A lime green tobacco flower

Suddenly having a garden means its an endless bout of planting and weeding. One of the plants Liz grew form see and has recently planted out is this stunning Nicotiana. One of my fave plants combining my fave colour - what a cracker!

Garden pond - plants and drags

Its hard to believe looking out over the drive which is largely water thanks to nearly 24 hours of rain, but this was yesterday lunchtime and Jax (thats his curly locks in the bottom right corner) and I sat having lunch enjoying the sun in our new garden, and in particular how fab the garden pond is doing as we watched four drag species buzzing about.

The common reed planted down two sides of the section near the house is doing great and is already being used by Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Water plantain (flowering in foreground) and other pond plants in the shallow section doing great!

Common reed, water plantain and broad-leaved pondweed in the mid-water section of the pond.

The pond as from the first floor. Reeds clear to see and the back meadow area beginning to green and the near clover lawn beginning to come through.

Amazingly, this Broad-bodied Chaser is only the second I've seen in the garden in ten years! He's taken up territory in the garden and was one of four drag species present around the pond today - BBC, Emperor, Azure and Blue-tailed Damsels. Hairy Dragon also present until this last week.

Garden update - its nigh on finshed?

Are they ever finished? Nah, course they arent! Hazelwood Landscapes finished in April Liz and garden designer, Debbie Cooke (Creative Garden Design), planted much of the beds in late April and early May. Since my return from Lesvos three weeks ago we've been adding and I've been playing with the pond!

The bare earth areas are seeded grass areas. The one neared the house is a clover-rich lawn and the banked end of the pond (looking orangey here) and the earth around it near the birch tree is a sown meadow mix.

The pond looking great with the planted common reed along the house end. The near 'wild' end will get planted up once the wild meadow mix has taken hold around its banks.

Last photo is the view from our kitchen windows.

A little gardening

So, now we've finished the house its time for a little gardening! Work began just over a week ago clearing the site which is 27m wide and 17m deep - a fair size space to play with!

Towards the end of clearing of the garden of four unwanted sheds (inherited from when we bough the cottages, a leylandii hedge and leveling the site.

To see how cluttered the garden was see previous posts inc. this one here.

One week on, the site is cleared and level and work begins on the main garden feature - the pond! It will be around 7m long and 1.5m wide and dyke-like reflecting our fenland area. It will be part raised to and edged with oak sleepers which will double up as seating around the deepest part of the pond. And at 6ft deep it will also be able to winter all the wildlife that will eventually inhabitat it - dragonfly larvae, diving beetles, etc. Can't wait!

We're very pleased to be using -

Design:
Debbie Cooke
Creative Garden Design

Landscapers:
James & Joel Ashton (and team Tony, Jez and Shaun)
Hazelwood Landscapes