Dear Kym
I don't have a big garden, its the width of my very small semi detatched house that is situated at the edge of farmland outside Leeds in West Yorkshire. The climate is cooler than London, a lot cooler than Cornwall but warmer than Scotland. We get mixed weather in the summer - last year it rained constantly but this year is looking promising.
The garden is sheltered by 8 foot fences over which there are other gardens which have donated quite a lot of the plants which seem to migrate over or through the fences, goodness knows what I've sent back. Next to my next door neighbour there is a disused railway embankment lined with silver birch and sycamore trees.
I love container gardening. These are pots of herbs, various mints, lemon verbena, bay, chives, tarragon, variagated sage. An owl made from a granite pebble.
The garden god. He has periodically to be rescued from the ivy (an ex house plant) that rampages over the back of the garage.
Another owl.
My hanging baskets - the middle one is made (not by me) from pine cones, they haven't got going properly yet. The bird box is not occupied by a nest but a very frazzled bluetit, obviously feeding babies elsewhere uses it to sleep in. He gets cross if I'm in the garden and he wants to get in!
More pots, a chimney pot a friend gave me (it has a hidden pot with flowers in the top) succulents growingin a low wall plus a very active, very established colony of black ants. We ignore each other which so far has worked well.The tall things are lillys that are about a week away from blooming but I can't remember what colour they are. Two more owls, a sandstone carving bought from Ebay and a plastic one that Caitlin couldn't resist one Mother's day.
The other side of the succulents, the sandstone bird bath is really old and weathered, another Ebay purchase, and the blackbirds love it. So does the wood pigeon who sits in it all fluffed up for ages. Somewhere else, buried by geraniums, I have a piece of Welsh slate with a magpie carved on it. I must dig it out.
This is a selection of geraniums and poppies, all self sewn. The poppy seeds came from the garden of a hospital where a dear friend had a long stay. I broadcast the seed from one pod and they have self seeded all over the garden ever since. There is a lot of long grass in it too. I make occasional attempts to weed it out.
Its long been Mum's ambition to have her own supply of rhubarb. Rejecting the specimens for sale at the Garden Centre as not worth the money, she - with all the innocence her 75 year old self could muster, asked an 'old' man in the village, how to look after rhubarb as she was thinking of buying some. He of course said don't buy it I'll give you a patch. My husband David had a massive job to dig it out its roots go down over a foot and we all got a bit. Mine is looking a bit sad but as I live smack bang in the middle of the Yorkshire 'Rhubarb Triangle' I have hopes that it will rally.
This is a dwarf apple tree, its covered in apples this year but if its true to form, most of them will drop off. Behind me is a damson tree that had loads on last year but hardly any blossom this year. I also have a low growing Quince that is covered in blossom. You can see the house at the bottom and the back off the garage.
One of four courgette plants. This one has mini courgettes on already. I aim to eat them small this year as hopefully I will have lots. I have put two in the front of the flower bed this year, they should spread and cover all the ground and then spill onto the gravel. I also grow salad leaves in pots and this year have perpetual spinach for the first time. Other pots have rosemary, more taragon, lots of thyme and lots and lots of parsley.
An unknown Clematis and Honeysuckle, both self sown from next door.
The view from my garden with early evening light. The big bushy thing on the patio on the right is a self sown lavender that is growing from between the bricks. Lavender is one of my favourite things. You can see the trees on the disused railway embankment along the top and my neighbour's pergola that has wisteria and several clematis'.
I get an immense amount of pleasure from my garden, pleasure in small things at times when the rest of the world seems to have gone crazy. The lives of the birds on my bird, and squirrels on my bird feeders always entertain.
Happy gardening,
Sue x
