I thought I would do an End of Year View post instead of an End of Month post so I could see how areas had changed through the year. Starting with the view up the steps to the shed I am pleased with how the border along the steps has filled out. At the start of the year there was a Stiga gigantea here but it was a sad specimen and taking up a lot of space. Removing it last January freed up a lot of space which I have filled with agapanthus, peony and a range of bulbs which need sun and sharp drainage. But I wanted some waftiness up the stairs so late in the year I added some Stipa tenuissima.
The start of the bottom path is one of my favorite places to sit and ponder. I always think that the photos along here never show it off well but there you go. I want to try to beef up the planting along here, bring in more color through the year but especially in late summer.
The bottom part of the woodland border looked really good in early Summer but it needs to be improved in Spring especially given that Spring is meant to be the season of interest for shady areas. This being so I have added lots of narcissus bulbs and I am hoping that next Spring my hard work will be rewarded.
The top of the woodland border has progressed slowly this year; I have to be patient and let plants establish and fill out. Again I have added narcissus in here and there are signs of them coming through.
The final view I am including is along the grass path. I started the year umming and arhing about whether to replace the grass with something else but I think the grass is a nice counterfoil to the plants and my cat likes it so …. I want to improve the planting at the start of the path and have started to do this with the addition of Anemanthele lessoniana and repeated it with one towards the end of the path. I think it draws the eye but also starts to soft the edges.
So that was 2015 in my garden. I haven’t decided what view will be the focus of the End of Month View in 2016, it needs to be somewhere that photographs well which isn’t the case with much of my garden due to its smallness and the angles needed.
It has been great that so many of you have joined in with the End of Month View meme in 2015 and I really hope that you have found it useful. I do hope that you will join in again in 2016 and all I ask is that you leave a link to your posts in the comment box of my post for the relevant month and include a link back to my post in your post. That way we can all connect.
Best wishes for 2016.
Helen