It’s been a while. But somehow in lockdown 3 I’ve lost my mojo. Not quite where I lost it because to be honest I haven’t been anywhere to lose it! The local shops. The local park and I’ve been back a fair few times looking for it. The days are now getting lighter the weathers getting. wetter and colder and I’m dreaming of Spring & Summer days, new planting and maybe just maybe a little travel. Oh and losing the lockdown biscuit belly.

Back to business. It’s been said before I know. Three gardens is just greedy. Well it’s not what was planned and it’s not forever. At some point there will be two. One is not under discussion it’s a given. But for now it’s juggling a tale of 3 gardens.

I hate change. This week we have new neighbours. I always stress about changes. Good neighbours are a vital ingredient to harmony. Our neighbours careers take them away for a few years at a time and then they are back. This is their second overseas visit since they have been neighbours and we miss them and their children. I miss baking for the children. I miss the phone calls ~ ‘we are running late. Can you pick the kids up from school? Can you do the morning school run.

We originally lived in a top floor flat. No garden let alone three. We then bought a house 8 doors down the road ~ which only meant we changed post code and telephone exchange. Bonkers really ~ we couldn’t take our land line ~ remember them? Even more bonkers is that the centre of the road divides the polling. The opposite side of the road votes in a hall in the road. Our side three streets away.

The house and garden was a bit of a mess to say the least and once in there was that moment when you think Um. Why? are we mad?

The interior of the house was multi coloured. You needed sun glasses to get through the front door. But as expected we started work on the garden pretty quickly. There was a low wall behind us to a property where the ground floor flat kept a pretty angry dog who could and did get out of the garden into ours. I recall,the owner being angrier So speed was of the essence. There were issues with the low wall which was solidly leaning into our garden but getting it removed and rebuilt would take to long and we weren’t sure whose responsibility it was. Sometimes boundary issues are just not that clear.

Well at least it is a blank canvas said Ian. Blank canvas ! It certainly was. One where we dug up a complete cooker and various other ‘stuff’ that had been discarded. What soil there was was dead. Even weeds wouldn’t grow.

The garden is small. The houses are tall and the garden really only gets decent sun when the sun is high in the sky which is for a short period in the year and in the afternoon.

Over the years we have seen one house lay a lawn every two years. It’s a waste yet they still continue. But first the fence. Then the paving. In such a small garden it’s difficult to grow directly into the ground so we decided to grow everything in pots. One it would give us height and the give plants a chance of at least surviving. It meant our choice of plants were maybe not my first choice. But that was no bad thing.

As well as the small square space at the rear of the house we had the side return which also needed work. This was such a different project to the garden in Somerset. We were still spending our week in london and then at weekends we piled into the car, us and the two cats and spent the weekend in the garden there. So we wanted something that needed less work but yet held the interest for us. Somewhere we count sit with a glass of wine. Read. Relax.

The garden took shape gradually as we slowly looked for planters. For plants. For ideas and inspiration. From my Instagram posts people know I’m a huge fan of tree ferns. I have to be honest. They weren’t originally down to me. That was down to Ian. He decided he liked tree ferns and that was the start. We bought another last year. I’ve said it has to be the final one. It’s a small space yet we have six.

We were so pleased with the start of the process but it still looked empty. But Ian had other ideas ~ more tree ferns. This picture was taken 16 years ago a year after we moved in. How things change. One of the reasons that things went in pots was that we didn’t intend to stay here for ever. Said the man who doesn’t like change. We made offers on two houses during the last 17 years and missed out on another. So we stayed.

Looking at the photograph now I see hostas. I have never grown them since. The garden is a slug and snail magnet and I’ve learnt what I can and what I can’t grow. It’s a typical london micro climate and because if the size shake and light levels it’s been a huge learning curve. I maintain I”m not a gardener. I garden.

The house is taller at the rear than at the front. Two stories at the front. Three at the very back. This photo was taken from the top floor bedroom at the beginning of the adventure. There are others at varying times.

The last photograph was last summer. I know as we had a move around of two tree ferns to accommodate the new one. It was also agapanthus bud time and I can see a pot of red trailing thyme on the table from Pepperpot herbs . A great lockdown find in 2020 and one we will use again and again.

This one was taken last week which shows just how green the garden is in mid winter. The trunks of the tree ferns are wrapped. Straw in their crowns but some years I haven’t bothered. Last week Ian was out shaking the snow of the tree ferns. The canna still have some leaves hanging in there.

