Back to Planet Earth...

...and enjoying the sun!

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic and action packed, with a trip to Devon and Cornwall, and Chelsea being so close to each other that things got a bit manic. But with the heady and heavenly delights of going here, there, everywhere in those two weeks, it was nice to go back down to planet Earth, take it easy, and enjoy some time in our own garden.

And it was nice, very nice to indulge in the purity of gardening on your own turf. So much so that we just immersed ourselves in doing bits and pieces in the garden especially with the weather being so sunny and warm. We didn't even take a single photo of anything over the weekend, have done loads of that in the prior two weeks too so we thought we could give that a rest over the weekend (snaps on this post were taken today).

The joys of painting a bench, a strangely calming and relaxing activity...

With the dry and sunny weather it meant that other things we weren't able to do in the previous deluge of a month we are able to get done now and so we just carried on doing them, with lots of breaks in between activities mind you.

And it was bliss, pure bliss to do some gardening in the solitude of our garden.

The 'jungle' is looking more lush with new growth from the tree ferns...

and the 'jungle' floor is filling out with ground ferns, arisaemas, and hostas...

But this Astilboides tabularis is holding its own right amongst them all!

The main bulk of what we've undertaken was to prepare the garden for the coming summer months. With the warmth and the moist soil everything's growing so quick now and necessary attention was needed by some of them. Garden accessories have started to come out too. Usually it's a flurry of activity in late spring to early summer but usually calms down again later, the period when you just mostly enjoy having a garden reaping the rewards of your efforts.

Schefflera aff. chapana is currently flushing new growth

Unfurling new frond of a Cyathea cooperi

Cheerful blooms of Clematis 'Nelly Mosser'

With Britain being Britain, you just don't know how long the sunny spell will last until we get a period of rainy days again. But you always live in hope that such fine weather does stretch for a long time. So whilst fine weather is here it's worth making the most of it!

Some new garden accessories for this year including... 

a trio of smiling suns in front of the Jungle Hut.

Not to forget the old timers like this trio of elephants!

But saying that, heavy rain every so often, in between days of sunshine would be ideal so the garden gets some needed watering to sustain even better growth (especially now that we have a hosepipe ban!).

Zantedeschia 'White Giant' blooming away...

whilst several of our Trachycarpus fortunei are flowering...

and this Fatsia japonica 'Spider's Web' has flushed new growth.

Later in June might get hectic again, but in a pleasant way. We do like our period of solitude and gardening but love travelling and going to visit differnt places too (like what happened in the last two weeks...). It's good to intersperse a period of calm and activity once after the other, so you get the best of both worlds.

Almost ready for summer!

Anyway, gardening and enjoying the sun continues!

Mark :-)

Posted in: exotic garden , garden design , Garden Photos , summer