Garden or Jungle?

I have never had a real garden before. Even in the last house, since it was temporary. The garden just remained as it was. There were a couple of big tress in the front garden, one was a pine of some sort while the other has most pretty red thin flowers which seems to flower about 2 – 3 times a year. The back garden shrank as the landlord started building another house. I could barely walk around to hang the washing out to dry. I just managed to get water from the tap and water the pots that were lined up against the wall where the sun shone all day.

Now I have even a larger garden in front and at the back. This time we are going to be here for a long time (fingers well and truly crossed). The front has a couple of bushes right by the pavement. I really must find the names of all these plants in the garden. There are a further couple of bushes lining the veranda which were very overgrown. One of them actually came out as long branches almost like they were going to creep up if supported. These were ruthlessly chopped back a few weeks ago so that I can shape them once they start new growth. It is good to see that they both have started putting out new branches and leaves. There are a couple of small plants which look to be like foliage bushes (the leaves are long like the succulents). There weeds growing around these are plenty some of these weeds actually look pretty with flowers. However, they will be removed and hopefully soon. I plan to dig up these weeds and grasses and put down some mulch which, I believe, will stop them growing again. Along the fence with the neighbours on one side, there is a tree which, right now has pretty red berries and loads of weeds. These weeds have got small thorns, spike like leaves and green berries at the moment. It took me ages to get rid of most of these after donning leather gloves. I had to buy these after getting spiked by the thorns through the cotton gardening gloves.

There is a huge amount of ivy growing all over the fence and I find it creeping right across the driveway and the lawn. I have been pulling it up at every chance but I guess they have been here a lot longer than I have so it is like a never ending battle. Some of the stems of this ivy are as thick as my little finger! I have chopped away what I had initially thought as beautiful flower bush, turned out to be weeds! Under all those bushes is a lovely rose plant and when it sae the light of the day a single red and beautifully perfumed flower bloomed almost as if saying thank you for freeing me. I also uncovered well shall I say with a few swear words when I got jabbed by thorns another well matured rose plant. After a lot of chopping the base has been reached and the stem is very thick. I took a cutting and replanted it to see what a young new plant will produce.

There was what looked like a tree growing and when pruning it turned out to be branch that is from the tree next door which has taken root and started growing. There is a lot of waster space around it as it is away from the fence and because of the low growth covering a fair amount of ground which can be used differently. There is a lot of ivy growing over the fence and the weight of which has actually bent the fence over. The branches along the top of the fence when cut back showed thick old drying stems which can only mean that these have been growing and drying back for many years. Well it is all going to come down as am sure it will grow back but can be better controlled. This clearing of the bushes and ivy and the ground will have to be done before the ground can be dug. Something that I am dreading as the ground is full of old thick stems and roots of the plants being cut down.

The trees at the bottom of the garden also need to be pruned back very hard and I should be able to use it all as mulch. It is sad that with such overgrown trees it is hard to see the ground and the extent to which the garden goes on at the end of the house. I also discovered when trying to peer though the undergrowth that the palm tree I can see above the canopy is actually in our garden. There is so much dried undergrowth which also needs to go through the mulcher. The grass also has a couple of different types as well as weeds among it. The nice yellow dandelions are plenty and grow fast. Clearing the undergrowth will give a good idea as to what I vegetables, herbs and flowers I can plant. I have a vision of what it most likely will look like but not sure if I will ever be able to achieve it.