A new love

I am no gardener (yet) but I am a lover of gardens and birds whether it be my mum and dad's small back yard or the gardens at Tintinhull gardens and yes every year the sun comes out I dream of having a beautiful garden.
I moved two years ago to a small somerset town and live in a new build with a small back garden or is it a yard what's the difference? anyway since moving here I have kept the grass cut and painted my shed but other than this I have done nothing. I think mainly because I haven't had a clue on what to do as the garden slopes away from the house. However after the winter we've had my little garden seems to of taking a bit of a beating and I no longer have a lush green lawn.

So this was my garden this time last year, nice green lawn, a tree, a few bedding plants along the side and a few empty pots

and this is my garden this year certainly not looking as good. A dead lawn and those empty pots again.

 To say it needs cheering up is a bit of an under statement, so being the bull in a china shop sort of gal off I went to the local garden centre and picked up some bedding plants to go in pots and a container of flower magic as what I know about gardening you could write on a stamp ok may be a postcard and thought surely I can't go wrong with that you just have to shake the contains out on to the patch were you would like the flowers to grow, water them and hey presto you have a garden full of colourful beautiful flowers.

But then I found myself getting up in the morning and going out to see what the flowers in the pots were doing, trying to keep the slugs off, then I picked up a Clematis in our local supermarket and planted it down by the shed.

 Next trip to the supermarket I picked up an Autumn Raspberry a Beesianum Jasmin and a Pyracantha Red now I had no idea where these should go or what soil they need I was just going to put them down by the shed with the Clematis and hope for the best. What I had in mind was if they do grow the birds would probably like them and if I can encourage some birds into the garden I would be one happy lady. I got a bird table last year without much success, however now the tree has grown a little more and I've placed a bird feeder on one of its branches I do have the odd visit from a bird or two.

 Seeing the flowers in the pots bloom more and more each day makes my heart sing and I'm really enjoying doing a bit of pottering. Ok I haven't planned the garden very well but as the days go by my interest in gardening ripens and I have now started to do a little more.

 I've dug another little patch where I have planted a Lavender and yes a little shake of flower magic and bedding plants and I've started to landscape what was the lawn.
Again as normal I've ploughed on in with out much planning, well any actually but I do have a picture in my head of what I want the garden to look like when finished. I no one things for sure I'm going to need more room for planting.

So this is what the top of the garden looked like at the beginning of the week.

A couple of days later

and this is how it looks today. 

I'm going to crack on with it this weekend.

 I know I've probably, well there's no probably about it I have gone about this in a back to front rushed manor but how was I to know that I was really going to enjoy gardening this much.
Since starting all this I have done a little research and it is a proven fact that gardening is good for your mental health and its sure good for the soul.

I know I have a lot to learn and I will many more mistakes but this time next year all the landscaping will be done and I will be more organised and hopefully I will be a little bit more knowledgeable about which flowers I want and where I want them.

Thank you for popping by

Joanne x