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Wednesday 15 August 2007

My Garden - Part II



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The Shady Side

This part of my garden at the entrance to the appartments. The sun only finds its way in this garden in the morning and gradually diminishes until the early afternoon, it is also the part of the garden that remains damp. This is a bit of a nuisance as the lawn tends to turn into patches of moss - I gave up but not being a lawn person I just let nature get on with it. The grass has gradually disappeared, but there are all sorts of other strange flowers that appear from time to time. Some people might call them weeds, but even weeds have their attraction. The slugs and snails are also very happy in this part of the garden, although I do tend to remove them when I find them as I don't really want them to take over. My cats do not like them either as they dislike having sticky paws.

I planted a few shrubs on this side as these pictures show.


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The wegelia flowers througout the Summer in red. The Thuja is a bit of a problem child. Actually there are two Thujas and they belonged to my mother-in-law. She had them both in a large window box. When she died at the age of 90 I planted them in my garden. At the beginning they were quite nicely behaved, but over the last five years they started spreading in all directions. Now I have to chop off the branches when they get too wide as they tend to block the way through the garden. If it continues to grow it will soon be seen from all over the village.

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This part of the garden is also bordered by a privet hedge. On the outskirts of the hedge there was some earthy space so I filled it in with a few border plants. I cannot remember their names, but at the moment the white ones are flowering - the blue ones come a bit later. We also have two small walls to improve our privacy. They are connected overhead with wires for training plants. On the one side I have a Japanese Wisteria which has to be cut back half way through Summer as it tends to turn day into night in the rooms on that side of the appartment. The wisteria does have a lovely show of violet flowers in May. In Autumn it looses its leaves - lots of fun sweeping them up for a couple of months.

On the other side I planted a couple of colourful hostas and a honeysuckle is also growing. The large pots are my "experiments". The large one on the left is a chestnut tree which I planted from a chestnut. I am now looking for a permanent home for the tree as it has now split the pot in 3 places. The pot next to it is also a chestnut, but smaller. They we have my walnut tree - also planted from a walnut. Up to now it has behaved, but I think one day that will also need more room for its roots. The pot on the right is my grapevine. I have it in a pot as the roots would go down too deep in the garden. The grapes are dark blue and not bad, although after three years I have only had one small harvest up to now. Not enought to make a bottle of wine.


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These photos show around the inside edges of the garden. At the corner I have two hazelnut trees, which suddenly appeared one day next to the Thuja, I think my mother-in-law had put them in the window box. I replanted them together. They are growing, but no hazelnuts up to now. In one of the photos there is a small bamboo plant. I noticed today that it has started to poke up a few long stems. It is quite a good survivor in our cold temperatures in the Winter. When my tulips finish flowering in my flower bed on the sunny side (see my other garden Part I) I replant them on this side of the garden. On the righthand side I have a deutzia which has a wonderful show of pink flowers in Spring. At the moment things look a bit bare, but there are a few dahlias slumbering under the earth waiting for better days, as well as various geraniums (I mean the proper ones that come up every year - the wild ones). Looking through the privet you can see the footpath which leads to the entrance of the flats.


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I took these photos in the middle of the garden. The primula seems to be the only one that has survived up to now - I did have a few more. The white flowers are a relation of the Christmas rose but in German the translation for this type is the Spring season rose. I have a blue hibiscus tree behind the "Lenzrose" which also flowers in red. At the moment there is nothing much to see, but it is quite interesting in late Summer when two colours of flowers are on the tree. There are also forget-me-nots on one of the pictures (the caucasian sort that remain and grow every year). The other two plants showing just their leave grow quite high. The one with the wide leaves flower with long yellow spikes in Summer and the other group of pointed leaves has long white flower stalks.

At the moment the garden is getting ready for the Summer. I will probably come back from time to time and show how it is developing. It is only a small garden - but it is fun.
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