I’m naughty. I peek into people’s front gardens and back yards… sometimes I take pictures… sorry.
‘Other people’s gardens’ are continually fascinating to me – probably because I’ve never had my own until now – so I go and visit gardens open to the public whenever I can.
Feel free to dip into here for inspiration….or not!
I’ve been meaning to snap this garden for ages. Glad I waited till now though, because I think it’s at its best in October with dahlias a-go-go. It’s in an uber-posh street with big houses. I don’t know who lives there, but I love that they haven’t done the usual ‘tidy’ thing (see the next-door house, below).
I love October more and more every year. It was the first month I was ever properly aware of, being my birthday month, but it means so much more with the gardening bug in place. Hunk took me to the divine Dock Kitchen, whose menu reads like a poem about autumn. Pheasant biryani with rose petals and gold leaf… #thatisall
x
Been meaning to post this for some time…
from a friend’s garden that I love…terrible photo, but hey ho.
Have a lovely sunday x
This is the garden of some friends who had some building work done to produce a sunken seat in the space. Before the builder got there, the garden had one small patch of poppies. He turned over rather a lot of earth and it got spread about a bit….
A forest of poppies.
It’s really most upsetting to have to face up to the fact that I won’t be Queen, so to make things feel a bit better (and celebrate marriage to someone far far hunkier than Prince William will ever be) we jumped in the car for a weekend away – no Babeties allowed.
I had carefully planned the whole thing so that we could drop in to Easton Walled Gardens, and then…oh joy…it SNOWED!
Okay, now you can’t do much plant-spotting when everything’s covered in snow, but you can appreciate stuff like this:
It was the kind of stinging cold that makes your nose hurt, and then feel like it’s fallen off….the kind of cold that needs hot chocolate and mince pies in the tea-room…(which, by the way, is warm and has spotty table-cloths and pretty mugs to drink from)…
There is gorgeous ironwork, old gates leading seemingly nowhere, an ancient yew tunnel and absolutely everywhere, there is stuff for children to enjoy.
There are bird-watching hides and secret dens, and there is a bridge that looks like it should have impossibly skinny Kiera Knightly sitting on it in a bathing suit – spine painfully bent….
There is a terraced lawn which needs me to toboggan down it…..
…and there are grand steps that make me want to curtsy
I shall come back and see the sweetpeas in the summer…(and so should you).
It’s worth noting, by the way, that this entire restoration project has been undertaken by the deeply charming Ursula (Queen of Easton), slowly, thoughtfully, and on a shoestring…makes me realise anything is possible.
..and talking of inspiring women, we went home via the rather pretty town of Stamford and had a cosy drink with the one and only Miss Pickering and her Hound. I discovered Miss P through her totally beauteous blog. She loves dogs and despises gerberas…what’s not to adore? Her shop is a jewel-like treasure-trove and her chat is as fragrant as her flowers. Enough said.
….Entrances
Here are two I’m entranced by:
(sorry the picture quality is so awful…these were taken on my telephone)
How much do I love these two entrances?
VERY much is how much!
The one on the left was taken somewhere off the M3 motorway. The little tiny crack of a flowerbed is planted with begonias and polyanthus..leading your eye to…..
yes! – a little plastic gnome-dog. To the right (and sadly out of the picture) was a small bed of kniphofia…adorable.
There’s a sort of careful thoughtfulness here that I find moving.
And the one on the right is a glorious orgy of Solanum (potato vine) and Trachelospermum (star jasmine), along with a little white climbing rose. I love the abundance of it…of course x
