A seedling sorbus mountain ash. Sometimes nature delivers such beautiful surprises. We didn’t plant this tree, it arrived all by itself. We allow plants to grow and any that fit in with our wildlife-centred scheme of things are allowed to stay. This seedling produces beautiful creamy white flowers. Much loved by bees. Then in the autumn, rich orange berries. Much loved by blackbirds. My youngest daughter Rachel has just bought her first house. What a time to be negotiating a house purchase, in the middle of a pandemic. It’s been extremely stressful. But holding on to our hats and keeping calm, between us we have steered our daughter through choppy waters. And she and her boyfriend Sam have a (rather scruffy) old house with a very large garden. So today I’m digging up a few sorbus seedlings and potting them up for her new plot. I’ll also search out for some wild cherry, maple and oak saplings. The same size as those we planted when we moved here 30 years ago, our heads full of dreams to create a lovely home and have children. Now we are watching the youngsters cross the threshold of their first home, and it brings back all our memories. History repeating itself. We get to re-live our joy, as we watch them start their lives together.
As you can see, our little saplings have grow tall. The mini-wood is carpeted in bluebells and patches of wild garlic and three cornered leak.
Here’s the view from the pond. The turntable summerhouse is turned to the garden today to catch the morning sun.
The leaf-mould paths are lined with white lacy cow parsley. A favourite time of the year.
Wild flowers sweep along the edges of the paths. These are starry stitchwort, or stellaria.
Our little plot provides all the firewood we need for our log burner. A habitat for hedgehogs and beetles, insects and grass snakes too.
By the pond there’s a huge mature viburnum. I believe it is Viburnum plicatum Mariesii. It looks beautiful all year round. In May, it’s covered in flat creamy white flowers, and in winter the snow and ice settles in layers on the branches.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s walk around my garden. I’ve made a sunny place to sit and read in the front garden. Just right for mulling over the past, and looking forward to the future. I’m sure you’ll all raise a glass and join us in wishing Rachel and Sam many congratulations. Good luck with everything, and always be happy. Life’s not always a bed of roses, but if you stick together, help one another and always be kind, you’ll have a wonderful life together.
Karen xx
Links SOS : A favourite blog. Why not go over and see what photos other gardeners are sharing from their plots today, all over the world. https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/six-on-saturday-16-05-2020/
Please leave a comment at the end of the blog, and feel free to share this blog on any social media platform . Thanks for reading.
Bramble Garden 
I must say that you take some very good photographs and your close ups are very realistic. Lovely mountain ash seedling.
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on my list of things for a potential next house purchase is “a large garden”. i’d love the room to expand, although i would of course still have too many plants.
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Rachel was really lucky to find the house. However, she was almost gazumped the week before, so it’s been stressful. Yes, I can confirm, that you will probably always have ‘too many plants. ‘ I know I do!
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Such a lovely post again Karen! Wishing your daughter and boyfriend lots of happy times in their new home and garden. Is she a gardener/potential gardener? When I was in my early 20s I swore I would never have a garden, and look at me now! Your garden seat looks very comfy. 😃 xx
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Thank you Cathy. Well, she’s never done any gardening ever before! So it’s going to be a baptism of fire. However, they looked at lots of brand new houses with tiny patio gardens, and opted for something old and needing work but with a large garden. I’m planning a mini orchard for there, and raised beds with vegetables and lots of salads. It’s so exciting all around, especially as it seemed to be on hold- and then at risk of being cancelled due to covid. Phew. I’m quite worn out to be honest. Hope they don’t want to go through that process again for a few years at least.
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They are lucky to have you helping them with the garden! xx
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Thank you 😊
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Mountain ash sorbus has a flower that I love and welcome where you come from. Congratulations to Rachel and Sam on their new home. They will create their home in it and they will surely be very happy. I wish you all the best and that love always unites you and makes you happy throughout your life and that you end it together as elderly people, with affection and understanding. They start a new life together: they remind you of you 30 years ago. You are taking sprouts of all the trees you can for your garden, sip seedlings and everything you can take. You are a great mother Karen. Karen, your tree shoots from 30 years ago are now giant and majestic trees and with a lot of history, I love them. The bluebells and wild garlic I love. I love your Summer House as the paths full of white lace cow parsley. Stitchworts are wild flowers that I really like. Thank you Karen for the video: I have been transported to your divine garden with the birds singing and that huge and wonderful viburnum in bloom, I love it. You have a fabulous, fairytale garden. My heart has cheered me up. Karen what a lovely place to sit and read or reflect, I love it. I raise my glass for Rachel and Sam and I wish them all the best of happiness in the new life that begins together and that they are always happy. Karen the ride has been wonderful, thank you very much. Much love, health, strength, encouragement, hope, positive thinking for all your family, Rachel and Sam, Mr B and for you. Take good care of everyone and keep everyone safe. Loving caresses to Grace and Meg. Lots of love. Very loving greetings from Margarita Xxx
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Thank you Margarita. Can you imagine going through all the ups and downs of buying a house in the middle of a pandemic! So stressful. Right until the last minute it was stop/go. I’m madly planting up pots of flowers and herbs and veg for them. I think they will appreciate the house more than if it had been a smooth journey. So glad you enjoyed my garden photos and videos. Take my hand and walk through the garden with me. You are not alone in life. Those were the words of some music on the radio just now! Seems so apt, so I’m repeating them. Very loving greetings from all of us. Xxx
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Thank you Karen for your beautiful words. All the effort and stress that everyone has gone through with the purchase of the house has been worth it. Karen you are making them a beautiful garden with flowers and vegetables that are very popular these days. It is the best gift you can give them. Thanks for the words you just heard on the radio, they encourage me to keep going. Much love to all. Very loving greetings from Margarita Xxx
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Thank you Margarita. We must keep going! Much love to you and your family too xxx
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Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’ seems to be correct. I am not familiar with it, but have seen it in the Pacific Northwest.
