There’s a rumour, just a rumour, that the weather in the UK this coming weekend will be warm and sunny with no rain. I don’t know whether this will turn out to be true or not but if it is, oh if it is, my family and I will be outside for the full forty eight hours!! The grass at the front and back of the house is out of control and we have discovered that both gardens get quite boggy when it rains very hard so it’s been tricky to get the mower in to deal with all as it has not stopped raining. Robert is thinking of taking on the task of digging a trench and filling it with gravel over the winter months so that we eliminate the sogginess and I have to admit to thinking this is a great idea. Of course the positive side to so much rain is that everything has grown extremely well, apart from the lupins and dahlias which have been eaten by the slugs. We need a very hot, dry patch so they’ll all go underground again but even if they do there’s nothing left of my lupin so it makes no difference *silent weeping*

This was my terrace corner about eight weeks ago. I’d just propped the trellis up against the wall, held in place with a potted hydrangea and planted three clematis around the bottom of it. My goal with this space is to create some shade so that we can eat out here when the sun is beating down on our heads once again(!).

 

 

And I have to say that the rain is helping me to achieve this as the clematis are growing in front of our eyes.

Origianlly I had planned to train them across the terrace towards the house. But then I realised that if this entire area was in the shade then the light coming in to the kitchen and dining room would be a lot less so instead I’ve made the worlds cheapest garden arch.

 

I’ve tied garden twine from the trellis straight across to the corner of the house and will send these climbers in that direction instead. This will give me more control over how much of the climber I allow to cover the terrace and allows me to keep it confined to the wee dining corner as well as creating a rather grand entrance overhead. In the winter when the plants have died back I’ll add some more twine or something of that ilk if I want to make it permanent. Which at the moment I think I will.

 

I definitely think that by the end of this Autumn I’ll have a really good idea of what it will look like and over the next two to three summers it’ll start to look fantastic.

 

You can sort of see where I’m going with it from this view.

 

I’ve planted two Spring flowering clematis and one Summer and early Autumn flowering. This will ensure flowers, overhead as we eat, right through the warm seasons.

 

Garden furniture can be really pricey don’t you think??

For instance, there is a part of the garden that I want a rickety looking arch in and I’ve seen those ‘vintage looking’ creations online and at the garden center and they are extortionately expensive. So what I’ve done is to save the thicker branches from the conifers I’m trimming and I’ll secure them together with twine and small nails and I’ll have a rickety old arch for free! I am going to start work on that in September as I like prepping the garden the year before I expect anything to start looking good. I’ll show you how I do it as you may be able to pick up some similar branches from wood yards if you are a bit more rural or even local green waste recycling centers if you are more suburban.

 

Anyway, I wanted to show you just how fast these climbers grow because you can almost guarantee that they’ll be discounted in the garden centers and nurseries right now and you may be able to pick some up for a steal.

Get them in while the ground is fairly warm, feed them and keep their roots cool.

Then train them along some strong string.

Job done!

I love you and thank you so much for reading today. I’ll let you know if summer does appear on Saturday!

 

Cherry x

************************************************************

Pre-Order my book from Amazon

Join my Facebook page!

Cherry Menlove

Promote your Page too

Feel free to add me to your links list. Here it is ! - http://www.cherrymenlove.com/

Facebook – Please feel free to join my page

Twitter – please feel free to follow me

Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner

 
 

 

Related posts:

1. Gardening In a Small Space, Sunflowers & Later, Bee Friendly Plants
2. Creating A Container Garden
3. In the Night Garden, almost
4. Morning in the Garden
5. Corners of My Garden – The Tractor

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.