Spring is here! The sun is out, birds are singing, bees are enjoying the lavender, and the fruit trees are in bloom, which feels wonderful after the rain we have had on and off for the past six months.
After completing the vegetable garden we turned our attention to the small back garden. The side garden was overwhelming in how overgrown it was, so we started with the easiest of the two garden beds. The small garden bed is to the left of the gate in the fence, when we moved in it was overgrown with agaves, flax, yuccas, weeds, and several subtropical plants that did not suit the English style garden we wanted to create, and which I feel suits a 1910 Villa.
Over several weekends we cleared the area:
- Cutting back Yuccas
- Removed Agaves
- Cleaned the existing paved garden edging
- Pruned the large buxus
- Laid weed mat down.
When ready to plant we transplanted three existing plants (two azaleas and a fuchsia) from the garden bed in front of our veranda. I gave them a prune and good feed and they have since flourished. Admittedly, they were neglected in the front garden (which will be the subject of a future blog). Along the edge, we planted French and Spanish lavender, but since then I have removed the Spanish lavender as it didn't do very well. We planted a Tibuchina - dwarf variety and that has nearly overtaken the whole bed.
Below is a photo of when it was first completed.
We also added ceramic sheep as a nod to the sheep my Dad had on the lifestyle property.
I wish the garden stayed neat and tidy but with all the rain the weeds have flourished as well as the plants. But then that is part of having a garden.
In my next blog, I will go through how we created the side garden. Until then take care.