May 2023

To be completely honest we spent most of May basking in the glory of last month’s Pond makeover.

As the last month of Autumn, its where the garden starts to really look bare, and you can begin to see the structure of the plants within it.

We have been lazy over the years, not intentionally, things have a way of being let go if you’re busy or distracted.  But not this year.  This seems to be the year of strong action.  Of being decisive.  Limbs have been removed from trees, plants transplanted (but there’s nothing new there), garden features being moved (and moved again) and the resurrection of pathways.

I sometimes feel that having a garden is a bit like an archaeological dig, especially when it comes to pathways and paved areas.  I have always been fascinated by these towns and buildings that are buried under the earth only to be dug up again once they are deep underground.  We lay our own pathways and paved areas here at Crofton, they are a bit rustic and challenging but they do the job.  However, it has come to my attention that they are starting to be buried underground.  These monuments of access are being lost into the dirt like the cities of old.  And being an amateur archaeologist, I thought it might be best to try to save them before they went fully to ground.

It was supposed to be a quick fix but these things never go to plan.  I broke my favourite garden fork twice.  I tore the end out of my gardening gloves.  I had to contest with a Westie intent on digging exactly where I wanted to dig.  But all in all, I was happy with the result.  Our garden was marginally safer – for the time being anyway…

Another project that we were particularly proud of was the up sizing of the water feature in the Step Over garden.  This is a small (originally formal) garden that we put in when we first moved to Crofton.  Whilst the gardens interior has changed numerous times, Mum’s gorgeous little Granny Smith Apple Step Overs have just gotten better and better, making a wonderful natural boundary to the garden.  It was looking a bit tired and didn’t seem to make much of an impact so we supersized the internal water feature and plonked an angel in the centre.

Much better…