A visit

A little while ago, I was chatting to our neighbour over the dividing wall. He wondered what our garden was like now. I’d shown him & his wife around not long after we had the garden re-designed in 2014. They were curious about what it looked like now. I assured him not to hesitate to just come round. They were very welcome to come for a look. Unfortunately his wife was away visiting family.

Now his wife is home. So on Friday, after our gardener had just been, I noticed our neighbour & his wife coming home. I popped out to ask if now was a convenient time for them to come & see to our garden.

His wife hastily put the bunch of flowers she’d just bought back in the car boot. She was ready & eager.

They were wowed. The beds have filled out so much. They’d forgotten the big pergola near the garage. I commented it was there but now one of the posts disappeared under a form of jasmine. Indeed that jasmine was beginning to spread across the netting we’ve attached to the beams across the top. We’re hoping ultimately it will give us a bit of shade for when we eat out there.

She was delighted to renew her acquaintance with the sweetly scented white roses. They’re a favourite of hers. She associates them with the “White Rose of Athens” which I associate with Nana Mouskouri. Our neighbour breathed in deeply as she had the jasmine.

The next thing of interest was the apple tree, now full of baby apples.

On they went. They loved the silver birch circle. We explained our idea of putting meadow grass with wildflowers underneath. However, there isn’t much sign of anything at the moment because it’s so dry & hot.

Their conclusion is that our garden is better than Happy Mount Park in Morecambe & its lovely gardens. The wife is very envious. She’s Ukrainian. Although her English isn’t very good, she has learnt the names of various plants. She’s a frustrated gardener & just loved our garden, a real place to relax in. Unfortunately for her, the previous owner next door, wasn’t a gardener. He assumed that, as most people around here are older, any potential buyer of the property would feel similarly. He sold off a large part of the land. With what is left, he first put the rumble from his various house improvements, covered it over & put down decking & a load of gravel. Our neighbour has put a few plants in but every time she tries to dig down she quickly runs out of soil & hits bits of masonry instead. She feels she really needs a digger to get all the rubbish out & put down some good soil, then she would be happy. As it she is making do by hanging brightly coloured baskets & arranging various flower filled pots. It looks very colourful but doesn’t satisfy her gardening urges.

I assured them they are very welcome to come again. Just say. It is nice to share our appreciation of our garden. It’s always changing, with the seasons & years.