In the Garden....

I am not a good gardener.
In fact if there is an opposite to green fingers, I have them.
In my defence, I suffered with awful hayfever for years and years until cured by our wonderful NHS allergy clinic. So now I have no excuse - I am officially giving gardening a go!
We mainly have a big lawn and not much else.  For some, this might present a blank canvas and a wonderful opportunity for garden design, but really I just want to fill it up a bit around the edges. As a landscaping plan - it isn't the most original I'll admit.



Last year was a bit wet and cold for new planting but we tried to coax the existing shrubs back to life with some pruning, food and watering and it seems to be working. This Magnolia (I think) that has produced lots of flowers for the first time.




This is the Red Robin that went in last Summer and seems to be one of the things that have really taken off (the Clematis less so - they are too thin to even photograph well)


Last year the shrubs in front of the Laurel were grey and diseased. We cut them right back and they've sprung up this year and flowered. I don't know what they are though. I think one might be a flowering currant??


We have lots of spaces to fill in but not a lot to spend so we're trying to buy small things which grow well. Two weeks ago this Willow was just a twig. Now it is a twig with leaves!


I have some bluebells in my front garden but they haven't flowered this year. They are still in clumps with green bobbles but no actual flowers at all. I got all excited that they might be spreading to the back garden too (I don't even know if that's possible - do they have seeds?). However, on closer inspection, it is just a weed. I have quite a few weed / seed dilemmas at the moment so am waiting for things to flower and then making a judgement call about whether they can stay or not. I don't mind weeds as long as they're pretty ones and I've noticed we're getting tons of butterflies visiting so they must like them too.