This week’s theme for the WordPress Photo Challenge is Change. I struggled with how to capture this theme until my son suggested I show how the back garden has changed since we moved here in 2004. Above is the photograph of the back garden from the house particulars. It shows the angle of the slope which shocks many but my last garden was steeper! You can see a conifer in the middle of the garden which was removed within a few weeks of moving in. I loathe conifers and this was swamping the back of the garden. If you look behind the conifer you can see a large laurel and the removal of this probably 5 years ago gave me to back slope to play with and a whole new area of planting.
I tried to take a photograph from the same spot and the one above is the best I can do but you can’t see much of the garden due to the prostrate rosemary.
In the 9 years since we have moved here I have really embraced gardening. Previously I had had a tiny handkerchief garden which I pottered in but it was mainly bedding plants and annuals, then we moved to Malvern and I had a large sloping garden which had been neglected for years and I had all sorts of notions of discovering a secret garden. It proved to be too much given that I was working full-time, bringing two sons up on my own and studying for a degree oh and renovating the house it was attached to.
As you can see from the top photograph this garden couldn’t have been further removed from the ivy and conifer swamped previous garden. I loved that there was a blank canvas but realised how little I actually knew. I put in a border along the top of the wall as a starting point and over the years this has grown and other borders have gone in. The lawn has changed shape several times and this year, if the weather and life allow me, it will be removed completely.
I am also working on clothing the fences this year and my son’s workshop will be going in to the right of the bottom photograph where the obelisk is – it will be set back into the slope.
So lots of change and it has helped me a little today as I am coming down with a head cold, it is raining and I am frustrated at not being able to get on yet again with my plans. Looking at these photographs and others I can see that whilst the garden may be lacking in strong design and structure my knowledge and horticultural abilities have been transformed in the last 9 years. Sometimes, I see articles in magazine about gardens where the owners have created some masterpiece in say 6 years and I feel as though I am kidding myself to say I love gardening given my perceived lack of progress. But I remind myself that the people in the article are often retired or have a gardener and also years of gardening experience behind them whilst I am only really starting out.
With this years projects completed I don’t envisage any more major changes to the garden and I will then be able to concentrate more on my plants and learning more about horticulture and breeding plants.
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