

The greenhouse filled with seedlings
The greenhouse was bulging with new plants grown from seed, and again whilst it rained I was able to use that time to transplant the seedlings ready for growing on and planting. Once I was sure that the last threat of frost had passed I planned to begin planting out around about week 3 in May.




Choisya (Mexican Orange)
Some of you may have noticed that I removed all the old bark and wood chippings from the front of the building, and after re-laying the weed suppressant sheet I covered it with pea shingle.
I think it makes the front look much cleaner and it also makes a great surface to show off some new shrubs, two bright yellow Choisya (Mexican Orange) shrubs in blue ceramic pots.

That’s it more news from the garden next month.

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Winter Snow Feb. 2012

A reasonable amount of snow fell in February (2012)



A panorama of the gardens

Sunday, 26 June 2011

The Old Rectory Fete 26th June 2011

Once a year The Old Rectory holds an annual Fete to raise funds for the benefit of the residents. The funds are used to buy equipment and other items that help to make their stay enjoyable.

These images show some of the staff setting up the gazebo's





Garden Terrorist! - the lovely Jacks, The Old Rectory's very own pet dog


The weather was fantastic, totally out of character for June :)


Monday, 20 June 2011

The Front Garden June 2011


Always nice to get the mower out

The lawn had a spring weed and feed which is now showing a bit of a return

I'm going to re-seed the grass in the autumn to try and build it up



The two deceased saplings .. soon to be removed



The rockery base



What d'yer mean it looks like Stonehenge ....

The Rockery

The rocks arrived ready for the next phase of the rockery development

The idea that I have is to make an outer ring and then infill it with soil and then arrange the remaining rocks on top (you may have guessed I've never done this before)
The infill of the first layer complete - I just wish I had more rocks to make the footprint a bit bigger
The second tier of rocks in place and bedded with more soil
Waiting for plants























































































Planting complete






































































Thursday, 16 June 2011

The Front Side

This side of The Old Rectory is mainly a narrow path which gets a small amount of sunshine in the late afternoon

This original brick edged bed has been cleared of weeds and debris

Unfortunately part of the end wall has disappeared and its had to be replaced with ordinary house bricks - it's not satisfactory but it will have to do for now




Once again box shrubs recovered from the front garden have been re-planted in the bed

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

The Sensory Garden

The Sensory Garden before weeding and tidy

I love my wheel barrow


























The garden after a quick overhaul in June 2011 - some of the shrubs have died due to lack of watering including the feature shrub behind the water ball