Lavender and Roses

I've finally managed to make a start on doing something with our garden. It wasn't much of a garden when we moved in and then got totally trashed while we had major building work. I decided to start small and tackled the narrow border which runs along the front of the house. This is what I started with (border full of weeds):


And this is what I have now (this is half of the border):


I have 3 different types of Lavender; Fathead, Hidcote and Little Bee:

A new Aldi store opened here recently and they had the Lavenders at £2.50 each. These are usually between £4 and £5 each in the garden centre so it was too good an opportunity to miss and I hotfooted it down there and bought a trolley-load. The Hidcote has gone over now so isn't looking too good but a quick trim will perk it up. The Little Bee starts off with blue petals and then white ones appear on the tip of the flower heads. They should each grow to about 12 inches wide by 12 inches high. I love them!

We were going to put a garden bench along this front border but it gets very hot and is rather exposed to the whole neighbourhood (it's the front garden) so I doubt we would have sat on it much. Instead I persuaded Mr Earplugs to buy an obelisk and a climbing rose and he sorted both out for me in the middle of a rainstorm. They look lovely:


The rose is from David Austin and it's the climber St Swithun. It's gorgeous.


But just look at these little blighters:


They do say "one years seeding, seven years weeding" so I've really got my work cut out. And that's only one small part of the garden!

Lavender and Roses