When we moved to Kent we knew that we would have to do some more work on various parts of the garden that had just been left to their own devices..
I also remember my Mum telling me you should give a new house that you move to with an established garden a year to see what other plants might appear that you’re not aware of when you view it…needless to say there were no surprises with this garden!!
But the area at the bottom of the garden sloped away so much that it was always going to be difficult knowing what to do about it.
I cleared it out a bit earlier on today (knowing that it was the hottest day of the year so far, but also I had a spare day with nothing else planned and took it easy, being in the shade as much as possible..).
And whilst I cleared the two/three/four foot high weeds as much as I could and taking various breaks in the shade just looking at the high bank of land above me that’s not quite vertical, but its so steep its a challenge to deal with…it came to me that a picturesque “Acer” would look lovely near the top of the bank (I’ve already put some shrubs in there, but it needs more of a statement plant)…and I smiled to myself as I could picture a number of Acers there, and also a flowering pink Cherry tree, which I also adore, partly due to the garden that I grew up in had two, and I had one in my garden in South Derbyshire, that I had taken as a sapling from my Mum’s garden when she lived in Devon, and also partly because I’ve been to Japan in early spring and seen the passion and delight in the Japanese for their Cherry trees, and have the same love of them that they do.
And I was totally in love with the Acer at the bottom of my garden of the house I last lived in, after I got divorced. For one week in mid October the pretty finger shaped lime coloured leaves turned the most vivid orange, and a week after that the Autumn breezes blew all the leaves off leaving it bare until the following year..
So, I think I could put in some Acers, at least one Cherry tree, and some other Japanese type shrubs and make an almost vertical “Japanese garden” in that area..it will take some digging out of some of the areas and building up retaining walls for the outcrop parts, and of course the hot summer is not the time to do it, but autumn when the ground is softer to dig and the weeds have died back…
I can see it…. and think it will be both charming, and pretty, practical, and appealing, more easy to maintain, and have all year interest….
And it will pull together the missing part of the garden that I’ve been wondering about for the last year, as to where exactly… I am going to put an Acer and Cherry tree…