☀️🌴 Summer on the O2 community: Gardening 🌴☀️

[Cleoriff]

                                                                            GARDENING  

The best part of summer for me is my garden.

I can't travel abroad now, so I put a lot of effort in making my garden as nice as possible during the summer months.

Not a big garden , although luckily, it's at the end of a cul de sac, so the builders gave us more than usual space.

We have lived here since 1969 (I know!) and had a garden makeover in the 90's.

The lawn is oval and pretty much destroyed by the cats! Round the lawn I have a variety of bushes, shrubs and trees. Winter, spring and summer flowering.

We also have a water feature at the side of the garden. We planted a cordyline in the middle of it. It was 2 ft tall when we planted it…and as you see now, it's over 10 ft tall.

(I know the ivy needs a trim back...yet to find time to do that!

I made a decision early on that we would have a container garden on the patio area. I went rather OTT. I have a total of 24 pots.

3 at the front of the house, and the rest in the back garden..

Summer bedding was a problem this year due to garden centres being closed during the Covid19 crisis.

Luckily I found a guy online who had his own plant nursery and I chose what I wanted, they were delivered at the end of May. 

My son helped me plant them up

A few pictures here (Excuse the quality...I just point and shoot)

Looking from the conservatory to the right

At the back of this part is the bush that Ray razed to the ground when I asked him to trim back

These are the pots at the front of the house

 So that's a snapshot of my garden folks. Container gardens need a lot of watering, feeding and  'deadheading'

I do have rose bushes but that meant doing a 360 degree image and I had no time for it. 

So the garden has a water feature, seating areas, plenty of beautiful plants. When the sommer bedding dies off, each of those pots have winter bulbs. Snowdrops, tulips, daffodils etc etc. I usually buy some winter pansies and polyanthus

Each pot has a solar light in it and is lit up at night (Terrible photo...but there you go)

So this is my peaceful place.

Thanks for reading.

Does anyone else on the forum have a garden they love?

[LukasB]

That looks soooo nice! I wish I had a proper garden and not just my tiny balcony 

And a bit of a specific question! What do you do about pests @Cleoriff ? I have these tiny black spidery bugs all over my plants 

[Cleoriff]

Thanks @LukasB 

To be honest the only plants which get pests are the roses (blackfly)

You can buy a spray for it, but I prefer to use warm soapy water.
As for slugs, then I just pour salt on them. Disgusting pests.!

[LukasB]

I googled the blackfly and it is exactly what I have @Cleoriff - I used soapy water but they dont seem to be bothered by it - its more like a little shower for them

[Anonymous]

@Cleoriff What a lovely garden you have

Thank you for sharing it with us

Such a lot of colour

I can admire the planning in your peaceful garden

I particularly like your oval shaped lawn

It comes across that you love your garden and enjoy working in it

Thank you particularly for the photos.

[Mi-Amigo]

Thank you for sharing the photos of your garden @Cleoriff 

I can now see why, and how much, you enjoy it. Looks lovely.

You should be very proud. 

[pgn]

Wow! Enough there to put Padua (WRQ Anniversary question) to shame, @Cleoriff, despite Rayzer's best efforts over the years 😁

Love the solar lights, very twinkly !

Ace post, great use of pics, love it.

[Cleoriff]

Thanks @Anonymous and@Mi-Amigo 

You may notice we also have a bird table to the side of the gazebo. I didn't think it was a good idea with 2 cats but it works well. They just sit and watch the birds. Includes 2 robins which return every year .

[Cleoriff]

Thanks @pgn 

I love the lights. It means you can sit out in the warm weather and enjoy the evenings.

I did have a lot of lights on cords draped all over the water feature, the gazebo and the fence last year.....but Ray said it looked like Blackpool Illuminations

[Anonymous]

---

@Cleoriff wrote:

Thanks @Anonymous and@Mi-Amigo 

You may notice we also have a bird table to the side of the gazebo. I didn't think it was a good idea with 2 cats but it works well. They just sit and watch the birds. Includes 2 robins which return every year .

---

That's lovely @Cleoriff about the robins ... the bird table keeps the cats occupied but can't touch.