I grew up in a house with a huge garden and some of my favourite childhood memories are spending long hot summers playing badminton and tennis, making tents and generally causing mayhem in it; so I really wanted the same for the offspring. It’s taken us three moves to get to this one, but what I hadn’t taken into account of course is that the bigger the garden, the more work you have to put in… which is a constant challenge.
The people who lived here before us ran a garden centre so it’s extremely well stocked. There are lots of pear and apple trees which produce the most gorgeous blossom – but unfortunately No 1 Son is allergic to the fruit of both. I’ve put in a mimosa and a tree fern, some bamboo, but my favourite tree is probably the magnolia.
As you can see the lawn is embarrassingly patchy, it needs a lot of watering (so I’m dreading another hosepipe ban, because last year the grass turned to dust), and that’s not helped by the dog, who also thinks it’s great fun to dig up holes in random places.
But despite all that, it’s our space, it’s fantastic for entertaining and we absolutely love it.
When we’re taking the dog out for a walk, though, we tend to go to our other ‘backyard’ – our local common. This is one of my favourite views – it’s so peaceful, particularly in the morning:
*This is my entry to The Gallery and the theme this week is ‘my backyard’.
It’s lovely – even with the patchy grass. Our lawn is ruined by our dog too!
This is what I want for my children too. A safe haven, a play heaven, a garden of adventure x
Your lawn looks like ours. Dogs don’t help do they?
Lovely photos, we love our local common lands too, we are lucky in this country really to have them to walk through
Looks like our grass! I would love pear trees, that must be fantastic! Your local common looks great too. x