I allow these alpine strawberries to grow in amongst the other plants in my garden, rather than having them in rows together. It’s more natural looking that way and the birds seem to leave them alone. Sometimes I stumble across a strawberry plant which I didn’t even know was there whilst I’m weeding. They’ve sort of gone a bit wild, they may be really wee but to me they taste really delicious, especially compared with the big fat strawberries which you get in most supermarkets. They look sumptuous but they’re often such a disappointment as they’re pretty tasteless.
As you can see, I try to squeeze as much into my garden as possible, I’m also not very good at cutting things back. I get into a terrible mess sometimes, well the plants do because I say to myself – I’ll prune it after it flowers, and then when it flowers I’m saying I’ll just let the birds have the berries.
There are several shrubs shoehorned in, the bright yellow climbing one is a golden hop. The original plant doesn’t seem to have survived the winter but several bits of it have ‘hopped’ elsewhere, and they are doing fine.
The perenial sweet peas have been in the garden since we moved here over 23 years ago and they are a bit of a menace because they pop up all over the place like goose-grass and unfortunately this is the only colour that they come up in. The yellow flowering plant was a teeny wee bit of root which was given to me and I don’t know what it is but it’s very vigorous too and I’ve been trying to get rid of most of it because I think it’s strangling some plants.
I got my love of gardening from my dad and I think he probably wouldn’t have given my foxgloves space in his garden. He would almost certainly have regarded them as weeds but I love them and more importantly the bees adore them, so I just leave them to seed themselves, which they’re very happy to do.
Well that’s the latest meander around my garden over. I hope you enjoyed the wee stroll!
Thanks again for another lovely stroll through your garden. Your garden is just what I think a garden should be: rampant and lush and full of surprises. I thought I recognized the hop vine. We had one in Massachusetts. I love the foliage and the little hop heads. The yellow flower looks pretty, but plant thugs make me nervous. We had moneywort, I believe it was, and ajuga that were charging all across the lawns and were impossible to get rid of. A little of them is nice, but too much of them is a headache. Foxgloves always remind me of fairies. And foxes.
Joan,
Thanks, all that lushness is quite good at hiding the weeds too! The hop is lovely and it’ll be easy to take some with us to our new garden, wherever that may be. I have the variegated ajuga which thankfully isn’t so vigorous. I haven’t seen many foxes about here (I think they’re all getting easy pickings in cities now) – or fairies for that matter. There are lots of rabbits though and it’s lucky that the garden walls keep them at bay. Sometimes a baby one hops under the gate though.
Thankyou for the lovely stroll through your very lovely garden! You have strawberries already – my pathetic strawberries here in Durham are showing only one fruit! I have them in pots and am heartily disappointed with them every year – wonder if the birds get them. Have to say I do like your sweet peas!
Michelle,
I think these alpine strawberries are earlier than the normal ones. The strawberry farms here are selling normal ones but I think they’ve been in polytunnels because we’ve had very little warmth, even compared with Durham. The blackbirds probably get yours as they nick mine!
Size is almost always a disappointment in berries. The wee ones pack more flavor.
Love your garden!
Pearl,
Thanks, the garden is looking quite good considering what the weather has been like.