Mrs Mabbsonsea kindly lent me her camera during a gap in the rain today, so I took some pictures of the garden.
This was just a little rose bed, but I’ve taken away the bark chippings, added a load of compost and planted a variety of veggie seeds.
The fence is to stop the cats digging up the seedlings when they poo in the nice fresh soil. Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep out the slugs and snails.
I put in this bed of dogwoods and lavenders a couple of years ago. This spring I’ve enlarged it and put in a hazel tree. Around the tree I planted some salad seeds. No sign of life from the seeds yet except one lonely lettuce. Everything else is looking lovely.
I made this new veg bed in about 30 minutes without digging. That’s the way to garden. It’s layer mulching – grass cuttings, then cardboard, then compost then manure. I scattered some veg seeds onto the compost layer before adding the manure. The CDs are doing a much cheaper job of keeping off the cats than the wire fence is doing round the rose bed nearby.
This is Compost Corner. I’m working on a 4 year cycle. I’m trying to grow jasmine and a rose up the trellises to hide the bins – the rose (not in this picture) is super – deep red, velvety blooms, but the jasmine is struggling – it should be all over this trellis by now.
This is the Wild Side of the garden – the far third of the plot, hidden from the rest by a large privet hedge. The area is heavily shaded by sycamores and cypresses around the border, plus a large holly. I’ve planted a silver birch and a couple of apple trees in the middle. The grass gets cut after the daffodils have finished, then again in autumn. Meanwhile, it grows to seed, along with all sorts of wild plants. I love it.
This is my hermit’s cell, under the hedge and next to the main log pile, in the wild side. I love sitting here with a coffee, watching the grass swaying and listening to the birds. It’s one of my favourite places.
Alex Mabbs 
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