My Mum’s Idyllic Garden!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized.

My Mum lives in a deceptively big bungalow in Norwich and I love it. From the outside it looks tiny but once through the doors the four bedrooms and 2 living rooms feel huge. I suppose it’s tardis like in that respect. It’s not in the most desirable location really but when my parents broke up 28 years ago and my Mum was buying a family home just for us she decided to do what was important to her and make a property purchase on the basis of the garden.

Before that, where she lived had always been a compromise – as it would be when buying with a partner. Then it became that she didn’t have anyone to answer to and could go with her heart on whatever house, bungalow or garden that she desired. My Mum’s made so many compromises in her life, for my Dad in the past and since and still today, for me. I’m so pleased she got the enormous green space that she wanted to make beautiful and has turned it into the garden of her dreams. It’s never finished as I suspect is the case with anything growing. She always has new plans and work to do on it. Currently there are summer house ideas and a play house on stilts for the children in the cogs of her gardening imagination. My Mum is retired now and has all the time in the world to work in her beautiful and huge space. I wanted to share with you all the wonderful work she has done to make it so perfect.

My Mum’a garden is not bog standard. It doesn’t just have a lawn with flowers round the edge. There are many aspects to it and in it’s winding, secretive way it is enchanting. It’s wild, there are secret areas and when you think you’ve found the end there’s yet another secret garden to uncover! I have always been happy here, as a child playing, a teen sunbathing with my friends, having parties including the one after we legally got married before our big day in Portugal and now, watching my children enjoying it. I hope you like it too!

Mums Garden Areas
These photos are from three different areas. The pot is on the large patio by the house, there’s a secret garden at the very back where my Mum keeps things she will use for future features and projects and before that but after her first large area of lawn there is an area to sit and read completely hidden by trees!
Mums Garden Iris
There are many Iris patches which are beautiful and inject so much colour. I love how they attract the bees!
Mums Garden Areas 2
There are hanging baskets and little touches everywhere. I adore the archway which leads from the patio to the first lawn, there’s a picture of my husband dancing here at our wedding party on my ‘about me page’ which is one of my favourites!
Mums Garden Lupin
I love the wild over grown feel of my Mum’s garden at the moment. Sometimes it’s different but she’s let it become beautifully hippy like this summer!
Mums Garden Work
There are always signs of my Mum at work in the garden – note the bottle of something next to the middle picture’s pot! She says a gardener should always have a little tipple when at work! (This is the woman who barely drinks!)
Mums Garden Areas 1
This garden is a cat’s paradise! Our cat Bollo regularly stays with my Mum and he absolutely loves it. Her own cats, including Dapper who is pictured, are all over 15 years old. They have such an easy life!
Mums Garden Foxglove
Foxglove, Black Velvet Sweetunia and a Climbing Iceberg White Rose!
Mums Garden Centifolia Rose
A Centifolia Rose, one of many, some pansies in a hanging pot on a fence and the tree which used to hold my swing! My Mum didn’t want me to put the picture of the blue flowers in as she said they shouldn’t be there but I rather like them!

I have linked this post to the ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’ linky over at Mammasaurus. I know technically it’s not my garden but it is my family home and I just wanted to write about it so I hope no one minds!

 

20 thoughts on “My Mum’s Idyllic Garden!

  1. Wow I love how it’s like The Secret Garden with the arch way and tall flowers! That Black Velvet Sweetunia is very unusual – never see a black flower before, imagine it looks even more stunning in real life.
    I think the cat has the right idea – enjoy it and drift of to sleep !

    Thank you very much for joining in – the next weekly installment of How Does Your Garden Grow starts on Thursday so if you like I can link up this post again for you x

    1. Hi Annie,

      I’d love you to link it up again, thank you! We are going away Wednesday so I thought I would just be late for this week but next week would be fab! Thank you! It’s really hard to put it in pictures and show all the different gardens within the garden because it’s so big… I hope I’ve done it justice. Maybe I can join in again and focus on one area each time?

      Ruth x

  2. That black sweetunia is really special. Love the sleepy cat and how the garden is laid out it looks like a secret garden

    1. Aw thank you, I’m going to post more about her garden I think! My Mum’s loving the comments! 🙂

  3. The Black velvet sweetunia, wow, fantastic, never seen one of those before. Bungalows can be deceptive from the outside, can’t they! Lovely photos.

    1. Thank you so much, I love taking pictures and my Mum’s garden is very photogenic! I use it for fashion posts a lot! 🙂

  4. I have garden envy again! It looks wonderful and I for one would love to see each area in more detail 🙂 xx

    1. Thank you, am definitely going to blog in more detail about the areas. My Mum’s loving that people are seeing and liking her garden! 🙂

  5. What an absolutely beautiful garden – your words and pictures have transported me there. It’s just lovely.

  6. I love the Black Velvet sweetunia! I have never seen it before and it is pretty. It really does look like velvet. I’ve got some black ornamental grass (ophiogonon) which I love and this would really look great with it. A dark and romantic corner. Thanks for the inspiration!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.