Paullypauls Garden

Gradually getting there with some of my rearranging and getting ready for the new season. Sunny today (6th March), and it is all obviously getting ready to burst into Spring. Really looking forward to it this year. Here are a couple of my videos so I have a record of how it has progressed through the dark miserable days of winter to now in March. Not just showing off, but begging for hints and suggestions too!



December 2014



February 2015



March 2015

Hopefully more to follow.

 

Love the videos Paul....thanks for showing us around. Does your garden get much sun? I notice there's a lot of tall trees about. My garden is quite shady at the moment but I'll get lots of sunshine in late spring and summer even though it's north facing. Yours is looking good though - I can see the work you've put in. Dahlias and lavender should look fab. I think most of us at some point have had a blow away disaster! Welcome to the club. Lovely memorial to your Dad too.

 

Hi Fern! Nice to hear from you. The garden lies East - West, with South being in the direction of the in-fill house that looms over the garden. The big trees at the back are therefore west and they tend to make the evening happen earlier, at which point I retreat up to the patio with a bottle of red where the sun still reaches. Works quite well really. I rarely have time to turn the lights on before the bottle of red is empty

My Dad is remembered by a lot of people for a lot of impressive things, one of the more domestic of them being his garden. Having seen my family bury other relatives in some of the impersonal municipal crematoria around South London i really really didn't want my Dad abandoned to the same fate. So I bought the house and put his urn under that black marble memorial, which I think is more personal and meaningful.

The two ironies that I hadn't reckoned on having such an impact are these. Firstly, my Dad used to stomp into my bedroom usually before his golf match, (whilst I was in bed being a hungover teenager), and throw the covers off. "Get out of that pit you idle wretch and make something of the day, it's terrific out there", was a typical sentence. The other used to happen when I was older and wiser and when a discussion might turn into a heated debate over a bottle of red of all things. He would say that even if I wouldn't take his point of view on board, he would win. Because he would have the last word. Because his words would last longer by being in my memory after he had died and then I wouldn't be able to answer back. Bit of a mind twister my Dad

Now fast forward to the here and now. In between rain storms and frosts I am shooting out into the garden in full view of his memorial and I am scrabbling around in the mud and debris and using whatever little window of opportunity to get ready for the coming Spring. I know what he would say, and in that therapeutic state that you get when working away in the garden I can almost hear him laugh.

Occasionally I look at his memorial and think "Yeah Dad, very funny!"

And then I know I was right to get this place.

 

Paul I love your garden! It's got such a lovely layout. Can't wait to see the dahlias you mention. They are so easy from seed. Keep it up you are working so hard.

 

Thanks Charlie. I really get the feeling it had a bit of a revamp in the 1950s and that is why your garden strikes a bit of a chord with me. I have got a fair few dahlia seeds that I am trying for the first time this year, but I usually grow from tuber. Got quite a few of them, some are the same as or close to the varieties you grow. Love your dahlia photos by the way.

Anyway I am going to do the same as you with your photos, and post updates to this thread. Thanks for the feedback Charlie

 

PS Fern. I love that bit of script in your signature. I have read it a few times now and its growing on me.

 

Obviously then your garden is very personal to you and when it's looking beautiful in Summer, it will be a wonderful tribute to your Dad.

My Mum was a very keen gardener and when I'm pottering about, I often think of her and wonder what she would make of me actually gardening! I didn't show much interest in it when I was younger - too busy with other things back then.

It really does amaze me that such beautiful plants can come from a seed. I mean some of them are minute! That's Mother Nature for you I guess!

 

Ha ha Fern. That is exactly what I wonder sometimes when I am face down in mother nature's finest. My Dad saw some of the gardens I did in my own houses, but he would still think it was worth a poke that I had come home and done it

Yes they are tiny little seeds with the potential for beautiful plants. I think the quote in your signature is comparing a human soul with a little seed, and that although we can't imagine life coming from a dried out little speck, it does in fact happen. And so our souls also might live on somewhere despite us not being able to imagine it. Nice bit of text and food for thought. Is it a book?

 

Yep. It's by a Canadian author called Lucy Maud Montgomery. The book is called Anne's House of Dreams. It was first published in 1917. It's the 5th book in the series, set on Prince Edward Island and about a character called Anne Shirley. The books basically follow the course of Anne's life. The books are full of interesting characters like Captain Jim.

 

The way it was!

Found some old photos and scanned them in.

http://pauls-garden.co.uk/history/

In some ways it doesn't look too much different. Mainly the trees.

 

Love it, especially the roses.
You kept last year's dahlias quiet! Looks like you had a good show.

 

Yes, the Dahlias are my thing Charlie. Got this years cuttings underway in the hall. Going to chuck in some lillies and begonias in suitably matching/complimentary colours and see what I can do this year

 

Very nice! Should be some good photos then this year!

 

Some changes finally becoming apparent. Fence a good deal redder and arches slotting into place. "No-Go Corner" dare I say it, becoming more "Go" than "No -Go"?

 

Actually I have another arch now. Need to do a further update video and maybe some photos.