Hiding the straight lines

I once read somewhere that there are no straight lines in nature - well, I like to try my best to keep them out of my garden too. 

It's a bit difficult as it's surrounded by fences rather than hedges - but pick some trees and some climbers, and soon the harsh lines of the fence will disappear, especially in summer.

Right now, the back fence, the old tree house and the bench are covered in clematis montana.

To the side are flowering trees - laburnum, snowball and lilac.

The patio is curved, vaguely circular, but even so I prefer to soften the edges with foliage - heuchera sanguinea in bud with the spiky leaves of montbretia that will flower later

The main path has to be straight - the compost bin is at the far end and a curved path wouldn't be easy to find on a dark winter evening. So through summer, forget-me-nots, welsh poppies, lavender and oregano spill over its harsh lines.

While this smaller path has almost disappeared under flowers!






Even the house walls are softened by flowers growing at the bottom - and of course spilling out of their narrow flower bed and over the paths.

When is a weed not a weed?

lamb's lettuce

 Trapped inside with my continuing cold virus, I've become increasingly annoyed by the weeds running wild over the patio and paths. So today I decided they needed to be tackled.
There's plenty of the obvious sort of unwelcome plants there - grass, dandelions and such - but our patio had to try to be different! I found sycamore seedlings from the 'helicopters' that fly into the garden in autumn, self-set lamb's lettuce, oregano and lemon balm, strawberry runners, forget-me-nots, dog violets, aquilegias, and even lily of the valley spreading its roots under the slabs!

forget-me-not

Most I've tried to remove but some of the flowering 'weeds' I think deserve to stay for a while.

lily of the valley

dog violet and aquilegia

Time to catch up ...

 For four weeks I've been mainly hiding indoors suffering from a long, lengthy cold virus, while the first phase of spring - the bright yellow of daffodils - has passed and been replaced by a wave of whites, reds and blues.

The large red tulips are mainly Appeldoorn variety but there's one solitary darker flower - I think from some bulbs once forced indoors, then planted out.







The whitebells have been spreading through the garden for many years now, but I recently added some bluebells and pinkbells which I picked up through my local Freecycle group. Sadly the 'blues' aren't native English bluebells but they still look pretty.

 Forget-me-nots are softening the path edges with a river of pale blue, with occasional dog violets among them.

The first flower on my new(ish) camellia!

















I even have the first outdoor veg crop of the season growing - radishes from home-grown seed

Finding the path....

 Here hiding under the flowers are my garden paths - the main ones are slabbed with the blunt edging softened by foliage; the smaller ones are made of bricks, though mainly hidden under forget-me-nots.

I like them like this with all the hard edges well hidden but on a wet day it isn't necessarily very pleasant to walk through dripping plants and if I don't keep an eye on things the paths might disappear completely so I've had a bit of a clear up.

path? what path?

Some of the aquilegias had been knocked down by wind - or maybe the dog - so I brought a few inside, but as the forget-me-nots get taller and stragglier there's nothing much to be done except pull them out

the step from patio to lawn,soon to be hidden by foliage

Herding cats

strawberry on the patio

Sometimes keeping the garden in order feels a bad as herding cats!

dog violet and welsh poppy

forget-me-nots, which will grow anywhere

The grass prefers to grow in the flower beds, the flowers to spread into the veg patch and lawn -I collected a vase full of forget-me-nots last week before the lawn was cut! - and anything seems to think the paths and patio are great places to grow.









Sycamore seedpod helicopters float over the fence in autumn and in Spring dozens of tiny trees try to grow. Aquilegia, welsh poppies and foxgloves seed readily anywhere. Herbs like oregano and lemon balm spread everywhere,and I even found lamb's lettuces and strawberries growing between the gaps of the patio slabs. Sometimes it seems a pretty effect, sometimes it's just a nuisance.

May flowers

 It's not been the best week -or bank holiday - weather-wise but the rain has kept the garden growing and although much colder than a fortnight ago there hasn't been enough frost to cause a problem.
There hasn't been much wind either so the cherry blossom is still hanging on and looking lovely.

Under the cherry tree, I have kerria japonica and honesty flowers clashing colours,





and, mostly hidden by them, the first flowers on Solomon's seal

 The other side of the lawn has a group of bright red tulips,

more honesty,


and whitebells









The veg patch borders are covered in forget-me-nots









and the fences are covered by leaves on raspberries, flowering currants and 'real' currants, and montana clematis which isn't quite flowering yet










 
Underneath, bluebells are hiding. I've tried to plant them in shady spots similar to their natural habitats - so under currant bushes, next to large flopping plants or in shade cast by buildings

One apple tree is still in full flower, though another is only in bud.

First signs of lily of the valley.