Our garden growing plans

It has been 9 months since we moved into our home. When my husband was renovating the house, I spent my days growing seeds for the garden. I would look at the photographs he was sending through to work out how we would plan the garden and where my seedlings would go. The greenhouse was one of the first things to be done in the garden and then I dug out a long flower bed because my plants were getting so big in their pots and needed planting out. I had no plan and just put everything in the ground. After last summer, Gilles and I have made so many plans for the garden. Plans of things we want to grow and how the garden will take shape and I wanted to share with you here. We already have all the seeds I am going to share here and some are even starting to grow in the greenhouse.

Our garden is a long garden and we have split it into a few sections. We have the lawn which leads from the patio all the way up to the greenhouse with beds and growing space along the sides and then behind the greenhouse, we have the vegetable garden. We already have plans to turn the lawn area next year into more beds and we me to have a path through the beds with rose arches but I shall do a post about that another time! 

Let me start with the vegetable patch. My husband has spent many hours researching and planning this area. We found a pond for free on facebook marketplace which he has already sunk down into the ground. This is going to be Mimi's wildlife pond and will be surrounded by tall grasses and wild flowers with water lillies on top. He has also made his own raised beds. His plan is to have raised beds around the edge of the pond with wild flowers growing between the beds to attract insects. At the back of the garden, he is building me my own craft room/studio/writing room which I cannot wait for! 

Vegetables he will grow:

Swiss chard rainbow mix

Tarragon Russian

Courgette Athena

Broccoli early purple and atlantis

Chives

Coriander

Dill

Lettuce Iceberg

Thyme

Cauliflower all year

Asparagas Connovers Colossa

Parsnip Hollow crown

Basil Italiano classic

Carrot rainbow mix and charisma

Garden pea

Runner bean

Pumpkin Sankt martin

Watermelon sugar baby

I am in charge of the wild flowers and this is something I still need to think about and research. I did think about just some wild flower mixes and would love meadow style flowers. I think I will add in cornflower and harebells there.

As you come down the garden from the back where the vegetable patch will be you get to my greenhouse, rose arch and cut flower section. 

To the right side of the greenhouse there will be:

-A climbing rose that I have planted that will go up and along the side of the greenhouse. Along the edge side of the greenhouse will be cosmos (pink blush) and poppies (angels choir) and in the main beds there will be raspberries and sweetpeas (swanlake, pink pearl and champagne bubbles). I am going to make my own wigwam style structure with the sweetpeas and raspberrys. Along the front of the greenhouse I have hollyhocks, aqualiegia, tulips and a foxglove. 

To the left side of the greenhouse there will be:

-Cut flowers. Dahlias, asters, mallow, zinnia and godetias. 

-There will be a path beside that that will lead to an arch with climbing roses. On the other side of the path will be poppies and zinnias.

Cutflower and greenhouse patch flowers:

Cosmos - pink blush

Poppies - angels choir, thai silk poppy, mother of pearl, california peach.

Dahlias - Cafe au lait, white onesta, lavender perfection, lucky star

Aster - salmon rose and king apricot

Mallow - musk

Zinnia - white polar bear

Godetia - Apple blossom and azalea

Coming down from the greenhouse, I have an ash tree to the side. Under the ash tree is currently our spring bulb collection. When we got the keys to the house at the end of March last year, it was at the end of the spring bulbs and there were hyacinths and bluebells there. I planted some tulip bulbs and snowdrop bulbs and everything is starting to come up. I do not know what hyacinths and bluebells they are just yet but I do also have wild bluebell and pink bell seeds to add into the garden for next spring.

Tulips planted:

Double romance

Foxtrot

Soft secret

Finola

The other side, I have some rose bushes and an apple tree. I have four rose bushes there in total at the moment. One is a tea rose I picked up for only a few pounds in the sale at the garden centre but I cannot remember what it is called and the other three were taken from my grandmas garden last year when she moved. I have some more bare root roses to add into the garden. I picked up lots from the pound shop. I would normally be very cautious buying roses for only £1 but, in our old garden, I bought a £1 rose bare root and it bloomed so much year after year and grew so big without hardly any looking after so I am excited to see what I get from these. I have kept them in a warm place over the last few weeks and they have grown so much growth already! I have two shrubs, four tea roses and four climbers. 

Staying on that side, I then have a long cottage flower border all along and back to the house. This is the border that I grew everything in this year but I have turned it over and weeded and it is ready for planting. Last year, I had first year hollyhocks and foxgloves so those plants are in the bed and have a healthy base so I am hoping that they flower this year. In this border I shall be growing:

Foxglove - pink and suttons apricot

Hollyhock - wild, chaters salmon and double apple blossom

Verbascum - southern charm

Godetia - pastel mix

Nicotania marshmellow

Aster - salmon rose

Poppy - true shirley, yellow, pink champagne, california peach

Dahlia seed mix

Stock - apple blossom and apricot

Zinnia - white polar bear

Going to the other side of the garden and starting in front of the ash tree, I have two other roses, a camellia bush and two peonies ( True shirly and Sarah Bernhardt pink) which then leads down to a new bed and I just dug out. I currently have added three new aquilegia plants that I grew from wild seed I collected last year. I believe it is the pink petticoat variety as it looks very similar with its pink and white ombre effect.  Also in this border I will have:

-Cosmos - pink blush, cupcakes mixed and double click rose bonbon

-California peach poppies

-Thai silk pink champagne poppies

-Pink shrub rose on the end

We then have a lean too small greenhouse that is attached to our outhouse. This is going to have clematis and honeysuckle growing up it. Both of these are growing from cuttings I took last year. On our patio area, I am going to create big pots of cosmos, Japanese anemone and wild flowers as well as adding wild poppy seeds in the cracks of the pavements.

It is going to be a lot of hardwork this year but I am so ready and excited. I have so many seedlings out all ready. It is going to be a magical secret garden and I shall be sharing it throughout the season.