This was how my back garden looked yesterday, as you can see the acers are holding on to their leaves and there is still quite a lot of colour around. You can’t see the rowan tree (mountain ash) in any of these photographs but it is completely bare now. It’s a good tree to have as according to Celtic mythology it keeps evil witches away.
I managed to get out there this morning and gave it a bit of a ‘redd up’. I was quite ashamed, there were even brambles growing through the shrubs. By the time I realised, they were nearly ready to eat so I just left them and added them to a crumble of home grown apples, very tasty. But I had to get rid of them before they took over the garden.
You can see the finished stonework of the house. At first we thought it looked a bit weird but we got used to it and it’s good that the house now looks as it did when it was first built over 100 years ago. Well apart from the kitchen chimney now being missing and the roof slated over where it had been. It means that the kitchen isn’t so draughty now. The patch of ground underneath the wee square window (which used to be the coal hole and is now part of the kitchen) was my herb garden but most of them got flattened by the builder. They were beginning to die back anyway and they’ll be back again next year.
I’m not happy about the more modern small stone extension to the left. The previous owners built this (f)utility room and it doesn’t really blend in with the rest of the house.
I had to give up on the gardening this afternoon though as it had started to rain really heavily (which wasn’t forecasted) and it’s our first winter time day so it started to get dark about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Quite depressing really. On the plus side – it isn’t cold or windy.
It’s just a wee garden but there’s a lot packed into it and it’s the playground of an amazing number of birds.
I hate that ugly green metal clothes pole and I’m going to get rid of it. It’s nearly rusted through at the bottom anyway so any day now I’ll look out and the washing will be all over the garden when the clothes pole collapses under the strain. I think I’ll get one of those whirly things that you can remove when it’s not in use.
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I love all the stone work and the wild gardens are some of my favorites.
I can’t tell very well. Is that a 10+ foot rock wall that I see around the “wee” garden and in the background?
Beautiful gardens. Thank you.
Steve,
Thanks for the kind comment. I’ve enjoyed looking at your site.
It is indeed a very high stone wall, I’ve never actually measured it but it’s at least 10 foot high. I think that is the only reason why I can grow the Japanese maples so well. We live in Scotland, close to the North Sea and it’s very windy most of the time but the wall provides a lot of shelter for delicate leaved plants.
The great thing about stone/rock is it improves with age.
Katrina
Thanks Katrina.
It is beautiful. We don’t see too many that tall around here.
Looking forward to your next post.
Thanks again.
I was absolutely enthralled with this post! A lovely garden, and to see your house was a real thrill. I love being able to picture the homestead of a favorite blogger.
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
Judith,
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this and you are so kind. I have to say that the back of our house looks quite strange I think. The front is much nicer as the stone used there is ‘dressed’ stone and we have rooms on either side of the front door, one with a typical Victorian window. But the house feels too big for us now.
The garden has always been my passion. J. hates gardening but loves to look at it, which is perfect because then we have no arguments about it. I’m the garden boss!
Katrina
I love your garden! What kind of pine is it in the third photo? And what about the striking red-leaved tree in the second?
Stefanie,
Thanks, apart from reading, gardening is my main hobby really. I just love planning it and planting things. It can be hard work though. It’s very different from how it looked when we moved here 22 years ago.
The pine is a Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica fastigiata glauca). I’ve wanted one for years and planted it about 3 years ago but it is growing much faster than I had anticipated, must be all the rain here.
All of the red or red/orange leaves are Japanese maples (Acers). I’m pretty sure that the one you mention is Acer palmatum Atropurpureum but they are all beautiful, I think I have 5 different ones and they are perfect small trees for wee gardens. I’m not sure how well they would grow in hot conditions, they have quite thin, easily sun damaged leaves but if you have a shady area they might be fine.
Studying Latin at school comes in very handy if you are into plants in later years.