The lovely spring weather continues in this little part of Yorkshire, sunny and warm for the time of year. I’ve managed to continue my big tidy up of the garden, almost finishing the back, almost but not quite! I’ve had to take it a little easier this week as after last weeks work I was heading rapidly towards a repetitive strain injury, so I’m being careful how I do things like weeding…and alternating it with sewing!

The garden looked lovely just after breakfast in the fresh morning light, especially the magnolia stellata covered in white blooms, the scent is gorgeous too when we walk up the path …

The patio area is as tidy as it’s going to get, it always amazes me at this time of year when I remember that probably in less than two months, these two walls will be invisible, totally covered by foliage. When I started planning this garden one of my aims was that this would look like a 10′ bank of plants, with the two beds and the roses above, it probably took about 10 years, but I’ve finally got there!

The camellias are starting to flower, the deep pink one by the conservatory is covered in flowers at the moment. There’s a little one in a pot with a single beautiful flower of the palest pink. Unfortunately it’s already tinged with brown from a coldnight, when I see another perfect one I’ll show you!

At the base of the camellia is a brunnera called Jack Frost, I bought it a few years ago at the Harrogate show, I love it, at this time of year it’s covered in intense blue flowers, a bit like forget-me-nots, they last for ages, and underneath is a bed of variegated leaves…and it likes my clay soil!

I’ve been weeding and tidying the big rose border by the summerhouse over the last couple of days. Weeds are a big problem in this bed, especially bind weed, so I’ve been digging up routes as much as I can, I’m hoping to be more methodical with the weedkiller this year to hopefully get on top of it. Growing up the big fence which the neighbours put up a couple of years ago, I’ve got several clematis, a wisteria and a climbing rose, hoping to gradually cover it.

The Pasque flowers are looking pretty at the moment, just in time for Easter. I’ve got a few of them around one side of the patio, I like them as not only are their flowers pretty, their seed heads are lovely too, like fluffy cotton heads, on top of some nice foliage…and they’re pretty undemanding too!

So this week I need to finish off the pond area and also work on the wild corner behind the summerhouse! Then I think I might actually have caught up in the back garden…then onto the front!