How does your garden grow.

I've been so busy working on the Rose Garden,

I hadn't even noticed what was happening to the rest of the garden.

Here's what I found, it's not looking too neglected

New Tulips planted last Autumn, sorry I can't find the label for the name.

It almost looks like a Gardenia, when the petals are open.

I planted 10 but it looks like there will only be  9. 

A few garden ornaments I like to use dotted here & there.

These are Day Lilies, planted in a vintage storage jar.

I move them around to add a splash 

of colour where needed. 

This area needs some attention, I had intended to re-do it. 

However I didn't have time before it started to grow again.

There are 2 pink climbing roses growing up against the wall. 

I did give them a hard pruning, so hope they will be OK.

The Peonies are already in bud, they need to be staked.

All I've done to this area is hoe out the weeds.

It's a mixture of pinks and blue, perennials.  

and the rose is white ( Iceberg) 

 I found these Aquilegia ( Columbine )growing in the gravel  drive.

The seeds must have been blown there.They were so tiny

 when I dug them up, but they've grown so quickly 

now they are being looked after.

Chives, which keep re-growing every year.

Always nice to have, to sprinkle over summer salads.

Rosemary & Thyme which might need replacing.

I always grow my herbs in pots.

The pink Tulips from last year, some bulbs only made leaves no flowers.

 They look pretty in these big stone pots.

This Lavender plant I bought in Provence. Its still looking good.

I do keep cutting it back to stop it going straggly.

I've managed to keep it a good few years.

The last of the Muscari ( grape hyacinth) bulbs.
 I have three different varieties which all flower at different times.

Ornamental grasses. I was never very keen on them, 

I always thought they looked like dried weeds, but now I've 

changed my mind and thought I'd try some this summer.

My potting area, full of hope-fulls !

By that I mean, plants that have been over wintered in the garage

and now I've re-potted them hoping they will flower again this summer.

I'll let you know later what was successful and what wasn't.

The Rose garden is now finished, All the roses 

have been planted, and the Clematis which is already in bud.

I'm taking a short break, going to the coast, 

before our summer visitors start arriving in May to stay in 

La Petite Maison 

I will show you the finished result when I get back.

Some of the roses already have buds on so it shouldn't 

be too long before we have signs of pink.

I'll look forward to seeing what's growing in your gardens 

and what you've all been doing.

So until then

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Raindrops and Snowdrops

 snowdrops images free use

We've had so much rain, I've been in doors all week.
What do you do when your at home and it rains everyday?

It seems like most of you clean the house from top to bottom.
Have you met Daphne she decided to wash all her blue and white
crockery that she has on display. I didn't want to do things like that,
although she did make it sound a pleasure, pop over and take a look at her blog.
Every week she shares a tasty recipe, along with the music she listens to while
cooking/baking and she can make a visit to the dentist into an interesting story.


Those of you know me well,
know I'd rather be doing things in the garden, than dusting.
I'm always looking forward to Spring.

In between the few times it stopped raining, I had a quick wander around
the garden, and made a note of some of the things that I need to do
as soon as we get some dry days. Looking at the weather forecast
it won't be until the middle if next week.

I did another search to see if I could the find any snowdrops in bloom
 this is the variety I planted 2 years ago.

I still only managed to find one in flower, which had been
battered by the heavy rain, so I brought it indoors.



 Daphne spotted this lonely snowdrop amongst the
tete a tete daffodils in a photo I shared on my Facebook page.

I had hopes of the garden being full of white clusters of snowdrops.

Just like this.

 snowdrops images free use

There are so many different species. all so dainty.

Maybe I should have chosen a more hardy type similar to these.

 snowdrops images free use

I'll have to ask my friends if I can dig up some of theirs after they have

 finished flowering, to plant for next spring. Which is called planting

 'in the green' or wait till next Autumn and plant some more bulbs.

No gardening has been done, so I did the next best thing.

As I'd left my watercolour paints and journals handy

I had a great time sketching & painting Snowdrops.

This was painted in a Stillman & Birn Beta journal.
using Winsor & Newton pan paints.
I really like this paper it's thick so you can paint on both sides.

