In my garden… – My Pretty Pretty

Is anyone else like me? I just love to dabble in my garden!

Tudor house, window view with flowerbed — This is the first flowerbed that I worked on…

When we moved into our current house – the garden was pretty, but neglected. Many of the plants were repeated across different flowerbeds. I would find them popping up everywhere – and the flowerbeds just didn’t seem to make much sense!

So I decided to start changing it up a bit…

I absolutely love a formal garden (and an all white garden at that)! After talking to many friends, family members and garden enthusiasts about what could and couldn’t be done, I decided that I would make my garden pretty – on my own terms!

Most people told me that because my flowerbeds weren’t a formal shape like a square or rectangle, I wouldn’t be able to achieve the more formal look that I like. However, I decided to just go with what I love! And why, you ask? Because it makes me happy … and who says we have to follow the “rules” anyway?

White hydrangea with bird cage wall decoration

So, slowly (painstakingly so!) I’ve been slowly working my way, flowerbed by flowerbed, around the garden and styling it how I like it. It probably lends itself more to a “country” feel – but I’m perfectly ok with that.

One of the things I really like in a garden, is small little spots of interest. So I have also tried to create a few of those in my garden! I still have a few more planned when I get to them!

For the record – I have no clue about garden design so I have literally just done what makes me happy! I have filled my garden with plants that I love – and have added more bird feeders than is probably normal! I think I’m on 5…but who is counting? 😉

So – here is the design that I am thinking about for my latest flowerbed “remake”… Below is the image! I am visualising: 3 standard roses, a birdbath, some ground roses and a leopard tree! Great – you get the idea! 😉

Watercolour illustration of what I have planned for this flowerbed: 3 standard roses, a birdbath, a pink potted rose as well as a leopard tree.

Just a short while ago, this flowerbed was filled with two huge cordulyns! (You might have read about them in my post Less House more Home…) And while there was nothing exactly wrong with them – I am personally just not a fan of a tropical vibe in the garden of my Tudor style house…! So I have known for a very long time that they had to go.

My husband and I both love the look of Leopard trees. (Although they are not actually indigenous, as they actually come from Brazil.) So we will be planting one here to replace the trees that we removed.

Three silver birches with birdbath, roses and lavender

We have quite a few large trees in our garden already, so don’t want the space overcrowded by too many.

I will also be planting 3 standard iceberg roses here. I have used the three standard icebergs grouped together around my garden to create a sense of flow. Then I want to plant a rose ground cover here as well around these plants. I saw a picture in a magazine of a leopard tree surrounded with roses which I just loved!

And here is a list of my favourite plants to use in your garden…of course there are many others that are great too! These are just some that I like to use… I especially love a garden with scent – to me there’s nothing nicer than going out into the garden in the early evening and smelling all the flowers! (And feeding the garden birds, of course!) My two favourite trees for our garden at the moment are silver birches and leopard trees. What other trees do you like to plant in your garden?

My favourite plants for the garden

I like to water my plants every two or so weeks with Nitrosol Organic Plant Food. I really find that this makes all the difference when it comes to plants flowering more prolifically and for a longer period of time! And perhaps it’s just what I would like to see… but I also think it helps them to grow a bit faster… 😉 I tend to always buy smaller plants as they are more affordable – so I am always anxious for them to grow as quickly as possible!