Tulips and Terracotta: Show Me Your Garden #3

In the third installment of SMYG, we visit C in her new build house. Now, C has admitted to me that she has not been that interested in gardening. Her boyfriend and her moved into their first house together and they have concentrated on decorating it for the past year. They paid little attention to the garden until recently, and for the best part of the year it has been, in her words, brown.

I thought it would be interesting to see a garden owned by someone who is not a keen gardener - although after spending the afternoon with her talking about the garden... I think I may still convert her! In any case, here are the 7 questions with some photos.

1. How long have you had your garden/space?

We moved into the new build house in August 2014. There was nothing in the garden, not even a lawn. We left it like that for the first few months because we were dog-sitting and we didn't want the dog to dig anything up. We have only been adding to the garden since April this year.

2. Are you interested in your garden? What is its function?

It's leisure. We have a patio area with sofas, and a barbecue. We do have some strawberry plants and some chili seedlings. There's a patch we do not really use at the moment, so I may have a some veg in the future, but it won't happen just yet.

3. Favourite plant in your garden.

This one! I love its foliage and the colour. I don't know its name though.

4. Something you have tried and failed at growing / doing.

I'm struggling to keep the chili plants alive. (I had a look at them and they had aphids on the leaves and base of the plant, which we got rid of. I also suggested potting them on to a bigger pot. She'll keep us posted). I have also noticed that something is eating the leaves on my pear and bay tree. I haven't killed anything yet, we only started bringing things in in April!

5. Anything you’d like to change?

I would like to fill out the garden more. Have lots more plants. I would like more scented plants, such as lavender, honeysuckle or jasmine. I also like climbers, we have bought 2 clematis for that reason. I would like to raise the fence as I feel very overlooked, so perhaps adding some climbers to the back with some trellis will help make the space more protected.

6. What inspires you?

I have got ideas from doing Google searches for "small gardens". At the moment we have the bare bones; however, I am more interested in green than in having lots of colour. I prefer having different textures and foliage, which I can enjoy all year round rather than having pretty annuals which I will have to replace throughout the year. I don't have the time to dedicate to the upkeep of the garden other than watering, mowing the lawn etc.