Open Garden - June 2009
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We opened for St. Christopher's Hospice on Sunday 14th June this year. We had the usual refreshments (cakes from Munch and Crunch in Penge - a new supplier and very nice), a gift stall and a raffle. We also sold a few second hand books and a few plants.
Including donations we raised a grand total of £774 - our best ever year! HSBC came up trumps with their £ for £ thing again to give us another £500 and get us over the £1,000 hurdle.
Most of the photos without people in were taken the day before we opened (in case it rained, I ran out of time etc on the day). I also took some photos of the individual plants etc as I never have time on the day. I've scattered them about on this page so you can see what there was to see. I've also scattered the photos of the visitors around in no particular order. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and, again, we were really lucky with the weather.
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Starting in the front garden, the alstromaeria are very pretty and the paeonies are beautiful. The paeonies don't last long but they are wonderful while they are in flower. |
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Moving through to the back garden which, after all is what people come to see. The pyracantha has been full of blossom this year so the birds can look forward to a berry feast later. As you can see we have quite a few feeders for the birds and we get a really good variety of (bird) visitors. |
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Now we go down the ramp, past the highly scented rose on the trellis and down towards the silver bed. We planted this with cosmos in the middle (once the tulips and bluebells had died back) but it will be a while before they flower so our visitors didn't get to see them. |
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Following the path down the right hand side of the garden, we walk past the "silver" bed - although it's more pink, purple and silver nowadays. We have allium on both sides of the path
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We had some problems with the smaller headed allium this year. Not sure what ate them but something sucked all the juice out of them so they didn't flower. The larger headed flowers did fine though. We had some alliums pop up in odd places so not sure whether squirrel has been helping us with our planting schemes or whether I'd simply forgotten where I'd planted them! |
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At the end of this path you reach the food beds. We have fruit on the right and veg in two raised beds on the left. The strawberries are in a new bed this year and are doing much better but we have to make sure we pick them early enough otherwise the birds enjoy them instead of us! |
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The fruit we have are strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries. There are also some blackberries that we allow to grow at the very end of the beds - they taste yummy in the Autumn. |
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We have a wider range of veg including broad beans, runner beans, peas, kale, broccoli, beetroot, carrots, onions, leeks, spinach, courgettes and potatoes.
We have our ongoing battle with the slugs and snails. The mini electric fences seem to have helped but Jonathon's nightly visits with a torch and carrier bag is definitely the best way of keeping the numbers down.
The pigeons and others have been deterred by the canes and CDs so it all looks reasonably healthy this year.
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We have grown some sweet peas up the the new archway this year so they add a lovely splash of colour at that end of the garden. These were grown from last year's seed whereas the ones on the right that are growing up the normal sweet pea frame were newly bought in. |
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Back on to the path and off we go again.
I cut the pampas back before we open so people can get down this path without getting ripped to shreds.
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There are some steps just before you reach the cotinus that take you to the pond. |
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We put a few seats by the pond as people seem to like to sit there, watch the fish and listen to the water noises.
There are lots of plants in the bed down there too so they can enjoy those at the same time.
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Back on the path and up the other side of the garden. The hosta bed is on this side of the garden and the slugs / snails have been very busy on some of these plants. It's strange how they eat some and leave others alone. |
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Almost at the patio now and
time for a sit down and a rest. |
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In the two patio beds, we have nicotiana, asters and petunias but they are still young so nowhere near in full flower. Something to look forward to in July and August. Most of the pots have fuchsias in. We lost a lot of fuchsias this Winter as it was colder than normal so we've had to replace them with baby ones. No doubt they'll grow given time. |
Other pots have pansies, lillies or petunias in, not to mention lavender which we both really like.
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I always like to walk round a garden both ways to make sure I don't miss anything so ... turning round and off we go back past the hosta bed. |
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We have a few flowers that self seed around the garden - makes it more interesting so see what pops up where. Treats this year have been the foxgloves, especially when one had a dragonfly on it catching the sun. |
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Nigella and Bishop's Wort also grow wherever it suits them but they're both pretty so it's OK. I'm sure some of the other flowers / plants we like are weeds really but if we like them and they look OK where they are then we see no harm in letting them get on with life. |
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We have a small rose bed but also like to have roses dotted about here and there. The one on the far left was our house warming present from Mum & Dad. |
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The rose bed is at the end of this path (next to the fruit beds). We have a couple of standard roses and then some "normal" roses - one the same as the one Mum & Dad got us (celebrating the Commonwealth Games in Manchester) and the others ... who knows - they were here before us. |
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There's a way onto the grass from this path so time to see what it all looks like from the lawn. Blackbird thought he could help so came around with me for a while, looking for food rather than anything else. When I'm digging or weeding I usually have either him or the robin "helping".
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Finally back to the steps and the patio to find our way out .... |
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... but not before we say Goodbye to some of our more frequent visitors! |
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A big thank you to everybody for your generosity in either coming along or donating cash and/or plants and making a success of the day. We can relax now until we start all over again for next year!
A final request ... if you are in one of the photos on this page and would prefer the photo not to be in the general public domain, please let me know and I'll take it down.
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