Sunday 30 April 2017

An English cottage garden

We were invited for Sunday lunch with friends today.
Can you see the row of insect homes on the window ledge?
And a very healthy patch of white bleeding heart.

Their garden is in the true spirit of English cottage planting, where fruit and vegetables mix freely with both cultivated and wild flowers, the latter grown not only because they look lovely but also because they attract a variety of beneficial insects.
 
This method of planting creates healthy plants, 
all chemical free!

After a good wander round the garden we went inside for a delicious lunch.  On the table a bunch of flowers from the garden, honesty, forget-me-not, ragged robin, red campion and bluebells.
Please note that it is ILLEGAL to pick wild bluebells. These are  Spanish bluebells planted by the previous owners and are going to be removed at the end of the flowering period because bees pollinate them as well as our native wild ones to the ultimate detriment of our more delicate native species.
I had brought a bouquet from my garden of pink bluebells, abutilon, camellia and tree peony.
What pleasure there is in a garden!

11 comments:

  1. It's a very beautiful home and garden, I love the ivy(?) around the door! The bouquet on the table is so pretty! If you hadn't said anything I would have thought "that's an English cottage"...I guess the style is more familiar to me than I thought it was, so gorgeous. I'm planting some bee, bird and butterfly pollinators this spring in little pockets all around the yard. Before this year, I never thought of pollinators until I came upon an article about them. You learn as you go!

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    1. Oh, good for you to be attracting pollinators to your garden. The fruit tree blossom is glorious this year but the weather so uncommonly cold that I don't think many bees are out and about.
      The climber round the door is a honeysuckle just coming out of bud - it's going to smell spectacular!

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  2. Such a beautiful post. So much to see that I opened up and studied each photo individually. Must have been just wonderful to see it in person.

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    1. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the post, Kathy. It was a real pleasure to walk around the garden with the owners, who are naturalists and could tell me what plants are attractive or essential to what insects. When they start their own blog I shall link it!

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  3. Gorgeous garden. I always wondered what made up the English garden.

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    1. I love this free, informal, organic planting with it's feeling of abundance. It's the gardening equivalent of 'shabby chic'!

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  4. This post is just so beautiful and you have had so many beautiful garden post !
    It is very warm and getting hotter here with several wildfire burning. So no English Gardens for me only the desert.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. But I know from following your blog that desert gardens have their own beauty, Parsnip. Keep well way from wildfires, however!
      It is a wonderful time of year here in Blighty - everything promises!

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  5. Be still my heart! What was growing around the door / up the wall? -Jenn

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    1. It's a honeysuckle laden with pink buds just waiting to open and deliver a knock-out perfume as you come to the front door!

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  6. What a beautiful garden! That pink honeysuckle around the door is amazing. The bees and butterflies it attracts would be almost as pretty as the the flowers.

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