Not many words - yet. It's Sunday night, and we're just going to chill in front of the TV with a glass of wine. Here're a few photographs to be going on with ...



The swing has grass in front of it instead of (on a wet day) muddy patch.


















It's the time of year to be bringing the tender plants out of the summer house to harden them off, ready for planting out.


















The new Acer ... it's beautiful. We've planted it in the area where we put the rocks last year (the "Rockery"). We had no idea where we were going to put it when we bought it .. we just thought that it was stunning and that we would find or make a place for it ... and we did.









The tree Peony at the back of the Patio. The colour is a lot deeper in real life .. still, even here it's still a very impressive flower.



















The Wisteria ... from an advantageous angle, I admit.

Sunday ... an easy restful day

Not much time for commentary, mostly a few photo's from today.

Oh, also, we went to East Ruston Old Vicarage for the afternoon. A great place. I forgot to take my camera but check out their website http://www.e-ruston-oldvicaragegardens.co.uk/


Janet making the most of the swing ... studying form ... Well checking details of the plants we bought from East Ruston and where they're best going.















The tulips in the back garden are really looking good. I think we could do with more














And the ones at the front...













The Yucca had collapsed and was looking a little sorry fro itself so we've taken a bit of a gamble and cut it down.


















Thus.





We're working on the theory that we've seen (indoor) Yucca sprout new growth after being cut down, maybe this one will too. The people at Nottcuts suggested it could work. Hey-ho ... nothing ventured, nothing gained.









And a final photo ... this is the main border in the front garden. It's starting to fill out and is looking good. The Acer is particularly colourful.

Easter Monday

By Monday most of the work in the garden had been done. We went shopping for a few plants, and then I abandoned Janet in the garden to go and clean the car and the motorbike.

I haven't shown all of the plants that we bought and that Janet planted. The individual plants aren't that impressive, and to catalogue them would be boring so i've just taken a few general shots and, where the plants appear I will comment on them.

This is a similar photo to that shown in Sunday's blog entry. The sun's out and the freshly painted fence (all Janet's work) brightens the garden. One plant change - a Japanese Maple to the right of the path. It looks lovely close up and was an inspired choice (mine!!!!).


The view from in front of the kitchen across, diagonally to the summer house. The Japanese Maple makes another appearance, you'll see.

From the deck towards the swing - a later photo shows the relative positions of the two.

From the deck across the garden - on the left of the photo is the Yew that was to the right of the previous photo.

This shows the relative positions of the deck and the swing. The patio is to the right of the swing, behind the Yew tree.



This is the path to the back-gate. Normally filled with rubbish to go to the waste recycling centre, we've cleared it and janet's put a couple of climbing plants to reach up to the trellis. One evergreen Honeysuckle, and a climbing Hydrangea. This should provide some colour and, we hope, reduce the output from the boiler reaching the neighbour's.


These started out as a single floret ... now lots! This space is triangular - about nine inches by twelve inches.

Sometimes we get a slightly different view from our garden. It would be good if they would take a photo of the garden from up there.

And last but not least. Aiko ... being very sweet.

Easter ... Continued

The grass path from the house to the patio was a great idea when it was first created, it made a lovely shape and looked effective with the Cordyline and the Phormium alongside.

However, with time the plants grew, we added plants and rocks. Plants near the edge tumbled over the grass making it hard to maintain, and the traffic wore through it.

So we decided to pave it.

Work in progress -

The finished article -

From both ends -

The stone is the same as the patio and should weather and mellow to blend (have a look at the first photo, above, and you'll see the original stone was a little bright at first).

The swing is installed. Just a little turf to lay.

It has been correctly launched with a bottle of (Bisol) Prosecco Valdobbiadene. And quite delicious it was, too...

In order to accomodate the new path, the curve of the lawn on the right (as you look from the house) needed some adjustment. Unfortunately this made the lawn look a little lopsided, so we adjusted the curve of the lawn on the left. Which has given us more planing space (how lucky is that!!!).

Of course, this decision was arrived at after drinking the wine, and after dinner. You may notice the time - the camera's time was set before the clocks went forward and hasn't been re-set.

And, finally, nothing to do with the garden, but a darn fine pose from Rolo!

Easter - the start

Here's the base for the swing ... covered up for the night in case of frost ...



This is it completed ...



The soil in front is where we'll be laying turf to provide an easy walk up to the swing



Tomorrow there will be a swing on here.

The Trillium (well, one of two). We've waited about three year's for this to flower ...

And it's still not out ... but we'll be keeping a close eye on it

The curving grass path is going ... actually, it's gone ... Janet dug it up and we're laying a curving path in stone to match the patio. It's a bit of a startling contrast to the current stone which has weathered in the four year's or so since we laid it. We hope it fades to match.


These are the rock slabs to make the path.



On top of this, Janet's been busy being attacked by the Pyrocantha ... in the name of painting the fence:


It's suppose to be "Medium Oak" ... It painted on as Orange - kinda scary - but seems to be fading to a respectable colour.

In the front there're some nice things ...

The Magnolia's flowers are really cool ... This'll be fantastic when it grows to its full mature height.






I can't remember what this is ... I should - we saw one at Taverham in the week (it's the drink ... it's addling my brain - and long may it continue)

This is a belated post ...

Lat week we popped out on Janet's birthday and wandered around looking for things for the garden. We were looking for a oblisque ... and couldn't find anything until we spotted an "assemble it yourself" structure .. So, here're the before and after photo's

We've planted a couple clematis to climb up this ... i'll show photos as they grow.