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Something about myself and the world I inhabit.(Except I can't be bothered to write it yet). Here are two chocolate puddings in a bowl of custard. Have a nice day. |
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| August 1977 | ||
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This was the house and garden in a photograph taken five years before I bought the property.
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| May 1982 | 11th May 1982 | 11th May 1982 |
| The Elm tree lasted for about a decade before Dutch Elm Disease finished it. | In summer of the first year I had the top field, now the top garden, ploughed. See from the other side of the valley. | The rear of the house, viewed over what is now the daffodil meadow and lower garden. |
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| 1982 | 16th April 1982 | 16th April 1982 |
| An early attempt at cutting terraces into the hillside. | This area had once been a vegetable garden. | Plants in pots. An inevitable consequence of moving. |
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| March 1984 | March 1984 | March 1984 |
| Early patterns in the lower part of the garden, behind the house. | Early days on the nursery. | There was a lot of gravel back then (and a dog). |
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| 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 |
| The nursery area starting to grow away, the gravel blending in. | Growth behind the house. Windbreak trees establishing. The houses in the picture are on the other side of the valley. | The top garden. It was a long time before I improved on this. |
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| 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 | 4th August 1987 |
| Behind the house. | The barn, the roof has been glazed, used as a greenhouse. | Early ventures into the top garden. At this stage it was mowed with a push mower. | The first attempt at steps up through the garden. | Trees establishing behind the house. |
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| 15th June 1989 | 5th July 1989 | 5th July 1989 |
| Vigorous growth by the barn. | Roses and Astilbe fighting through the undergrowth. | My first greenhouse for Agave and Disa. |
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| 15th June 1989 | 15th June 1989 | 5th July 1989 | 5th July 1989 | 5th July 1989 |
| Path through the garden. | Early days of the woodland walk. | The back of the house. | Early herbaceous planting. I can't imagine trying to grow Campanula now. | The only Chamomile seat I have ever built. The garden was sunnier then. |
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| 18th June 1992 | 18th June 1992 | 18th June 1992 | 18th June 1992 | 18th June 1992 |
| Pictures as the garden starts to fill out. |
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| 12th May 1996 | 12th May 1996 | 12th May 1996 | 12th May 1996 | 12th May 1996 |
| Windbreaks starting to shelter the garden. | Time to start clearing in the top garden. | Reckless planting of Hemerocallis in the top garden. It didn't last for long. |
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| 9th June 1999 | ||
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| 9th June 1999 | 9th June 1999 | 9th June 1999 | 9th June 1999 | 9th June 1999 |
| The woodland walk closing over. |
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| 9th August 2000 | ||||
| The woodland walk. |
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| Spring 2003 | Spring 2003 | Spring 2003 |
| The woodland walk after some clearance. | A Liriodendron in the top garden. In the wrong place, but that wouldn't become clear for many years. This is now the Camellia walk. | The trees at the top of the garden. |
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| Spring 2004 | Spring 2004 | Spring 2004 |
| The woodland walk. The Cherry trees were later removed. | The top woodland. This is now the Hellebore border. | The lower garden closing over. |
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| Spring 2005 | Spring 2005 | 1st August 2005 |
| Trees around the house from the other side of the valley. | The top garden from the other side of the valley. | Trees growing around the house. |
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| 22nd June 2005 | 23rd June 2005 | 25th November 2005 |
| Clearance in the top garden. | Hosta and Begonia in the foundations of the first Disa house. | Winter as the woodland walk matures. |
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| 26th July 2006 | 2nd October 2006 | 19th October 2006 |
| Herbaceous plants lingering in pots. | Calm moment in the garden. | Repairs on the barn finally start after the fire. |
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| 4th April 2007 | 4th April 2007 | 22nd April 2007 |
| The woodland walk taking shape. | Ground flora establishing nunder the top trees. | First attempt at the herbaceous border. |
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| 17th August 2007 | 9th September 2007 | 11th October 2007 |
| Repair work on the barn. | Daffodil meadow after summer clearance. | Darkness among the conifers in the lower garden. |
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| 18th January 2008 | 26th January 2008 | 26th January 2008 |
| Swimming in the foundation trench for the barn wall. The builder kept his opinion to himself. | January in the woodland walk with the first camellias. | The view south from the top of the garden. |
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| 26th January 2008 | 26th January 2008 | 20th April 2008 |
| Path to the top of the garden. | Top woodland in January. | Early days in the hellebore border. |
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| 2nd February 2009 | 2nd February 2009 | 2nd February 2009 |
| The woodland walk after snow. | The hellebore border after the trees to the east had been felled to let in more light. | That's the first attempt at the herbaceous border under there! Snow made the problems very evident. |
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| 2nd February 2009 | 15th March 2009 | 22nd May 2009 |
| Space below the hellebore border cleared for a new terrace. | Early work on the new terrace. It's not as easy as it looks. | The new terrace, finished off by a professional digger driver (with a laser level). He was very polite about my attempt. |
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| 21st June 2009 | 14th November 2009 | 2nd February 2009 |
| This is more my style. I was beginning to get the hang of the digger on another terrace in the lower garden. | The camellia walk. The plants are growing but the undergrowth is still fighting back. | Locals sledging on the other side of the valley. |
