It’s been a busy year outside for all of us, and before the summer gets under way I thought I would give you an inside view of my own garden, just to get us all thinking about how we can improve on what we already have. For those of you who don’t already know, I’ve got quite a big garden, and it always needs lots of work doing to it! Perhaps a quick guided tour would be handy.
As I come out of the house, I can see our old cat stretched out by the kitchen wall. He’s getting a bit arthritic these days, and doesn’t do much at all, except for pawing at a few passing insects. He must be a very kind animal, because he rarely inflicts any damage on them. The path then swings across to the fence on the left side, abreast of the line of three large shrubs that protect our cat from the prevailing stiff breeze. One of these, a really big specimen imported from somewhere exotic, makes an awful lot of noise when the wind blows, so much so that it sometimes disturbs the cat. However, these plants tend to look after themselves, and need only an occasional pruning.
A bit further down the garden is a row of small trees (the one on the far side is a bonsai) which I have planted out in some nice wooden tubs. This means that they can be moved about from place to place, but that’s quite difficult, they’re so heavy! As a result, they stay mostly in the middle, where they form a sort of centrepiece to the garden. I have tried every now and then moving one of them across to the path to provide some shade and shelter from the wind, but my wife Bryony doesn’t like that at all, and it always gets moved back quickly. Mind you, I don’t know how she does it, as I almost never see her in the garden, she just sits and looks out from an upstairs window. One or two of these trees are looking a bit sad and tired now, and might need to be replaced soon - we’ve got a little bit of money put aside for that, which we got for selling a rare specimen to a very nice man recently. We might need to wait a while yet, though, as Bryony says that it is the wrong time of year to put new plants in. Funny, that - I thought it would be ideal.
Next to the bonsai tree are the children’s rabbits, four of them in a big hutch alongside the fence. I don’t like to keep so many together, but Bryony got them from her mother-in-law, and can’t bring herself to get rid of any. One of them is old, and won’t last much longer, and two of the other three don’t do much anyway - one just sits there morosely, and the other is barely any better, it just runs out across the garden and back once or twice a week - nothing else. The fourth one worries me - I think it’s a bit mental, it leaps up and down and screams all the time, but the kids love him, and won’t hear a bad word said about him.
Further down yet is my pride and joy - a vast expanse of virgin lawn. It’s like a billiard table, it’s beautiful, so green and inviting. Nobody uses it for much, so it doesn’t get spoilt by people trampling all over it. I love it so much that I haven’t even extended the path over it, it stops short about three-quarters of the way down and, to be honest, I don’t think that I ever will complete it. It’s a bit sad, because right at the bottom are two lovely tall, statuesque trees which I can’t reach properly, but I’m prepared to accept that and admire them from a distance.
Well, that’s about it, I hope that this gives you a few ideas for over the summer. As for ourselves, we are cautiously planning some improvements, but Bryony insists that we wait until the time is right, and I also need to have everything exactly in the right place before deciding what to do. Things would happen a bit quicker if Bryony’s mother would be a little less tight with the purse strings, but I shouldn’t complain, they’ve both been good to me over the years.
Happy gardening!
Phil