pelargonium and yucca in flower

In this picture are - apart from two lovely people - the pelargonium ('ooievaarsbek') and the flowering yucca well to see. The pelargonium is really nice in flower, but after that should be trimmed. It is too much!!

Weed with no name, but large

In this picture you see the weed that I didn't recognize as weed. I kept waiting and waiting for it to flower (everything in this garden flowers). Finally Brian the gardener confirmed what I was suspecting: it is a gross weed. He also showed us how you really should pull it out - it is not easy, because it roots really well.

This is how you do it: you lean back and the lean from left to right and back. At last it is all loose and you fall back! It was hudge when he pulled this out in August!!

Bamboo entrance

This picture shows the entrance to our garden from the 'back gate'. It is very green and like a jungle. There are two types of ivy and there is bamboo.

We have since then removed the bamboo, so that the sun can come into the kitchen. The ivy against the house is also gone (looking at the leaves in this picture it was already cut through at the base). Removing the bamboo revealed all sorts of stuff: roses, planters, gaping holes and more.

Looking back at this picture the bamboo actually looks very pretty. But it was too tall (4m) and too close to the house.

Garden in flower

Garden in bloom

The garden in summer bloom.

The roses above the gate. Beautiful, but hard to maintain because they are so high. In the background the bamboo before it was removed. High!!

I think these are what you call "ramblers", climbing roses that keep going.

The pond

In the middle, nearly in the pond the cotton grass. It is an eye catcher - my mother immediately could name it, I had never seen it before. But the name is obvious!

The waterlevel has already gone down a bit, the rocks are exposed.

And the purple loosestrife and farmer's jasmin in the background.

Under the trees

The purple loosestrife again as eyecatcher, nearly blue here. It seemed to turn purple blue in the evening twilight, strange.

In the foreground the pink pelargomium again, a bit too bushy, I think in hindsight. I have taken out the foreground in autumn, because I want to create more lawn.

View from the rear garden

This is from the rear, behind the pond. I don't like the orange flowers, keizerskroon. It is the a plant against moles, but it is not 'soft' enough to my taste.

In the background the banana tree, obviously partly grown up since the winter....

Pink Pelargonium

The pink pelargonium is also rather bushy, very pretty flowers, though. Next year I will chop it short after flowering though. In autumn I manage to salvage some seedlings from between the tiles. Hopefully they survive the winter and I can plant them out. I'd like to spread them around a bit.

In the background against the wall pretty red roses.

Lavender, Poppies

I like the white flowers, although I don't know what it is. It is getting overgrown by the Lavender. Behind the lavender are the Poppies. Bright red poppies. And behind even the yellow flowering Lady's Mantle (Vrouwenmantel). And the stump of the old tree.

Farmer's Jasmin

This is the Farmer's Jasmin, or so it was called in the garden design papers the previous owners made and handed to us. The design is actually interesting for this website too.

I am not sure why this is called Farmer's, I think it means it is not smelly.

Seeing the picture now (Feb 2009) I realise it is choosen well: it stands in the back corner, and white in the back of the garden is a good idea: it draws the eye to the back.