Mountain ash is something that I have been wanting to add to my garden. It seems so common elsewhere, but not here. I got a pair of them from the Arbor Day Foundation for one of the vacant parcels where my several fig stock trees are.
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Thank you Tony. I can highly recommend the mountain ash trees. They have more than one season of interest and the leaves are very pretty too. Plus, they don’t get too big. Have a good week. Karen
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HA! I am hearing it both ways. Some who are familiar with it are not impressed. I do not care, would rather hear from those who like it. Because I am not familiar with it, I can appreciate it all I want to. You know, one of my favorite small trees happens to be the Eastern red cedar! I work with so many more appealing junipers, but I really like these Eastern Red cedars because they are so strange here, and yet so common in so much of North America. I intend to get even more North American junipers, just to work with them.
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I too love all cedar trees and junipers. There are some fine examples at the National trust properties in the East Midlands.
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That is interesting that junipers are considered to be interesting enough. Most Californians know only the garden varieties that now have a bad reputation. Okies know primarily the Eastern red cedar, which is disliked by ranchers.
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Thank you for reading, Tony. All the best. Karen
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A symphony in white
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Thank you 😊
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Sorbus are such great trees . Lovely to have a free one
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Thank you 😊
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What an exciting time for your daughter and her boyfriend – you must all be so relieved that the sale was completed despite lockdown. Good to have a walk through your garden with you – that viburnum is beautiful!
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Thank you Cathy. Very relieved! Xx
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Lovely !
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Thank you Cathy 🙂xx
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I did indeed enjoy a tour of your garden. It’s one of the things I miss most during lockdown, so thank you.
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Thank you Linda. I’m happy to “share” my garden on here. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without my potting shed these last few months. I’ve no desire to ever go anywhere again. No-where feels safe. Where as I’ve managed to cope with so little – and still be happy, I’m not at all sure I want to go out again! I hope you can get to a garden soon. Thanks for reading. All the best. Karen x
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Again, I have to congratulate you on your lovely pictures. The Sorbus bloom is beautifully framed.
How do you keep cow parsley under control? It can be a devil of a plant when it is huge.
Your daughter and partner’s first step on the new home ladder sounds good. They are young enough to put the energy into what will be required to make their imprint on it and to make it their own. Wishing them well and wishing them many happy steps along the way.
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Thank you. I’m still just using the iPhone camera. About one in 20 photos are any good. Well, with the cow parsley, we mow a path through it. As soon as it goes over and starts to set seed we mow it all right to the ground. There are enough seeds set for next year. The snowdrops come up first, then all the daffodils and then the cow parsley. Some of it has come into the main borders this summer and that will be dug out with my new hori hori knife. Thanks for reading and for your kind comments. Karen x
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What a beautiful walk around your garden property. Thanks for sharing. And best wishes to Rachel and Sam with their new home. You mention it as but scruffy, which first houses, I’ve found, often tend to be. But so many time it’s that “scruffiness “, aka “character”, that leads to special charm!
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Thank you Mary. I must admit, our hearts sank when we first saw the house, noticing all the work needed to get it into shape. Whereas they just saw it as an opportunity to put their own stamp on it. You are right, they are young and have boundless energy, and working on such a project will bind them together even further. A good start to a life together as it will test many things. Thanks again for reading and for your kind comments. Much appreciated. x
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That’s a lovely post, looking back and forward. Best wishes for the young couple in their new place!
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Thank you Anne. It’s been a roller coaster ride. Just last week someone tried to gazzump them! I won’t repeat what I thought of them doing that to a young couple on the verge of exchanging contracts. Terrible behaviour. Anyway, they are in now, and very excited with the prospect of making it their own. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the weekend. Karen x
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I’m pleased they have the place now.
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I’m very very relieved! xx
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That is so pretty! What a lovely place to walk in the woods without leaving home. You must be out there all the time! I do congratulate Rachel and Sam! They are lucky to have you help them fill their garden with plants. Hopefully they got a bargain during the pandemic, I know some areas have lowered prices considerably. I guess desperate sellers.
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Thank you Lisa. I’m on a mission to divide all my perennials now as well. There are a lot of ground cover geraniums here. There’s literally no plants at all in their new garden. But it’s a lovely blank canvas for them to put their own stamp on it. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the weekend 🙂🌱 x
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