After pottering about in the garden when I got home from work this afternoon the sun was throwing a lovely light on it so I took a photo from the upstairs window. I don't think I've put a photo of my whole garden here before so here it is
BBC gardener's magazine wanted to come out last month and take photos for a feature they were running but, unfortunately, my hubby was having none of it, he likes his privacy he said
It's a smallish suburban garden (roughly 30ft square) and when we moved here we were lucky enough to inherit the old apple tree which not only provides a great place for all manner of garden birds but also produces fantastic cooking apples! The frame beside it wasn't intended to stay there but over the last few weeks has become popular with the fledgeling birds waiting to be fed so it's staying put for a while!
Under the lilac bush on the left is our
very 'mini-meadow'. Basically we threw some mixed grass & wildflower seed and leave it to sort itself out
The pond we built in February is starting to blend in well and is very popular with the bird life.
Although technically next door the hedge on the right also is home to blackbird nests.
There are non-native shrubs around the garden but we let wildflowers that self-seed stay, such as herb-robert, poppies and creeping buttercups. Some of the grasses around the pond are also the result of bird seed rooting itself
I must admit I'm really happy with how it looks - no straight lines and even the grass is patchy (the result of having 2 dogs
). It's also south-west facing so it's lovely to sit out there on a summer evening under the apple tree, especially as between our house & nextdoor we have far reaching views over to the hills of Mapledurham above the Thames - the benefits of living on a hill!