Dreams of Eden

Neither Hubby nor Husfruen, we must admit, are blessed with green fingers. Nevertheless, since we are now blessed (or shall we say cursed?) with half an acre of land surrounding our house, gardening is an inevitable hobby.

Division of labour came naturally to us. Hubby, being inspired by the well-kept English lawns of his native homeland, immediately took charge of the grass. While anything flowering was left in the care of Husfruen.

Last summer, which was our first here, we didn’t do much. We wanted to see what came up from the ground. As April came along with an abundance of crocuses and daffodils, we couldn’t wait to see what other surprises were awaiting us. But apart from a few rhododendron bushes, that was it. Flowers had apparently not been high on the agenda of the previous owners.  The flowerbeds were in a terrible mess, full of totally overgrown bushes and weeds. In fact, everything was overgrown. Secateurs were not the appropriate tool to get it all under control, we needed a chainsaw to fight our way through the thicket. In some patches of the so-called garden it felt like something out of The Day of the Triffids. Really, the only thing that was not overgrown was the lawn, mainly because moss had taken over.

So, the plan is that this summer we’ll have a proper go at it all. We’ll let you know how it goes. Unfortunately there are no spectacular results just yet so we haven’t got much to show you in the way of photos. Instead we thought we’d let you have a look a garden we visited on the English/Scottish border a couple of years ago. On a terraced and narrow, steeply sloping piece of land, the owners (delightful people, by the way) had managed to create a little Eden of flowers. We have probably never been so impressed by any private garden before or since. Funny thing was when the master behind it showed us around this lush and colourful paradise and Husfruen asked what he considered to be his pride and joy of it all, he pondered for a minute before he replied: “Hmmm, that would probably have to be my cucumbers!” We never saw those, but by God, they must have been some real whoppers to outshine those flowers.

Here are some pictures from it. Isn’t it a great inspiration?