The planting has changed a fair bit over the last 17 years with a couple of constants. Tree ferns. Agapanthus and latterly cannas. Oh. And salvia hot lips which goes crazy and salvia Amistad which is still flowering in January. If I find something isn’t working then it gets taken to Somerset if it will tolerate the wet and cold winters.

We have a small citrus, currently flowering and two wispy olives. An acer. A kind of flowering almond planted in an old chimney pot. . Fatsia spiders web. One climbing rose. Jasmine of three descriptions one of which clotted cream is on a stay of execution. I was going to remove it last year as it had flowered poorly. Last year it went crazy. The trachelospermum by the back door planted because it reminds me of a trip to Italy. A discarded house plant of jasmine planted in a small planter is now 20 feet up the drainpipe and scents the house in summer. A honeysuckle planted in an old chimney,pot. Throw in some annuals for colour and that’s it.

The joy is that the three gardens are markedly different. London full of exotics, I forgot the banana and bamboo, the bamboo canes cut last year and used in Somerset. Somerset very much a cottage garden. Perennials. Fruit trees. Grass. Spain. Drought. Tolerant planting. Succulents. Cacti. Strelitzia both Reginae and Nicolai a great olive tree. Almonds. Oleander. . I’ll save the rest as when my mojo is fired up I’ll blog about that garden

Back to now. Being in pots everything needs a good feed and I’m a fan of using alpaca poo from My friend Lou at Arches at the Larches.

A handful of alpaca in the crown of the tree ferns and a regular liquid feed along with a little of the same for the agapanthus. Which reminds me they need splitting although I say that every year. A change of compost when replanting and a topping up regularly using peat free.

We do need to replace a lot of the pots ~ Ian still says the tree ferns come with us when we move. Good luck.

The front garden is also small. This photo was taken not long after we bought the house. I know as we installed a new front door pretty quickly after the move. Why? Wouldn’t you have done the same? This was indicative of the interior and a muted colour!!

The breeze block wall has gone. The path replaced and a new gate. The front has had more and more pots added over the years with changes in Spring for tulips and perennials and annuals for summer.

Early days window box. I’ve always been a glutton for colourful window boxes. This would have been around 15 years ago.

In 2019 it was gaura, agapanthus and canna. Some plants are in all three gardens. Gaura is now one of them. We have agapanthus in Spain and in the london garden. Last year I also planted them in Somerset. Oh. And I’ve planted canna in Somerset.

Each Autumn I plant up the window boxes with tulips. This year the colours are predominantly orange and purple with accompanying colours. Last year it was all,peony type doubles . I have planted pots of hocus pocus again this year. I describe them as bonkers. Tall. Loud and lovely.

There are two unnamed large pots of white agapanthus. I mean the agapanthus are unarmed not the pots. But they are strong. Very tall and look magnificent when in full bloom.

The one in the first photo below is Agapanthus navy blue. A variety I bought two years ago from Todds Botanics

When you have a new path to match the cat

The garden will continue to evolve whilst we are here. This year we will replace some of the large pots. 17 years later the metal pots are rusting at the base. The agapanthus like me have grown larger. For them it’s the alpaca feed. For me it’s lockdown.

The window boxes have been planted with tulips for Spring. I have my eye on new canna. Some existing will be moved to Somerset. Some large perennials will go too. I have sights on some wispy grasses. I promise to put the correct delivery address on orders this year.

Last year I ordered a number of large agapanthus for Somerset. But failed to change the delivery address. A message from the courier saying he had delivered and left then outside. I looked and there weren’t there. I checked my invoice and yes. Delivered to london.

A 2.5 hour drive back to find they were indeed in the front doorstep. To stuff the car full and drive back. I had no one but myself to blame. Mark at Todds Botanics knows I’m a numpty and now double checks with me.

Not surprisingly it looks like we will be spending more time in the London garden this year. We are lucky. The garden may be small but it is outside space and in lockdown 1 & 2 was so very well needed. Oh and those coloured chairs you see aren’t really for us. But for the geriatric cats who believe they are theirs, we have to use the steel chairs which have now lost the padded seats.

But the garden was a doddle compared with the house interior!

For part one of a Tale of three gardens

A tale of Three Gardens ~ part 1