Blooming

I have returned to a garden in bloom most of which has survived my being away.  I have lost a handful of onion seedlings to the heat wave that we are having in this part of the world.  I am watering in earnest to keep everything from expiring.  I have not actually done very much in the garden this week at all so offer you some pictures instead, a virtual tour starting at the top of the garden...

...with a raised bed that is the width of the garden approx 6m/20ft.  Originally this was a larger patio area which had been installed, very badly, by a previous owner it was like a sea you could visibly see it was not flat and it would probably not have withstood sitting on it as it sank as you walked over it.  We removed the pavers, reusing them to make a path, dug the bed over and now grow veg in it, this year leeks, onions and root veg.   The large cage in the the top right hand corner is a 1000 litre rainwater storage tank.

Next down the garden is the compost bins...

...recently rebuild by my husband as the old ones had rotted.  The wooden box on legs at the front of the bottom picture is a wormery.

On the other side of the path to these is the polytunnel...

...without which we would not grow much.  We use it pretty much year round and start off most seedlings in it.  We grow cucumbers and courgettes in it in the summer and salad leaves in the winter.

The next bed down on the left of the garden...

...has a trellis in the top corner which holds slings and krabs to attach a hammock.  An unruly honeysuckle grows over the top and a thyme lawn underneath.  The rest of the bed has garlic and potatoes growing in it this year.  The bottom edge has...

...a lilac just about to bloom and bluebells still in flower and...

...a rather small wildlife pond which has sprung a leak I think we need to reline it!

To the left of this bed, in front of the polytunnel is a mass of greenery...

...two pea wigwams, a rhubarb plant and some small dwarf beans, behind them is a rosehip hedge along the edge of the garden.  This provides a wind break without which not much would grow, this is the prevailing wind direction and there is a mass of open land for the wind to blow across.

Winding our way down the garden we have...

...a fruit cage which we built this year, containing a blackcurrant and a whitecurrant.

Another trellis...

...in front of the pond supporting an aktinidia kolomikta, the leaves of which change colour from green to white to pink in the sunshine.

In front of this is a bed that I have largely neglected...

...but is doing very nicely without my help, the bulbs in this bed were planted before we move in, the rest is self seeded mostly by birds I think.

My herb garden is below the fruit cage...

...and look rather depleted, the grey is ash from the wood burning stove.  We lost most of our herbs this winter to old age and cold they have now been dug up and the bed is now waiting for us to find the time to buy more plants and put them in.

On the patio we have a wood shed and a few pots...

...with the shoots of the lovely liatris which the bees and butterflies love.

The garden ends with a narrow path alongside the garage/worskshop down to the house.  The roof of the garage is also a garden...

...a green roof.  My husband and some friends put this garden together four years ago and it is coming on well.  The logs attract the birds as they rot down, we had woodpeckers on here last year feeding their young.

That is my garden!