The weather is lovely here again today and Edward is enjoying spending lots of time in the garden; a month or two ago I approached Charles (our landlord) to see if we could extend the garden back to where its original boundaries used to be now that Margaret (the lady that lived in the house over the back) has moved to another house in the village. He came round the other day, we went and had a look at where the new/original boundary is/was and he gave us the go ahead to start doing whatever we like to it!

The Estate are going to fence it all in so that it matches the fencing we already have but we don’t have to wait for that before we make a start. There’s a HUGE pampas grass there and some other big ugly shrub so we’re going to dig those out (hopefully with the help of the Jeffs’ and their digger!), move the hundred-weight of aquilegias and delphiniums and forget-me-nots (they always remind me of you now MIL) to the edges and then turf the rest. Below are some pictures of the new bit of garden as it is today so for once we actually have a record of before and after, somehow we always seem to forget the before photo. It’s all very exciting especially as all of our favourite plants and some of the new ones we put in last year are growing away like crazy.

Simon’s ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ plant showing off its first flowers of the year (this is one of his favourites)…

The centre of a ‘Mrs Bateman’ clematis flower – it reminds me a bit of a sea anemone – she is currently smothering the trellis that we put in front of the oil tank to hide it and is doing a fantastic job!

Here are a few pictures of the new bit of garden – this first one is looking away from our garden fence with the house and the back of Simon’s shoffice to your right. The tree at the end is a fabulous pear tree and under it are a couple of very established peonies that are just stunning – we are very lucky to have inherited them!

This one is standing further into what was Margaret’s garden – you can see the MONSTER pampas grass (it’s easily 12 feet tall!) and other funny shrub thing and where I strung the boundary up for Charles to come and have a look at.

And this last one is from underneath the pear tree looking back towards our current garden fence with the house and Simon’s shoff’ there on the left…

And finally, a photo of Edward relaxing in the garden this morning – I think this is my most favourite image of him to date!