When I hear the term, “English garden”, I think about a place where flowers bloom abundantly, in a free formation pattern. The flowers and plants would have an uncultivated look, as if no one took care of them, that it just happened naturally. I would like my garden to be an English garden. But I haven’t managed to achieve that look quite as yet. So, come this spring, I will give it a try. I already have tons of trees, and that might be part of my problem. I don’t think there’s enough sunlight to allow abundant flowers to grow. For example, one year we made a bed for roses. We actually spent quite a bit of money buying rose bushes. I had the idea that if I had a dozen bushes, my husband would never have to buy me flowers again.

Over the years, I have watched those robust bushes become thin and straggly. Because of the many trees, there just isn’t enough sunlight to make them grow properly. When we first bought the land, 30 years ago, I was enamoured with the abundant trees and we refused to have any cut down. Through the years, they have become more of a nuisance than an asset. My crepe myrtles are suffering just the same as the roses. So one thing I hope to convince my husband to do is to cut down some of the smaller trees so we can have more sunlight on the yard. From my front door, I can see the gazebo and covered pond we built. But the landscape around both is not as attractive as I would like. So we plan to create a nice walkway leading to the gazebo.

I love azaleas and gardenias. My husband loves sago palms and mother-in-law tongues. I figure together we can come up with a plan to make all these plants exist happily together. Right now there is a bench on one side of the pond, but it’s a little sunken and forgotten. I think I will move it to a better spot, one where we will actually use it. Another sad part of my landscape is a fountain that has never been plugged in. I remember how excited we were to put it in place, digging the area to set the stones and filling it with water. Now the only one that benefit from it, are the cats. It has become their watering hole. The potential exist for it to be a real feature in the garden. So, I will encourage my husband to actually clean it out, plug in the pump and make it be the stand out it really should be. All in all, I think with just a little elbow grease, moving some plants around, cutting down some trees, cleaning the fountain, making a walkway, planting more flowering shrubs, moving the bench to a better location, we will have the beautiful English garden that will look like it just naturally occurred.