Forest Lytton

It is almost that time!

Big Garden Birdwatch 2023

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It has been so wonderful these last few days to see some sunny warm days envelope and delight the garden! Flowers are blooming and the cats are basking in shade of the shrubs. Fresh water each morning for birds and cats alike, along with a few of the potted plants and newest adds to the ground.

We have put up the screen door to keep the flies out and let the breeze in - I am looking forward to cooking dinner tonight and see how it all comes together. Enjoy!

summer breeze flowers cats water garden

Great inspiration from a fun mobile chat between Glaswegian comedian Susan Calman and garden design presenter, Adam Frost. Susan and her wife purchased their house with a gorgeous front garden but an antiquated back garden. They began the process of replacing hardscaping and reached out to Adam to aid with a few key plants and initial questions. When they said

when the weeds grow, it is time to sow. it inspired me there and then.

I found some zinnias, cosmos, and aqueligia. Some went in to pots, and some directly to the flower beds. Stay tuned!

spring

Dappled sun sneaks low into the afternoon garden, warming the tips of daffodils and tulips, encouraging them out of their winter slumbers.

Blossom February 2021

spring winter

We had an extended away to Hestercombe. I fell in love with Mexican FleaBane, a sweet plant of miniature pink or white daisies. You can see it growing in the back of the green covered pool. We planted one in our own garden in Sept-Nov 2020. Whether it survived the winter remains to be seen, but I am hopeful.
Meanwhile, please enjoy these samples from our trip:

property gardens

I saw Kingston Lacy on a tv special presented by Alan Titchmarsh. I heard there was a Japanese Garden as well as some others, so we headed over to Somerset to explore. As expected, the annual beds were not in place but we enjoyed a few perennial borders. We quickly found our way to the natural fern woodland and had a rest on a bench and snapped some photos. Afterwards we took the long way through a field and the woods and eventually discovered the Japanese Gardens (closed due to narrow pathways) but a tiki hut overlooking a field, surrounded by bamboo gave us the much needed rest from the hot sun at the end of July 2020.

NT property gardens

Husband and I finally felt safe enough to venture out in the great outdoors! Jamie and I had a lovely visit at a nearby stately home and garden, Hinton Ampner, just east of Winchester, England.
. Social distanced and no indoor buildings were open.

covid NT property autumn

I have been planning a sunrise themed garden, ironically for hot afternoon sun near pebbles and pavement for our front garden. I started with some dark rusty maroon daylilies I already have, currently in pots, and have been scanning various catalogs for inspiration, such as Thompson and Morgans, and Sarah Raven. Ms Raven has a lot of themed flowers, so I find hers to be particularly fun. check out the floral collection or the unusual misty lavender collection

Today I looked up a random flower I had brought home from a recent trip to the garden center. flowers were in a variety of pinks and apricots so I thought it might fit the sunrise theme well. I used Plant Snap app and was able to identify it as alpine Lewisia.

But it wasn&aops;t until my father offered to look up a proper plant reference for me that it occurred to me to dig a little deeper. I picked up my copy of RHS Plant Encyclopedia I purchased at the book shop at The Vyne in 2013. Recycled books were a Godsend to me as most of my collection I had to donate before moving across the pond.

Turns out that the succulent portulaca which I know from New England is also under the name Lewisia, but it is L. columbiana which I have here in southern England. While similar, both flowers and leaves do differ. My current plant has star shaped flowers with white outlines and a rosette of dark green oblong leaves.

Have a nice week....

sunrise flowers Lewisia garden

Hello! After. a brief cool snap over the last few days it would appear we will have another warm weekend. This will be lovely for getting out in the garden, watching the kittens chase butterflies, listening to the blackbirds singing, and doing some sun salutations! Have a wonderful week and will see you soon. Drop an email, (see the footer of this page) if you want to say hi. Best, Kate

spring hope