Sarah

🌱 Gardening is a pleasure, whether your own or someone else's. Lawn up to the fence so we'd stripped that back and introduced things that will fill in partial shade - rhododendron, viburnum, fatsia, climbing hydrangea, anemone and bleeding heart. Topped off with a clematis armandii for the fence.

Bunches of multi coloured dahlias in vases on kitchen windowsill

Ladybird on purple dahlia petal

Kitchen window view of the garden

🌱 As dad's dahlia garden fades outside the kitchen window, he has filled the window sill with flowers and some wildlife it seems

Miniature door with steps at the base of a large old tree

🌱 When dad is left alone in the garden, things like this appear!

Long flower border at Newby Hall, Yorkshire

Display of giant marrows and pumpkins in competition

Display of giant beetroot for competition

Owl

🌱 Sunny day at Harrogate flower show, buying plants and admiring crafts, giant veg and a selection of animals.

🌱 May seem mad to buy four more Virginia creeper plants (parthenocissus henryana) as they will each grow up to 20m with a bit of luck - we have a dog who barks at every person passing by, so 🤞 these create a distraction. Tried other climbers but there are large trees offering shade and dry ground

🌱 A day trip today, leaving the garden behind, and visiting Northumberland Zoo to see otters and snow leopards, and a birds of prey display. Followed by a trip to an antique centre in Morpeth, which may supply furniture for our kitchen and living room

🌱 Spotted Harebells in the paddock today, while fitting wire netting round the trees to distract the deer from nibbling the bark, and prepping the first section of ground for some wildflower meadow seed next to the pond. Meadow Pipits joined Swifts and dragonflies, catching insects over the water.

I rely on the dragonflies and birds to eat them, encouraging all kinds of wildlife is key

🌱 Created a small container pond outside husband's office window to bring the birds closer - looking forward to seeing the plants develop

Long-tailed tit photo, courtesy of the Woodland Trust - mouse sized bird with a white stripe on it's black head and a long black and white tail

🌱 Very happy to see a flock of long-tailed tits on our bird feeders today, at the woodland edge (not my photo obviously, they are the size of a small mouse so hard to get close to)

Just as the flowers are starting to fade, I cut the stem off above the next ripe bud

🌱 Bringing kitchen and garden together - lifted a few beetroot from the raised beds today, and cooked them down with red onions into a chutney/marmalade thing with cider vinegar and brown sugar - yummy 😋

🌱 Orchids seem to like our bathroom and reflower repeatedly, but this one has done a particularly spectacular job. I'm experimenting with not using canes to hold them generally, to give a more natural shape, but the weight of the flowers here is too much 😘

🌱 The joy of a cottage garden is spotting flowers you forgot you planted

🌱 So pleased we brought the Buddleia from dad's old garden, as the bees and butterflies are loving them. We have white, dark pink and the traditional purple - this one is next to the gate to the drive so it's a fabulous experience when you arrive home from work!

Not quite that big fortunately!

The bird seed is contained inside the aviary so minimal risk. We don't feed the wildlife as there is enough in the pesticide-free garden for them

David Austin rose called Elizabeth

Multi coloured dahlia flowers

🌱 Between the new roses and dad's dahlias, the bees are happy 🐝

🌱 🦔 So excited by our hedgehog camera star in the middle of the night, looking for snacks by the bird aviary. First sighting as they keep out of the way during the day, with the crazy dog running around.

English cottage garden border of pastel coloured flowers

🌱 We've lived here for two years today, and the garden is in it's first proper year with good results so far - looking forward to seeing the roses fill the borders over time (may have to squeeze more in while others aren't looking! 😉)

This one survived almost a foot of snow in the winter, and I suspect there would be others, if not for some over zealous weeding of seedlings

No, just this single plant

Pale pink hollyhock flowers with dark pink centres

🌱 Hopefully this beautiful Hollyhock sets seed across the garden ☺️

🌱 Stunning pale lilac oriental poppies have appeared across the cottage garden borders

🌱 Managed to video the creature responsible for stripping wood from the garden furniture - common wasps gathering materials for their nests

Man with scythe

🌱 A sunny day for cutting a path in the field, to help with moving the inherited trees to their new homes

🌱 new wisteria planted against the front wall of our home - looking forward to seeing the long white racemes of flowers in a year or two (and yes, the stone is rather weathered on this side, but solid)

Lunch table set in the garden

Turkish pizza, khobez and Afghan stuffed flatbread, yum

Challah plaited sweet bread

🌱 Nice to enjoy someone else's garden over lunch at Linnels Farm - today we did a middle eastern bread baking course in this lovely setting

Red flower on sarracenia plant

🌱 I see them every year but am always amazed by the flowers on the Sarracenia, like miniature sculptures held high in the air above the plants

Melon plants in pots, unknown variety

Clematis with white flowers, possibly early sensation variety

Blue Centaurea flower with visiting bee

Hostas wrapped in wool scarves

🌱 Donated melon plants settled in the greenhouse, while Clematis (early sensation?) and Centaurea keep the bees happy - spreads like a weed which is nice! Wool packaging wrapped round hostas has kept slugs off - best ever leaves!