English Country Garden

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I have been admiring some of the gardens that appear on other blogs, like here and here.

So neat and tidy, colourful and everything in its place.

Years ago I would have spent hours in the garden, but these last few, maybe ten, years I have seen things go downhill.

First...my Plum tree died, then the Russet apple followed....a couple of years later a Greengage went the same way.

In the shrub garden things were no better.

Winter after winter I noticed that things no longer reappeared in the spring.

Even things like Primroses withered and died during the warm summers.

Of course, plants get old and 'tired'....I have got older and 'tired' and things are just not the same anymore.

Over the last five or six years I have been noticing what the National Trust do with their gardens. Lots of hardy shrubs and Lavenders and things like that....low maintenance. Yes.. I like it.

But......it still needs working on .....just look at it this morning!

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Grass is growing, lawn wants mowing,

Edges shearing, rockery clearing.

Time for sowing, all that hoeing,

Seedlings feeding, borders weeding.

Peas need sticking, fruit needs picking,

Plants want staking, leaves want raking.

Deadheads snipping, hedges clipping,

Brambles chopping, branches lopping,

Nettles hacking, bonfires stacking,

Limbs are aching, back is breaking…

Think I’ll sit…..a bit.

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Oh, yes......I nearly forgot.....that first picture at the top, was my garden here about ten years ago before I got 'tired' and 'old'.

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