My Flower Garden

My Flower Garden

Since I put the kids to bed at seven, I have been out in the garden digging away. My mum and I went to the beautiful Willows Garden Center http://www.thewillowsglentham.co.uk near Market Rasen today and got the last few plants I needed to fill the border in our garden. Over May Bank holiday I posted about how I had de-weeded and how I had got the bed ready for some plants.

I wanted Perennial plants which means that they come back next year, as long as I look after them properly. So I gots some that will hopefully be beautiful and give me a beautiful cutting garden to allow me to have my own fresh flowers in the house.

Planting them was pretty straight forward. I made sure the soil was moist and I mixed in compost to make it rich and healthy. Some compost has got plant food in which is a bonus so I made sure to use that when I was planting up.

With regards to the flowers, I choose ones that I liked and that will create a cottage look in the garden.

I went for:

LAVENDER; This one particularly is a sturdy one, I have had some planted for 2 years this summer and it has been really good. As long as you cut it down as it begins to go over in the early Autumn, it springs back up the following spring. I want a mass bush of it. I also want to attract bee's, one because it is great for children to see and learn about there work life and two, we need bees!!

Traditional the English Lavender is a lovely bright purple but today at the Willows Garden Center I got some beautiful Pink Lavender and White Lavender. I thought these would be a beautiful addition to the garden. The white one is called  Lavendula Angustifolia Edelwiess. Beautiful name, beautiful smell. I can't wait to see it flower. The pink one unfortunately didn't have a label but it has such a strong aroma and big fluffy flowers.

HYDRANGEA; This is beautiful. I was able to get some beautiful big plants through The Arbour Florist which are a lovely blue/ purple colour. These have taken really well and are flowering nicely. From Willows Garden Center I got a lovely form of Hydrangea called 'Kyushu'. This has a much more delicate looking flower on it but equally beautiful. It reminded me of the type of stem you might see in a catalogue displayed in a cooky vase.

VERONICA; This is a lovely tall plant. We sell this flower in the shop and I loved this beautiful burst of pink.

SCABIOSA; I got this in 'Butterfly Blue' and 'Pink Mist'. I love these. I have a load in the house at the moment. They are such a soft delicate looking flower with beautiful petals and a pin head centre. Just gorgeous!

HEBE; This is a shrub with rich green leaves and beautiful spikes of lavender coloured flowers. I thought it was just beautiful and a bit more bushy than the rest so it would help divide the boarder up a bit. The one I got is called 'Midsummer Beauty'.

DELPHINIUM; This is a tall plant that flowers beautifully. I got a 'Guardian White' and should be perfect for my cottage garden themed boarder.

ROSEMARY; I love hardy herbs. Rosemary is one of them so I want to grow a big bush of it!

BAY; This is one of my favourite leaves. I just love how bay looks and I love working with it, especially at Christmas in wreaths and garlands!

BUDDLEJA; The butterfly plant. These grow quite large but my Grandma informed me that as long as I stay on top of it, I will be able to trim it and control it's growth. This attracts butterflies like mad so I am really looking forward to getting the kids out looking for them!

ASTILBE; This is another white pointy flower. It has bundles of shorter stems all covered in tiny white flowers.

This year the garden will look very new and will need a lot of attention to make sure the plants take to the soil and establish themselves. Then next year they should come through a lot bushier and fuller as long as I take the time to care for them. I am really looking forward to watching the garden grow, I am sure I will share photos as I go!