End of winter and plans for the year in the back garden

This is how the back garden is looking right now, and what plans I've got for the rest of the year.  As you step out of the kitchen and do a full turn on the spot:

Los geranios al lado de la puerta de la cocina al jardin. Y resto es lo que ves segun sales y das un giro completo:

Yellow daffodils planted last autumn and the pink blossom of a prunus and the neighbour's quince overhanging from the right. The showiest corner at the moment.  The new compost "station" is going to be build by the fence (under the quince), and when I can afford it a proper glass greenhouse is going to be between the prunus and the shed.

Los narcisos amarillos que plante en septiembre han brotado, y el prunus y el membrillo de la vecina (a la derecha) estan en flor, es mi rincon favorito en este momento.  Debajo del membrillo, junto a la valla, va a ir el nuevo recinto para el compost, y mas adelante entre el prunus de las flores rosas y la caseta pondre un invernadero.

The compost currently in a builders bag while we build a new compost area, it kind of spoils the look. The planting bed around the pond is getting bigger too (what a surprise).

El compost esta en ese saco blanco mientras construimos un recinto nuevo. Y alrededor del estanque/charco estoy poniendo mas plantas (que raro).

Donde estan esas bolsas va a ir un banco de madera nuevo. El de metal blanco da el pego de lejos pero no se puede ni sentar uno!

A new bench will go where those bags are, the white metal one is broken!

The lovely new grass by the patio looks even lovelier now that it's been mowed. I plan to put new hanging baskets by the doors and a few more pot flowers this spring and summer.

Este verano voy a prestar mas atencion a las macetas de la terraza, y colgar un par de cestas a ambos lados de las puertas, que es algo muy ingles pero que queda bonito.

Y por ultimo justo delante de la cocina tengo mi zona de hierbas aromaticas y otras plantas similares. Esta zona alta del jardin junto a la casa es donde mas da el sol.

And back to where we started. The top part of the garden near the house gets the most sun, it's where I've got my Mediterranean herbs.

The "woodland garden" at the front of the house is coming along nicely. It snowed a little today, which makes it look even more wintery. 

Here's a tiny hellebore with two flowers:

And here's some primroses next to a sarcococca, both in flower. The sarcococca smells divine! And right next to the front door. I enjoy every day without having to walk on snowy grass in the dark:

En la foto primera un helleboro, y en la segunda unas primulas a la izquierda y a las derecha un arbusto que se llama sarcococca. Las flores son muy pequeñas ¡pero huelen de maravilla! Esta justo al lado de la puerta asi que lo disfruto todos los dias con comodidad.

Pond

We woke up this morning to a little bit of snowfall, and I like the way it's falling on the frozen pond surface:

Making it took a few weeks of digging last summer. I started by marking out the shape, it doesn't show in the photo but the ground slopes down quite a bit so it took a while to find a curve that fitted:

It's about half a metre at the deepest point. At the downhill end I dug a separate pit for a bog garden, so that when the water overflows it falls into the bog:

I bought the plastic lining online. In the bog side I put some off-cuts and cut some holes in the lining so that some of the water drains away. Then I filled the the pond side with water and the bog with soil:

I left a rather big "shelf" that I want to fill in with more marginal plants this year. At the moment there are some if my favourite: marsh marigold, creeping jenny, yellow flag and a native lilly. 

The bog area is already full with a hosta, a couple of astilbes and a meadowsweet. I put in some fritillary bulbs, hopefully they'll come up this spring!

The last thing I built was the drier top bit. Several trips to the garden centre to buy rocks and gravel, and I finally planted my grasses there. I don't have a lot of space elsewhere for grasses, and this bit in the middle is quite sunny so I've decided to group them all together. It's mostly grasses of different leaf colours, verbena bonariensis, crocosmia and a red hot poker - like my mini version of a prairie-style garden.

First frost!

I saw the first frost of the season this morning, it looked beautiful:

The green of the grass changed color, I love it with this pale grey frosting color.

