Over the last month or so we’ve watched out new garden come to life. Not because it’s full of plants, but because it’s so wild and hasn’t really been “gardened” for years.
I learned from our neighbour recently that the previous owners let their horses graze on the lawn which might explain why it’s rather a bumpy job trying to mow it!
So we’ve been trying to make the most of what we have for this summer and although we’re keeping the lawn mown, we decided it was madness to keep strimming the other areas when it doesn’t look very nice anyway.
What we’ve noticed is just how many butterflies there are as a result of leaving the grass to grow long.
And just how many species of wild grasses there are – it’s quite a picture at the moment with all the colour tones and different flower heads.
We have a big problem with ground elder but even that looks quite beautiful at the moment…I guess the setting helps!
What it’s made me realise is how wild the garden needs to be when I redesign it. Any plants that are too cultivated I think will look and feel wrong for the setting and we want to maintain the feeling that we’re part of the landscape.
Anything we can do to encourage more wildlife is absolutely up there on the list. I don’t even mind the odd nettle and thistle here and there – somehow they just fit!
And if we’d strimmed all the banks and made it all tidy then we wouldn’t have had the wild foxgloves that have appeared in the long grass.
As the months go on I love it here more and more and I’m so glad that we have other priorities before we tackle the garden because it has forced us to pause and really take in what we have here already – it’s really inspiring!
(Images: Lisa Cox)
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