It was not all our fault.
Well, you can see the Turkish Hazel are on their way. And if you create an avenue, you know, you need to close it with a focal point. Which is difficult if you’re low on funds. But we found this statue when we were on holiday in Brighton. Both affordable and a size we could fit in the car. No idea where the plinth came from.
We decided after a while that it was naff and gave it away. But I was rather fond of it. And it was perhaps better than what came next. I got into enamelling and decided I could make things (definitely ‘things’) for the garden that way – enamel being waterproof. I’m embarrassed to say I made this.
Let’s pretend you never saw that. It got vanished to the back of the garage, where things Charles can’t quite bear to part with live. My efforts weren’t all rubbish – I rather love my lizard. Though no-one has ever spontaneously commented on it. Never mind appreciated it.
And then one arm dropped off. Wood rots even if enamel doesn’t.
Sigh. And more sigh, because the next thing was that the Turkish Hazel started to worry us. One or two grew merrily. One or more began to look miserable.
See what I mean? And they were always a problem because they always needed cutting to shape when the meadow was still full of great grass. Impossible to remove the tree cuttings from amongst long grass. So they would end up looking very shaggy and decrepit while we waited to cut the meadow.
We had years when we failed to face up to getting rid of them. This is a familiar process for us. Things go wrong, clearly drastic action involving sad losses are required, and we don’t manage it for far too long. Which actually prolongs the misery. But it does give Anne time to think up a solution. Which, if I’m lucky, excites Charles and action follows!
But we had a very fine garden tractor by then! (Cost as much as a small car, Charles said.)
So the trees went. And what was Anne’s solution? Well, I wasn’t going to have anything that grows, or fails to, this time. And I had bought this for Charles for Christmas one year.
Which, as I puzzled about the avenue, made me think of having something similar in the meadow. Crystal wasn’t possible, metal might be? Something reflective. I discovered what we thought would do it, technically a garden water feature, and we manged to persuade the company to sell us a lot of them at a keen rate, without the water gubbins. We were on our way.
Charles got wood for posts and worked out a way to mount the globes (they wonderfully had holes top and bottom intended for water bubbling, and that enabled the addition of a steel rod for fixing. So, at last, with Jeff’s and Billy the dog’s help (by this time we had one day a week help from Jeff and Billy – huzzah!!!!), we had a new avenue.
FINISHED!
You can read all about that job here if you’re job minded.
But we still had no focal point. Various things were tried and dismissed.
Nope. That won’t do…. (The post is not leaning over. The photo makes it look that way)
But sometimes, you do feel as if the garden gods are maybe a bit on your side. We visited a garden sculpture exhibition and found it! Octo, by Stuart Stockwell. Of course it cost far too much, but my mother in law heard about this, having been party to the search – and she bought it for us. Wonderful. It is just right.
Focal point at last!!!!
End of problems and mistakes, you think?? Well, not quite. The Cotoneaster Franchetti hedge between the Meadow and the Veg Plot has almost died off. You must wonder what on earth we do so bad to get things going wrong like this. Maybe gardening on the edge of forest, which no doubt harbours every tree and shrub disease going. Apparently this cotoneaster is susceptible to fireblight, honey fungus, powdery mildew and a wildlife gardener’s dream of insects: scale insects, cotoneaster webber caterpillar, aphids and mites. (We love insects, don’t we?)
Fortunately a variety of seedling shrubs, also donations from somewhere forestryish around, are growing up and replacing that hedge. Apart from one beautiful shaped piece:
The hedge at the back here.
Having seen this coming we have a Cunning Plan. We have a row of hornbeams (pinched from our wood) growing behind the hedge, ready, one day, I hope, to take over.
And then box blight has now finally killed off the hedge between the Front Garden and the Meadow. So that has gone. My current Plan there is to also remove a row of hydrangeas from in front of where it was, and plant up a whole new hedge fronted by a new perennial border. Fun?
Charles
Fun? Not really. I thought your Dolphin was great, but Octo is fabulous (though we found that it requires maintenance and servicing periodically). But there’s been a grief in the meadow apart from the long drawn out failure of the hazels. What possessed a pheasant to make a nest there (a nest I ran over with the mower). And what has made the hole that’s just appeared – are we going to have to destroy it and make some creature homeless? And where have all the crocus tommasinianus gone? Anxiety.
Anne PS
The tommasinianuses are coming – you need to look more at them and less at mysterious holes. It was awful about the phesant.
Mysterious hole.
They’ll be out soon, along with big fat ones too! (taste error?)
And there is an AMAZING rose in the Meadow!
More soon.
