The story of a garden -

. . . . . . and then there's the weather! 

We are at the mercy of the rain, winds, biting cold, 

and blazing sun!

Not too long after arriving in the USA many, many years ago, I discovered homes stood on a 'lot' which consisted of a front and back yard with a house set usually in the center.  The word garden was not used so much out in the burgeoning suburbs - it was yard work, go play in the yard, back yard barbecue or cookout, park in the front yard, "what a pretty yard", "Yard of the Month" signs . . . . . . and so on.  

Being English, I thought then, and still do, that a garden was far removed from the connotation of a yard which, to me, was more like a bleak school yard, ironworks yard, factory yard, builder's yard, logging yard, even prison yard - you get the idea!  A yard was a barren expanse of concrete or dirt. Hardscaping at its worse . . . . . ugly, treeless, with perhaps touches of dirty green weeds growing between the cracks, metal fencing, rolled barbed wire, snarling dogs, armed guards!!!

So, we live here in our small house, our 'cottage', surrounded by a garden. The front garden you've seen in my photos often, and at every season, and which I like to think is well-cared for.  It has changed a lot over the years regarding plantings. This was a farm at one time - we even dug up a tractor seat - and the trees remaining are quite massive. 

Getting back to the back garden. You can see in the collage photos of a few years back below with work underway to restore/rework what we had allowed to happen over the past 10 years.  

I blame much of it on being away traveling the world!  Also our sometimes loss of physical ability - aging backs, knees, and shoulders that no longer always work the way we would like. Ivy and vinca had a literal field day smothering everything, the open area once a lawn, the side and back flower beds, the fence, the corner behind the potting shed. For a while it looked quite lovely and I named it my 'secret garden'. I would sit in the gazebo enjoying the encroaching greenness of the now huge azalea bushes, the towering privets holding gently formed bird nests, the wisteria waving from the arbor built to hold it and now grasping out, clinging to and 

climbing surrounding trees.  

Over those years I stopped cutting back the jasmine, honeysuckle and rambling roses on the back fence as they looked so beautiful. The squirrel population grew, a few cute as a button chipmunks arrived, the rabbits hopped out from the undergrowth, along with lesser favorites such as grey foxes, opossums, raccoons, mice, feral cats. . . . . . .and the ever hungry deer family, along with a coyote now and then! A few huge, but thankfully non-venomous snakes slithered by, but I'm certain there were many poisonous copperheads hiding in that ivy!  It's the snakes and the mosquitoes that scare me. My beautiful garden birds I love the most and whom I want to continue to visit to feed, sing and nest in my garden.

This is a post I found in my my drafts this morning!  No time to fully update it right now but thought I would glance through it and then post it at long last as I just don't have time to write a new one!  We are hiring help with the garden this month as everything is becoming overgrown somewhat and we can't do it ourselves. Obviously these older photos were taken in full blown springtimes of the past. Right now most things are still sleeping or just peeking through......and the deck was replaced around this time last year so looks a lot more spiffy!!!!

How does your garden grow?