into bloom

Hello! I didn’t mean to disappear there . . . As I’m sure you can imagine (especially if you are part of our Summer of Mystery club) we have an awful lot on at the moment. I’m very, very busy, and it’s all good, but there’s something that is really helping me to relax and take a bit of time out away from work – – our new garden.

We have inherited our new garden from someone who really knew what he was doing. I felt it was important, this first year, to just watch what was growing when and where, and to really pay attention to how the garden worked. So apart from starting a small herb garden, and bringing on some cut flowers from seed (sweet peas – there must always be sweet peas) I’ve not planted much, but have just tried to really pay attention to what’s happening, while keeping on top of the weeds.

What is here has surpassed all my expectations. It is obvious that this is a garden that has been very, very carefully planned for weather conditions and plant positions, bringing colour in every single month of the year. In February, there were snowdrops and hellebores, then in March, different varieties of narcissi and anemone started to appear. By April, trilliums and tulips popped up . . .and May – well, May has been extraordinary!

This is a garden with several different areas. There’s a beautifully curving bed at the top of a steep bank that sits above the river. In early Spring, there’s no tree cover here, but by May, this area sits in shade.

This damp, shady area is planted with gorgeous primulas . . .

many of which are of the beautiful candelabra variety

while in the middle of this woodland area there are aliums

. . . camassia

. . . and plume thistles

. . . . all of which stand above a beautiful meandering carpet of bluebells and star of Bethlehem.

At the front of the woodland area there are columbines (one of my favourite flowers)

. . . and geraniums.

Which cascade over the stone paths and soften all the edges. Elswhere, there are many colourful trees and shrubs – a glorious acer, Norwegian maple, fuschia, hydrangea, japonica, flowering dogwood, rhododendron, camellia – while against the wall of the mill, several clematis climb (there are different varieties clearly planned to flower at different moments). Round the back of the building, near the roadside, roses are now coming into bloom.

Other parts of the garden are more sunny and quite sheltered, and here it seems that every day in May brings a new floral delight. Watching this iris emerge from my desk while working on club newsletters has been pure joy. . .

. . .rivalled only by the appearance of these extraordinary big, blousy poppies, which I just love.

The RHS app on my phone tells me that this is papaver “Perry’s white.” What a treat for the eye it is!

I’m a gardener with only limited expertise (if it is a root vegetable, an edible leaf, or a sweet pea, I know my stuff, but am otherwise very inexperienced). I’ve found the RHS app really useful for identifying different plants and their varieties (many of which are not at all familiar to me) and keeping a handy record of what is what and what is where. In addition, the mill’s previous owner kindly left me some fabulous gardening books, which are full of advice and inspiration.

I’m so looking forward to seeing summer unfold through the colourful lens of this glorious new garden.. . .

. . . and learning much more about it in the weeks and months to come.

I have always wanted a colourful garden with a feeling of abundance. Kintyre has a very temperate and flower-friendly climate – abundance is most definitely abundant here!

I feel I have been given an extraordinary gift, in this beautiful space sitting just outside my door, in which I can spend time every day.

I intend to make the most of it!

What are you growing this year?