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| 26th February 2010 | 1st May 2010 | 18th August 2010 |
| The daffodil meadow. | Art in the garden. I call this piece "Madonna of the Rhubarb". | I cut a slot through the windbreak at the top of the garden to see the landscape. |
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| 11th September 2010 | 16th September 2010 | 27th November 2010 |
| Second try with the herbaceous border. | Blue trees at the top of the garden. It was a whim with a can of paint one afternoon. | The Camellia walk after further clearance. |
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| 13th March 2011 | 13th March 2011 | 14th March 2011 |
| This short section of hedge was cluttering the line of the herbaceous border and had to go. | I had already sold the digger, so it was done the hard way. | Nice when it's completed. |
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| 23rd February 2011 | 17th July 2011 | 28th August 2011 |
| Blue trees and the hellebore border. | The herbaceous border at its best. | Clearance around the daffodil meadow. |
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| 17th February 2011 | 23rd October 2011 | 15th November 2011 | ||
| More clearance along the Camellia walk. | A couple of trees removed from the line of the woodland walk. | The first year that I have had significant badger damage. |
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| 4th June 2012 | 10th November 2012 | 10th November 2012 |
| The hellebore border in June. | Time for the blue trees to go and let more light in. | The Camellia walk cleared and the lower side newly planted. |
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| 4th June 2012 | 10th November 2012 | 10th November 2012 |
| The woodland walk. | Evergreen Azaleas in the Camellia walk. | Bluebells establishing under the top woods. |
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| 4th June 2012 | 10th November 2012 | 10th November 2012 |
| The walk up through the garden, no longer a staircase. | Day Lilies in the herbaceous border. | The Camellia walk coming under control slowly. |
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| 5th February 2014 | 14th February 2014 | 8th February 2014 |
| Storms brought trees down around the garden. This eucalyptus came down on the main walk up through the garden. | This hawthorn came down by the daffodil meadow. | A gap was ripped through the windbreak by the hellebore border. |
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| 16th May 2014 | 14th September 2014 | |
| The third arrangement of the herebaceous border. The path has been moved to the lower side of the border. | Autumn under the trees at the top of the garden. |
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| 25th February 2015 | 20th March 2015 | 9th May 2015 |
| Galanthus 'Brenda Troyle' in the Camellia walk. | Partial solar eclipse over the hellebore border. | New steps built into the slope to display some of the Nerine. |
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| 4th June 2016 | 2nd August 2016 | 28th March 2016 |
| Summer colour in the hellebore border. | Lush growth in the herbaceous border. | Inside the Agave house. |
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| 2nd September 2017 | 2nd December 2017 | 31st December 2017 |
| Lush growth in the Hedychium house. | The Camellia walk in winter. | This years new planting on the south wall of the house. |
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| 1st March 2018 | 28th February 2018 | 1st December 2018 |
| 2018 was dominated by the "Beast from the East" which dumped a mass of snow and gave a few weeks of freezing wind in March. | The garden froze. | The site for the new herbaceous border in the top garden. |
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| 23rd August 2018 | 25th August 2018 | 29th October 2018 |
| The trees at the top of the garden. | The hellebore border. | A new pest in the garden that has arrived since the trees grew. |
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| 31st January 2019 | 14th February 2019 | 9th March 2019 |
| The Hellebore border and view through the gap in the windbreak. | The Hellebore border a fortnight later. | The Camellia walk in flower. |
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| 6th June 2019 | 27th July 2019 | 2nd October 2019 |
| Felling Leyland Cypress that had been shading the greenhouse. | The herbaceous border getting unruly. | Thinning trees in the top woodland. |
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| 3rd April 2020 | 5th July 2020 | 26th November 2020 |
| Anemone and Erythronium in the top woodland. | The herbaceous border. | The woodland walk. |
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| 18th January 2020 | 5th July 2020 | 22nd July 2020 |
| Marking out on the terrace in the top garden for a new herbaceous border. | Clearing space through the centre of the garden for a new path. | The Agave house. |
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| 10th April 2021 | 9th July 2021 | 15th May 2021 |
| Space cleared through the scrub. | New path and border started. | Optimistic planting of Agaves in the new border. |
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| 18th June 2021 | 18th June 2021 | 4th November 2021 |
| Clearing for the new border allowed me to start reclaiming an overgrown path that hasn't been accessible for 20 years. | The daffodil meadow after mowing. | The walk up through the top garden. |
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| 5th May 2022 | 5th May 2022 | 5th May 2022 |
| Bluebells in the top, woodland. | The new herbaceous border, filled mostly with hope at present. | Path along the north boundary. |
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| 10th May 2022 | 14th September 2022 | 14th September 2022 |
| Evergreen Azaleas in the Camellia walk, benefitting from scrub clearance lower down the slope. | Path below the herbaceous border. | The herbaceous border. |
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| 6th January 2023 | 6th January 2023 | 17th January 2023 |
| Winter calm in the top, woodland. | The woodland walk. | Snow on the path up through the top garden. |
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| 9th February 2023 | 14th February 2023 | 6th May 2023 |
| Snowdrops in the Camellia walk. | The new snowdrop bed, behind the house. | The Camellia walk. |
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| 12th May 2023 | 5th July 2023 | 12th August 2023 |
| The Camellia walk. | The herbaceous border. | The path by the Hedychium garden, through to the herbaceous border. The view originally blocked by the section of hedge I removed in 2011. |