A gardens progress

A very special rose that scrambles over the garden room

A garden's progress or is it a gardeners'? as no matter how hard I try i just don't catch up, leaving untidy heaps of weeds in my wake ready for the bonfire. Still the first rose of summer burst out ready for our annual June treat - this rose was given to me by my late father when I was married as our family has always had on in our gardens and so it acts as a fitting memento each year, as it brings copious copper pink blooms and a sweet nostalgic scent to the courtyard, for oh too short a time. The poor thing thrives on neglect as apart for the odd random prune, which is more luck than judgement and the occasional Autumn watering with Epsom salts, it very much does it's own thing having escaped the confines of the wooden tub years ago and set off into the gravel in search of nutrient.

A little statue tucked in one of the corners

The poppies self seed in the gravel around the pots

Leading from the courtyard out to the main garden

Pots topiary and poppies

Poppies again - self assured little flowers that appear each year

The lavender is starting to gain colour

From the car park but making an entrance inviting with a pot

The main courtyard has settled down into its summer form and become an outdoor room framed by the glossy fig trees that edge the small lawn - I love to collect terracotta pots in different designs to decorate sheltered sitting areas but this week my main focus has been in the shelter belt clearing the Phoriums of dead leaves and moving the detritus that seems to gather in a garden if left unchecked - I cleared the arch that leads out to a strangely sheltered bench outside of the  plants and overlooking the field towards the sea with the far off shipping lanes - I tend to call this bench the sulking bench, so neatly is it concealed that only the most intrepid garden explorer can find it - but gardens are about surprises, don't you think? and i always try to temp geusts around the next corner.

The bench beyond the shelter belt tucked in a half moon
of scented hedge

My arch that i hope to interst guest with to continue
their walk

 With another heap of debris left in my wake,  i moved on to the gravel border that runs beside the Italian garden snaking in and out of the formal lawns - still work in progress here but this is a stretch I've done - alas about half way so watch this space!

A walk through the gravel garden

I've put a few steps up and down for interest using left
over flag stones from the hall

To see more of the garden I've finished our facebook page's May garden album click here to see it. Have a wonderful jubilee weekend back to the weeds!!

The Cordylines are in flowr now impossible huge white blooms