Hoy por primera vez en la temporada habia escarcha:

November primroses

The primroses are flowering in our front garden. These are not recently bought (I'm sure they treat them to flower early), I planted them last spring when we moved in so I'm very pleased they are already looking this good. They're not supposed to flower until spring, but with the mild autumn we've had so far we get this extra wave of flowers.

Las primulas se supone que no florecen hasta la primavera, pero el otoño esta siendo tan suave que las nuestras estan dando flor. Estas las plante en primavera cuando nos mudamos, no son recien compradas. Debe ser que les gusta su nueva casa!

October surprises

This year October has surprised me: there's a lot more flowers and colour in the garden than I expected. And I think it's all down to not being squashed between houses any more, there's a lot more light here than I had in London, and it shows. The tagetes I sowed in spring are really coming into their own now, but only the ones plants in the ground, the ones in pots dried up a month ago:

Este jardin tiene mucha mas luz que el de Londres, y hay algunas plantas se han dado tan bien en octubre que no me lo esperaba. Por ejemplo, los tagetes que sembre en primavera, pero solo los que estan en suelo directo, los de macetas se secaron hace un mes.

The strawberry tree has grown and improved so much now it's not in a pot any more. It's full of flowers, I've been eating the fruits as a when they turn red, and the leaves look a lot healthier.

El madroño esta mucho mas contento en suelo directo que estaba en maceta. Las frutas maduran de una en una y estan riquisimas, esta lleno de flores para el año que viene, y las hojas mucho mas sanas. 

The nasturtiums and the alyssum that I sowed in spring made fantastic ground cover, and it's been going for months (and the alyssum smells lovely!). You can see the las of the Californian poppies too, fantastic orange flowers that have been going for months, good for cutting (small) and beautiful foliage too.

Todas estas plantas las sembre en primavera y llevan meses dando flores. Las amarillas de hojas redondas son nasturtiums, las pequeñitas blancas son alyssum, y aun quedan algunas amapolas naranjas.

The tomatoes in pots in the summer were a disaster, so I had empty pots to plant some autumn and winter bedding plants - violas, ornamental cabbages and wallflowers for spring. It looks a lot neater now.

Los tomates en macetas fueron un desastre, asi que los quite y puse flores que duraran (en teoria) todo el otoño e invierno (pensamientos y alelhies para la primavera).

The veg patch is all "finished" now. We bought more soil to raise the level and it's deep enough now to grow anything. I have: spinach under the plastic cover, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflowers, leeks, and one bed where I planted garlic and peas together. I put some sticks for the peas to grow up in the spring, and to hopefully stop birds from eating the shoots in the winter. The idea is that the peas will fruit in the spring, I can  then cut then to make more light for the maturing garlic but leave the roots that are full of nutrients in the soil. It is an experiment.

La huerta por fin ya tiene mas tierra (compramos mas) y ya tiene profunfidad suficiente. Debajo del plastico tengo espinacas, bajo red de plastico tengo brecol y coliflores, una fila de puerros, y donde estan los palos he plantado ajos y guisantes. Es un experimento: los guisantes salen antes y dan fruto en primavera, luego los cortas a ras de tierra para que los ajos tengan mas luz en los ultimos meses, y las raices de los guisantes fertilizan el suelo. A ver si funciona.

Y por ultimo plante estas macetas grandes con rucula, cebollinos, sorrel y las ultimas de las lechugas. Casi todas son perennes.

These big pots have rocket, sorrel, chives and the lady of the lettuces. Most are perennial and ready to survive the winter.

First sign of autumn

This tree (Rhus, according to the label) is always the first to turn colour in autumn. I noticed the first orange leaves a week ago. Today I put in place the green log mini fence, and now this bed looks so colourful! The small plants at the front are heucheras, in reds and purples, and there's also a purple elder (sambucus nigra) and a yellow-leaved fucshia.

El arbol de las hojas naranjas siempre es el primero en cambiar de color en otoño. Este ya lleva una semana asi. Hoy puse el borde de madera verde y ahora esta esquina esta preciosa, llena de color. Las plantas bajas son heucheras, en tonos rojos y morados, y tambien hay un sambucus nigra y una fucshia de hojas amarillas.