In the garden . . .

I'm not an expert gardener but I do enjoy our garden. It is alive with birds and bees and butterflies and later in the year the dragonflies and damselflies will hawk and hunt and mate around the pond. I sometimes buy on impulse from garden centres and think later where I'll put new plants. Consequently there is little plan or pattern to our small plot. It is not tidy and everything grows abundantly in glorious disarray. Somehow, though, it seems to work. It is pretty and scented and colourful.

I enjoy seeing the faithful perennials come back to life. Kerria Japonica flowers brightly and bravely for many weeks, its sunny yellow brightening up dark corners and darker days. Lily of the Valley and Aquilegia, which disappear completely in winter, emerge in April. Mint, growing by the pond, is tall and strong and has a wonderful, mouth-watering scent when bruised. Forget-me-nots, pink and blue, bloom much more shrinkingly than the violets, which I love to see, though I have never planted them, and which glow in the sunshine and happily spread further every year.
There are moments of pure joy, caught out of the corner of my eye – the green of Choisya Ternata's older leaves gracefully complementing the slightly darker hue of the Laurel. Last week I noticed the purple flowers of Honesty blooming next to the bright lime green (or is it lemon yellow?) of our Common Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) 'Dart's Gold'.