The paved area at the back of the house sits in deep shade for most of the morning and then blazing sunlight until dusk. I tried roses, cottage style pots but they didn't like it; the poor things wilted in the heat of the afternoon. The area looked stark and unfriendly with no planting at all so I decided, on a whim, to try more exotic things. I shouldn't really call it a jungle since some of the things I am growing there wouldn't survive in a jungle at all. It is a mix of small palms, bananas, bulbs, fuchsias, anything that enjoys or will tolerate unrelenting sun. I bought cheap palms and bananas from the garden centre department at the supermarket.  When I brought them home they were small plants but I was astonished at how quickly they grew. By the end of teh summer, the four inch high banana plants were taller than me! Since I am new to this style of gardening, I stuck to easy to grow varieties that would put up with growing in pots. Along side the more unfamiliar thing

 As I promised on one of my other posts I've finally got around to updating you on my rose walk. The idea was inspired by my sister and I had the perfect place for it. A shady corner that we always just walked past. Now it is planted up with roses and clematis there will be a reason to stop and spend a few moments smelling the blooms ... and dead heading, of course. The first photo is the 'before' pic - the one below it, the 'after' pic. The roses you can see in the picture are  Rosa Banksiae Rosea (small pink rambler). Rambling Rosie (red in foreground). Snowgoose (small creamy white on right of seat) The red one near the seat is called JIve and just in the top corner of the last picture you can glimpse Kiftsgate. I've also planted Tottering By Gently pictured below which is great for bees and other pollinators. The generous gardener a (lovely pink climber not pictured) and Lady of Shallot (pictured below) which promises to be a show stopper. While we were at i

 It is January and I am posting on the blog, hopefully I will keep it up this year. I've already begun the Spring tidy up and am hoping for as lovely a Spring and Summer as we had last year. 2020 was certainly a strange year but I confess I did enjoy being in the garden, no distractions, no pressing engagements. We made a lot of small changes, added numerous new clematis and roses and at the end of the season we extended the sunny border, made it deeper so we can plant even more. At the moment we are just raking up dead leaves, cutting back the spent stems from last year and uncovering the emrging bulbs. For me, Spring is always a time of hope and healing. My head is jaded after being inside for so long and I begin to grow into myself again, like a rather tatty flower. We should pace ourselves though because there are few projects left for us to do, we are running out of space and will only get bored if we finish all the jobs too soon. There is talk of another pergola near the hous