I have to admit that my lackadaisical approach to the blog and to a lesser degree the garden meant that I had forgotten about this month's End of Month View post until Steve over at Glebe House Garden reminded me. Looking at his beautiful garden and great post put me to shame so here I am trying to do better!
To be honest I have struggled with the meme for most of the year, missing August and July completely. I think it is because I started off the year with the intention of focussing on the front garden and I wrote a post about how awful it was. I had intended to tweak and amend the front garden during the year and use the meme to help me improve things. However, the January blog post led to me deciding to just bite the bullet and dig up the front lawn. My son asked me today why I didn't use the development of the Front Garden during 2016 as the theme for the meme and I had to confess that it was because I have a bad habit of not finishing things at the moment and I didn't want to set myself up. Anyway, behind the scenes the front garden has been transformed and I love it so maybe 2017 I will share it with you.
Having decided not to continue with Plan A for the meme I had to quickly find an alternative area to focus on. I remember feeling that I had covered most of the garden, it's not very large, over previous years and I should focus on a part I didn't show much. The result was selecting Hugh's Border to showcase - Hugh is the name of the willow owl that presides over the border. The trouble is that the reason I don't show this border much is because it continues to not be right and I'm not sure why or even how to address it. The end of the border in which Hugh resides has been consistently in the shade for years whilst the other end has some degree of sunshine. The shady end is planted with ferns and shade lovers but there is something lacking; as for the other end well to be frank I have perfected the art of looking over it from the bench to the rest of the garden which shows you how difficult I find it.
However, now that my neighbours have removed the trees and to be frank scrubby hedge my garden is flooded with light. At first I found the loss of the boundary plants challenging as I felt quite exposed but after a week or so it became more normal and I could see the huge benefits of the garden being opened up to the sun! I am hoping that in 2017 I can really embrace this, particularly in relation to Hugh's Border and finally get my head round coming up with a, for wont of a better word, theme for the border. Something that will pull it together, give all round interest with some seasonal highlights. The bench end has a pinky/red colour theme waiting to be unleashed building on the Prunus kojo-no-mai, Sorbus vilmorinii and Rose 'Hot Chocolate' flowers and fruit and I am thinking of adding a couple more Amnethela lessionia along the grass path side to mirror the other side and give a sense of movement or journey as you look down the path. In the meantime I think Hugh needs to come in for a bit of a tidy up.
Any one is welcome to join in with the End of Month View meme and you can use it how you wish - there are no rules. Some people focus on one area, others give a tour of their garden - whatever works for you. All I ask in return is that you link to my EMOV post in your post (provided I have done one of course!) and leave a comment on my post so others can find you.