The next sketch was done in a  10 cm x 15 cm  sketch book made for me
by Valerie Gardener who has a lovely Sketching blog,
called Colours in the Briezh at the moment she is sharing sketches
 from her clothes  designed in the 60's.
She lives in northern France and travels a lot with her husband. She records
all their trips with sketches in situé. Her posts vary from time to time,
 I look forward to seeing her next posts as she is travelling again.

This sketch I did in the lovely handmade sketch book she sent to me.
All the pages are different types of paper.

 It's still raining,
and  while I've been doing these sketches, no dusting has been done.
Who cares, I'm back into watercolour painting,
and if we do have any unexpected visitors,
I'm sure they'll have come
 to see Mr France and I
'Not the dust'

All snowdrops images
are from snowdrops images free use

Have you got lots of snow drops in your garden ?
if so take some photos, I'd love to see them.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Pretty Pansy Faces

Pansies are one of my favourite winter flowers, 

I plant some every autumn.

I love their flowers heads they remind me of smiley faces

 This year I put two troughs on the south side of the house 

and they were safely sheltered from our storm last week. 

Troughs of pansies in full bloom.

Early morning photo taken from the window.

these are dwarf pansies

 and we've been enjoying seeing them in flower for some time.

Then after a view days of warm sunshine 

  the tête à tête daffodils quickly came into bloom.

These tête à tête  daffodils are from a few years ago,

 I planted them a little later, than the others.

Last year I planted them in hanging baskets.

after they've finished flowering, I store them in a plant pot in the shed.  

I found a few more that had been forgotten,they'd already started to shoot .

so while the sun was shining I quickly shoved them into a trough.

Can't really call that gardening.can I ? at the moment.

I'm sorry to say it, but I'm not very enthusiastic .
Do you ever get like that ?
 please tell me it's not just me.

Thought I'd show you a few my pansy paintings

that I've made into cards.

they were painted a few years ago. 

I thought if I looked at some of my paintings
it might give me some encouragement, to start again.
I've set up a trestle table, found my sketch books and paper !
So ... until my next post, when ever that will be, I might surprise you.
Might be paintings or progress in the garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Spring into Springtime.

My favourite season.

So much activity in the garden, most of the spring flowers are blooming.
We are helping the birds as much as we can. Mr France has made some new Bird boxes & we've put out bedding for the taking, this seems to be working. We used to refill this suet cage with food, recently I've been filling it with wadding and the birds have been taking it for sometime.  Now I've seen on Mary's  blog A Breath of Fresh Air.
she adds  bits of lace & shreds of material cut into strips to hers. What a lovely idea. I know the Gold finch make very decorative nests. Some time ago,  I found one
 with blue forget-me-nots woven in with some of our dogs fur around the edge.

The birds seem to be taking it.

One of the new bird boxes, so far no residents.

 A gift from our daughter.
For the past 2 years I've put it out, but it's never been used.
Maybe it's too upmarket in style for our country birds.
How ever I like it as a garden ornament.

If I follow Mary's idea of adding some lace for a bit of luxury,

we might have some posh birds. 

or maybe a Robin / Rouge Gorge  like this, will take up residence there.

 Tucked in the Berberis, I found a nest from last year.
I think I'll leave it and keep an eye on it,
maybe it will be refurbished, by some new takers.

 Each year I put this little nest, with it's egg in one of the hanging baskets.

 This is the area we were working on this time last year.
Then it had to go on hold, when I was unable to do any gardening.
Now due to the resent surgery Mr France had to have, we have
decided it will be staying like this. I like it partly cultivated and the rest
left a bit wild. Later the wild flowers will add lots of natural beauty.

 I've just had a wander around the garden and found some more
different types of daffodils, from a few years ago.

Even some hidden in an area that certainly needs some tidying up doing.

How is your garden looking, do you have birds building their nests?
Are you putting up bird boxes ? If you've never had a bird box
in your garden, why not try. It's so rewarding watching the birds
busy building their nest, then flying backwards & forwards
feeding their chicks.

I'll be keeping you up to date with the flora and fauna in our garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian