Restoration of a Cornish Garden: Foxglove in the Lane

We spent quite some time in the lane that runs alongside the garden last week, cutting back and tidying up. There was a solitary foxglove growing out of the dry stone wall. It looked so pretty.

The lane is so lovely, I love wandering up it early in the morning and seeing all the birds and flowers and the paths across the lane used by badgers and foxes. The lane has been there since the bronze age and is a magical place. There are cows in the fields on either side and they often pop their heads over the wall to see what's going on.

It amazes me how much we have to cut back all the time, it's relentless. Some of it is just pruning as any normal garden would need but most of ours is still clearing the tangle that is the Dell and the orchard.

Pruning the laurel

The Dell

The small apple, pear and plum trees are doing well but since we have cleared this area of the garden the weeds around the trees are going mad. I call them weeds but they are beautiful wild flowers. We have kept a distinct clear area around the trees but felt that we did now need to cut all the wild flowers as they will compete for the goodness in the soil.

Apple Tree

Wild flowers

The stream at the bottom of the paddock is beautiful, with a huge Gunnera, and another large leafed plant I don't know the name of ?

My friend the buzzard is always around, I tried to take a picture of him but it's a bit blurred.

In April I was really worried about my strawberry tree as it suddenly shed most of it's leaves- not a good thing for an evergreen. However it seems to have recovered and is covered in beautiful flowers.