Last look at the garden before we move

Thought I'd do one last post on our current garden before we move next week. I had high hopes for the garden when we moved in. It was close to a blank canvas with just grass (and tree stumps) at the front and grass and patio at the back.

But then I became ill with ME, which has remained quite constant for the past 4 years. So, I didn't really have much energy to make it the garden I wanted. However, over the years we did manage to add some plants that have really made the garden interesting during each season. Here are a few photos from the past couple of months:

Here's a mint moth resting on salvia.

I grew Brussels sprout last year. As we knew we were moving, I decided to leave them in to see if they'd flower. They actually throw out loads of flowers with 4 delicate petals and I've seen various bees having a feed - so I'm glad I left them in.
The shape of the flower, with its 4 petals, is why this plant - along with many other vegetables - are often called cruciferous, which is modern Latin for "cross-bearing".

It'll be a shame to miss out on the Victoria plums this year - but at least we were hear to look at - and smell - the lovely blossoms on this tree.

This year we've been graced with a multitude of 7-spot ladybirds. Our back path became a ladybird highway, with our garage wall being a nesting sight. I felt very lucky to see a few of these ladybirds lay their eggs.

Here's a video of the ladybird laying some eggs:


Here are the two apple trees that my wife planted a couple of year ago. It's a shame we won't get to see them mature and provide lots of apples, but the ones we have had were good!

 

An osteospermum that my mother-in-law gave us 2 years ago. I find it to be a wonderful plant for ground cover. Oh, and of course, these pretty blooms.

This rowan was planted during the 'tree o'clock' initiative in 2009 as nothing more than a stick. It has since grown to around 3 metres tall and provides lots of flowers and berries. Hopefully the birds will realise this soon and frequent the garden

This is a primrose that I've shared photos of before. We'll be taking this with us as it's potted. We decided to leave all the plants in the ground and just take our potted plants. Hopefully the new owners will appreciate some established plants - but with plenty of space to make the garden their own.

I'm looking forward to having a new garden. As always I have plans to do it 'properly' and create a plan and identify every plant in the garden over the course of the next year before making changes - let's see how long that idea lasts!

Thanks for reading, Tim

(Originally posted on my Grows on You account: http://www.growsonyou.com/timmyh/blog/29962-last-look-before-we-move)