Dream garden

It is still winter but there are signs of spring everywhere.  The snowdrops are the first flowers to bloom in our garden. Two varieties of hellebores lighten up the back garden, they are so pretty. There are also some green hellebores in the front garden. They don’t get much sun so they probably won’t open for weeks.

Last year was our first year in this house. We used that time to get to know the garden.

As I am waiting for the new garden season to begin I am planning – and dreaming, a lot of dreaming. I dream of a romantic garden filled with flowers. Flowers blooming from spring well into autumn. A garden attractive to bees and butterflies (there is no shortage of birds in our garden). And a garden with enough flowers to cut and bring inside the house to put on my kitchen table.

I spend way too much time on Pinterest – I know I’m not the only one! Looking for ideas or simply swooning over pictures of borders overflowing with flowers, a lavender edged garden path or a wildflower meadow.

We don’t have any of this in our garden. It is beautiful though, with 3 large oak, a beautiful Japanese maple tree and rhododendrons line the driveway. There is a small pond in the back. The cat can’t stay away from it and fell into the water twice already!

The rhododendrons flourish in our neighbourhood because of the sandy, acid soil and some of our rhododendrons are 3 to 4 metres high. They are really beautiful in spring, flowering abundantly and buzzing with bees.

There are several hydrangea in our garden. A hydrangea Annabelle, a climbing hydrangea and a few hydrangea macrophilia.

My favourite hydrangea is a mix of blue and purple. It moved twice with us, from one garden to another.

And of course, last year I enjoyed the sweet peas I grew from seed. I already started them indoors, as you may have read in my last post.

I can’t wait to get back into the garden and start planting! You have to know that I’m not a pro when it comes to gardening … at all. Still I have big plans and will keep you posted on the progress. I’ll share my successes and promise not to hide my failures.

I would love to hear about your garden adventures, here, or on Instagram.

Love Pauline