The garden

The weather is perfect for pruning

warm, dry (ish) 

I have spent most of the day and a good day last weekend back out in the garden

That first work day of the year is a momentous one for any gardener

As you see the first shoots peeking up 

the ground is warming

the garden is waking up and so to do my gardeners fingers

Have you been watching Monty Don's French gardens on BBC

Last night he was talking about secateurs and how they changed the way we garden

Invented in 1818 by a French Noble man called 

Marquis Betrand de Molleville

who fled to England during the French revolution

Secateurs gave gardeners a way to make a clean cut with less force and 

get into places that were previously unreachable

 They literally shaped they way people gardened 

and still do today 

 

While everything is looking a little bleak in the garden right now 

there is something so promising about those bright green spikes poking through the debris

and it reminds me of what I can look forward too

 foxgloves in the garden last summer

last June in the garden

Clematis  and honeysuckle

The resolve and promises that this year it will be different

I will weed once a week

I will remember to stagger my seed planting

I will clump plants together to create impact

I will clear another patch of border from the grass

I will finally get around to reclaiming the vegetable patch ...........

well, I may achieve one of these

but the great thing about gardens is 

whatever I do, whether I procrastinate or not the garden will do it's thing 

the plants are not waiting for me to make a decision 

they are getting on with the business of growing 

I look forward to june and july when I can sit and look again at a green patch bursting with life 

but for now I am content with the promise 

 

Country Garden update

You may remember in April I posted this photo of my garden 

 Since then I have done a lot of work 

Update Here

Well I thought you might like to see it

I am not completely happy with everything
way too much green
The apple mint has run riot
I have pulled a lot of it out this morning
but like all gardens this is a work in progress
and well, it's certainly an improvement

Garden progress

For those of you not following me on Instagram 

here is my garden progress

To see before picture go HERE

This is what I have done so far

*Laid Pavers, this not only gives easier access to back of border and stops the kids walking on plants, but it also divided the border into 3 sections which was a much more manageable project 

*dug up weeds, pulling out roots 

*dug up plants and cleaned the roots (removed entangled weed roots)

*Split large plants and moved them

*Moved other plants

*Planted new plants including Lupins, Foxgloves, Daisies, Penstemons, Peonies (although these take a few years to flower)  and delphiniums

*Applied chicken manure

*Put down bark mulch between plants to try and discourage weeds

Here it is Mulched

 I have seedlings planted of Cosmos and Larkspur 

which i will plant out early June

Looking forward to a blooming marvelous summer

Flowering Crab Apple

Flowering Crab apple branches from the garden

Country Garden

When I left my garden in 2010 to go to NY, It was looking like this 

When I returned in 2011, It looked like this

Clearly things were in need of attention!

I thought a lot about what to do,

start again?..... but there were so many plants in there

dig everything out ?.... where would I put them , would they survive?

In the end I decided

to divide the bed into sections and tackle a patch at a time

So I have been using the beautiful weather we have been having in Ireland 

as the perfect opportunity to get stuck in 

Digging out the path

-above I have laid the first lot of sand over the soil 

laying the path

and more path

The paving slabs are recycled from my Mum

I also moved a lot of plants 

splitting them in half or transplanting

I acquired some new ones too

nasturtiums, Lobelia, sweet pea

waiting to be planted 

Delphiniums, Lupins, and sage all waiting to be planted

I buy most of my plants from a local gardener
he propogates everything himself....... but never knows what colour the flowers will be
So, it is a bit of a pot luck
The delphiniums he says are white to pale blue
The Lupins you can tell by their stem if they will be pale or dark
(pale having a green stem ,dark having a reddish tinge)
so It is a bit of an experiment
but that's ok
My garden will be the kind of garden that it won't matter 

I also moved things to add a little bit of formality 

like planting Alchemilla Mollis all around the edge of the path

image via Here

I want it to billow over and soften the edges 

and repeat planting the same species 

Things look better en masse 

A garden is always a work in progress
Here is some of my inspiration

 

Image via escapade

Sissinghurst

Image via house to home

Lots of colour , and variety but a little more structure 
thats the plan

This Gentleman's garden is one of my absolute favourites a real inspiration

I will show you some updates over the season

x

Spring Flowers

Spring is bursting

Last week in Ireland temperatures were 20 centigrade

record breaking highs

 One of my favourite things to do is pick flowers from my garden

This is something I really missed while living in NYC

It is amazing how something so simple can give so much joy

Currently the House is filled with blooms 

Living Rooms

the red flowering brances are Quince and are from a friends garden

Bathrooms

This is "cooks blue" from Farrow and Ball that some of you gave me advice on 

over on Facebook

really lovely colour

Study

The purple wallflowers and red tulips are from my mothers garden

In other exciting news I think my Wisteria is going to flower this year for the first time

As it takes 4 years on average for Wisteria climbers to flower

I AM BEYOND EXCITED !

I am pretty sure these are flower buds 

Amaryllis

Enjoying the full bloom of my Amaryllis

and the promise of more to come

all photos

Helen James

A pause

It is hot in NY at the moment

Not too hot

Yesterday our electricity went out

No Air conditioners

No Fans

No lights

within 10 mins NY became too hot

But in that moment

The light coming in through the window was so beautiful

and it gave me pause

The color of the light hitting the greenery near the window

Inspiring

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY HELEN JAMES
CONTENT BY HELEN JAMES
PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WISH TO RE-PRODUCE