I can’t bare to just throw away perfectly healthy living plants, especially if it’s just to suit some fanciful colour scheme! So I have decided to move all plants flowering in shades of yellow, orange and red to the lower garden. There is a wide slope there – currently covered in nettles, ever-sprouting rowan trees and a pointless beech hedge. Oh and a large laurel tree that I was originally going to try and move to the road-side of the main garden, but have decided to leave as a bit of privacy for the kids play area.
The borders are currently a row of beech by the road, and a thick layer of bramble by the field and at the bottom. I think the area would look lovely with some bright cheerful colours. I like my new idea, and am confirmed it’s the right think to do when I visit the cottage gardens of National Trust’s Lytes Cary Manor (near Yeovil, Somerset). The bulk of their gardens are white, pink, blue and lilac and then there’s a section in front of the holiday lets that has the sunny fiery colours.
One of the first things I did was dig up the bush with the yellow flowers – I think it’s called Hypericum – that was covering up the well. The well looks so nice; why would you want to hide it? Underneath the Hypericum there was an old iron horseshoe nailed to the structure. Was it to protect the water from evil spirits? I’d love to know the story behind it.