Paddy's Garden, a quick walk around

[Paddy Tobin]

A set of photographs taken during the week; a simple walk around the garden snapping away with the camera as I went. Hope you enjoy this peep into my patch.

Paddy

Starting with the front garden, the part in front of the house, between the house and the road. There are two small lawns here, one square and one round. The square lawn has a falls away from the house towards the road while the round lawn is level due to a lot of spade work a few years ago. I put in a  retaining wall at the same time.

To be continued tomorrow - late here and time for bed. P.

Post Scriptum: On Robin's suggestion I have posted an overview of the garden on page three of this thread to help viewers place photographs in context and get a general idea of layout. I will add it here also for anyone coming new to the thread. Paddy
Robin suggested I put up this aerial view of the garden so that people could position the views and get a better idea of the layout of the garden.

There is a line of large trees running up almost through the centre of the photographs - this is one boundary of the garden. There are cherries, pines, ash, horse chestnut, hornbeam, hawthorn, blackthorn and damson along with others which I have added over the years as underplanting. There is a border of 3 - 4 metres wide running along inside this line of trees with magnolias, azaleas and a selection of shrubs. The "lane" runs alongside this border.

If you can spot the small hut - a children's treehouse, a house on stilts, to the front near side of the house - the entrance is just beside this but obscured by trees.

The diagonal line of trees running across the lower part of the photograph mark the ditches on either side of the road which comes to a dead end about 100 metres past the house.

You can see some grass in front of the house, this is the square lawn. The round lawn is beside this but obscured from view here.

At the back of the house, the veg patch is easy to pick out with its regular raised beds and gravel pathways. The garden shed for lawnmowers and tools is above this and the compost bins are in the far top corner beside it.

The back lawn runs between the two yew hedges, struggling to get established in our wet ground.

The near side of the photograph is still quite open - plenty of grass. At the top right is the "top border" and the new bed is in this corner also where Mary's new garden is being developed.

The side border is obviously on the side - the right hand side of the photograph, a mixture of trees, shrubs and underplanting of herbaceous material.


You might be able to pick out the three hornbeams - recently had their lower branches lifted to open up the bed a little - these are at the top of the "hornbeam bed".

The "evodia bed" is more clear to see and the yellow planting is Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldstrum'

It is hard to see the bottom border as the trees on the roadside obscure it but the hydrangea bed is clearly seen here leading back up to the glasshouses.

The pond is directly above the house - you might pick out a variegated pittosporum beside the small glasshouse, this is at one side of the planting at the back of the house.

Now, there you are. That might help you get some idea of the general layout.

Paddy

[Giles]

Thankyou, Paddy !
I'll look forward to the rest.

[ranunculus]

An immense amount of planning and hard physical effort has resulted in a gem of a garden Paddy ... you should be extremely proud.  I can't wait to see more!

[johnw]

Magnificent Paddy.  Do I spot a Cornus alternifolia Argentea?

johnw

[David Shaw]

That looks great, Paddy. Thanks for showing us your garden.

[Paddy Tobin]

Many thanks for all the kind comments. I hadn't been posting many photographs for the past while and thought I should make some sort of contribution.

Well spotted, John, that is a cornus alternifolia argentea indeed with an Abies koreana behind it. These were planted at either side of a flight of steps many years ago, steps about 2 metres wide and there is now about a 50cm gap between. Despite this I am very reluctant to prune either as it would ruin their shapes. A quandary! Move the steps?

I'll continue with the photographs which I have resized while having my breakfast coffee - I know it is 9.30a.m. here but I have been out already for a walk from 7 - 9.

I have moved to the back of the house where there is a small patio area, very enclosed with a retaining wall with a holly hedge and a planting of hypericum above it. A paulownia overhangs the seat at the other end of the patio. There is a small "rockery" just off the eating area of the patio and to the side of the garage. There is an exit off the eating side of the patio which lead to "the lane", formerly an entrance my neighbour had to enter the fields behind the house but which I purchased from him a few years back. At this stage it is not possible to see the gate at the end of the lane as Mary refuses to allow me to prune back the Magnolia soulangeana which is about half way down the lane and now reaches right across it. There are lots of deciduous azaleas on the far side of the lane planted under higher and larger shrubs and trees.

