Tuesday 1st January 2013
Hello and welcome to my first attempt at writing about our garden, otherwise known as The Pink Bungalow.
We are situated on the west side of the Wirral on the same road as Ness Botanic Gardens, which is less than a minutes drive away. With the wind in the right direction and standing on your tippy toes you can catch glimpses of the River Dee.
We (my long suffering wife & I) have lived here for quite a few years and I’ve reclaimed the property and it’s garden from years of neglect. The bungalow renovation came first and sorting out the garden followed after. It took many, many hours of hand digging brambles and any other vegetation that you can think of as well as numerous corrugated sheets to clear the ground. The previous occupier had used the sheets to suppress weed growth. They failed and added the extra burden of avoiding jagged rusted metal.
So the garden as it currently stands consists of a number of beds, which I’ve grandly named as follows (actually its to help me remember were I’ve planted things and for when we talk about the garden with our friends A & J):
- Conservatory Bed
- Slate Bed
- Camelia Bed
- Lilac bed
- Arch bed
- Top Bed
- Shed Bed
- Cottage Bed
- Magnolia Bed
- Apple Tree Bed
- Magnolia Bed
- Fern Bed
- White Bed (in name only)
- Blue Lilac Bed
Eryngium “Miss Marbel”
In the front we have the:
- Manhole Bed
- Garage Bed
The burning question you may be asking is why, “Follow the yellow book road”
About four year ago I discovered the NGS scheme, which hooked me. The garden was called “Lynwood” and I was driving past when I saw the “magic sign”, which summoned people to view the garden. In we went and that was it. We voraciously worked our way through local gardens over that summer and I resolved to one day open our garden.
There followed more hard work, enjoyment and a few pounds donated to local nursery’s in return for what I hoped would be healthy, interesting and more importantly fragrant plants.
In September of 2012 the back garden passed muster to open in 2014 with the proviso that the newly planted borders had bulked out.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’
So I hope you can join me throughout this year as I work on what’s here, improve on other things, finish the pond I started in October and maybe start other projects such as a new cottage garden bed in the front planted with seeds from the Cottage Garden Society.
It would be good if you can keep me company.
Mahalo and happy gardening
The Pink Bungalow 