The lane continues in the other direction up to the compost heap, passing the veg patch while on the left is a border which has lots of spring bulbs, big drifts of snowdrops included. My favourite hydrangea is on the left here, H. villosa 'Taiwan Pink' - must look for a close-up photograph. The bare patch on the grass shows where the hen house had been positioned recently. It is moved each week but with wet weather they can tear up the ground pretty badly.

A couple of shots of the veg patch, an area of the garden I enjoy very much. The hen house moves around the outside of the veg patch; four hens and two ducks.

Enough for now,  more this evening, Paddy

[ashley]

Thanks very much for this tour Paddy, and I look forward to seeing more.

Your brick edgings are very attractive I think, giving just the right formality to the circular lawn for example.

And that Hydrangea villosa is such a seasonal beauty

Murky here today; no good for photography

[Maggi Young]

I say this with some trepidation, for I do fear the wrath of Mary..... but I would be inclined to raise the Magnolia soulangeana a fraction.... just to get a glimpse of the lane continuing beyond......


 Your hen run is the swankiest I have ever seen..... it would be described by an estate agent as "executive accomodation"  for sure!

Hydrangea villosa 'Taiwan Pink' is lovely.... I must say that I do not see many H. villosa plants around here at all ..... perhaps they are just not widely available in these parts. 

[Ragged Robin]

What an absolute pleasure to go round your garden with such lovely detail in your photos, Paddy, it's so beautifully landscaped with different vistas and places of interest.  I, too, love your vegetable patch, complete with scarecrow I see!  there is something so therapeutic and rewarding about growing ones own and to have the hens clucking away close by really completes the atmosphere.

Looking forward to seeing more of yours and Mary's endeavours and thinking of all that green which will soon be turning to autumn colours - a real tonic from the rocky mountain 

[Martin Baxendale]

So much lovely green lawn.    The lawns in my small plot have all gone to make room for plants and bulbs.   

[Brian Ellis]

Lovely garden Paddy, and so well kept with some super plants as well as the productive garden and birds.
Nice to see some green as our greens are gradually all going brown
Thanks for letting us all in for a quick stroll. 

[ian mcenery]

Lovely garden Paddy I can see why it's called the Emerald Isle 

[WimB]

Paddy,

very nice pictures of a beautiful garden. Your lawn looks as if it got rain during the summer... here it looks yellow with some patches of green  .

That Hydrangea villosa 'Taiwan Pink' is very nice indeed.

Keep the pictures coming.

Wim

[maggiepie]

Wonderful pics and wonderful gardens, Paddy.
I could very happily live there.
I agree with Maggi re the chook pen, it is fantastic, did you build it yourself ?

[Paddy Tobin]

It is a miserable day here today, no inclination to do anything in the garden though the grass could do with a run, but all your very nice comments have brightened it up.

Maggi, I value my life more than to lay a secateurs on that magnolia. It needs the attention of a chainsaw but that is how Mary likes it so it will remain so for the time being at any rate. The hen house was imported from a company in England, Eglu, and is very convenient as it can be cleaned very easily and is on wheels so can be moved around easily.

Wim, Rainfall in July was the heaviest on record, no shortage.


Continuing in the back  garden:

First three: The back lawn, an open space directly in view from from the living room window. The yew hedges have struggled in our wet soil but we are persisting.
Next two: The top border, along the boundary at the top of the garden.
Image 6: a bed put in last spring, so trees and shrubs still very young and small
Image 7: the bed above was placed to enclose a piece of grass which Mary wants to develop as a small garden. We want to put in something to mark the entrance and exit but haven't settled on an idea which really appeals to us as yet. An arch at each gap is one thought being toyed with. The grass is a bit on the pale side here as I scarified it a few days ago, beginning the process of changing it from grass to lawn - I have a very loving but demanding head gardener here. Her will is my command.

Paddy